Talk and Book launch signing by Michael Pollan
The Natural Kitchen, 77-78 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 5JX
nearest tube: Bond Street or BakerStreet
Monday 28th January, 6pm (prompt)
Cost: £5 to Slow Food members and Natural Kitchen shoppers
This is the first in a fortnightly series of instructive and affordable events at The Natural Kitchen – we will try to plan the events as far ahead as possible, but meanwhile mark alternate Mondays in your diaries.
Tonight we are delighted to be hosting Michael Pollan, whose latest book is published in the UK at the end of this month. The ticket price includes aperitif, canapés, a talk by Michael and the opportunity to buy a signed copy of the book.
The Natural Kitchen is pleased to offer all who attend a shopping opportunity beforehand (the event will begin promptly at 6pm) at 10% discount.
In Defence of Food
The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating
By Michael Pollan
Published by Allen Lane, 31st January 2008
‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants’
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. These simple words go to the heart of Michael Pollan’s In Defence of Food. Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to gain from our dietary confusion. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not ‘real’. These ‘edible food-like substances’ are often packaged with labels bearing health claims that are typically false or misleading. Indeed, real food is fast disappearing from the marketplace, to be replaced by ‘nutrients’, and plain old eating by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Michael Pollan’s sensible and decidedly counterintuitive advice is: ‘Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother would not recognize as food.’
Writing In Defence of Food, and affirming the joy of eating, Pollan suggests that if we would pay more for better, well-grown food, but buy less of it, we'll benefit ourselves, our communities, and the environment at large. Taking a clear-eyed look at what science does and does not know about the links between diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about the question of what to eat that is informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach.
In Defence of Food reminds us that, despite the daunting dietary landscape we confront in the modern supermarket, the solutions to the current omnivore's dilemma can be found all around us. In looking toward traditional diets the world over, as well as the foods our families - and regions - historically enjoyed, we can recover a more balanced, reasonable, and pleasurable approach to food. Michael Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives and enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy.
Michael Pollan is the author of four previous books, including The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, both New York Times bestsellers. A long-time contributor to The New York Times, he is also the Knight Professor of journalism at Berkeley and an advisor to the Slow Food US Board of Directors
To Book:
By bank transfer, or if this is impossible, by cheque: we regret that we are unable at present to take credit card bookings. Follow the instructions in the booking zone which contains our form, procedures and conditions.
Or directly from The Natural Kitchen Tel: 020 7486 8065 Fax: 020 7224 2562
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