The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

() This was an educational book, and provided me with much more awareness about my food and where it comes from. However, it was long and drawn out in many unnecessary ways.

The first section of was all about corn. Corn is very central to our diets today, as it is used as feed to our livestock, and is transformed into all kinds of commonly used food additives and chemicals. But I really didn't need to read through all the various details of the author's ventures and research into corn, as with many other food avenues he explores. He really could have cut down on the uninteresting details, and gone straight to the more applicable, worthwhile information.

Despite these faults, there were some really interesting facts shared. Like how McDonald's chicken nuggets contain lighter fluid in their recipe. And similar to the documentary, Food Inc., there is a description of the horrible treatment of chickens and other livestock. For example, chickens are often fed with a modified diet that will enlarge them in an unnaturally rapid speed. This will fatten them to the point where their legs are unable to keep up, and thus lose the ability to walk. Furthermore, many of our 'organic' and specialty labeled foods are merely gimmicks, or plays on words. The regulations on these crops have fairly low standards, and really aren't incredibly different from normally industrialized food. Also, it delves into the fact that crops from different areas, with different kinds of soils are shown to contain different amounts of nutrients. Similarly, farmed animals whose diets are modified with corn rather than their natural diet of grass or other plants often contain less nutrients in their meats. This book really opens your eyes up to how our diets have been changed in the modern era.