7.03.2007

Book Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma

Wow, what an interesting, scary, and fact filled book. Only three hours into the 12 hours long audio book, I feel like I need to reorder my eating habits.

Having lived in Germany for two years, I recognized that the act of living in Germany led me to lose weight. But now I think I understand why: corn, or the lack there of.

45,000 products in the American supermarket are made out of corn. So whether corn is good for humans or not, I think we are eating too much of it, especially the form that we use to sweeten everything. A summary of the book's thesis (I think) can be found in the article he wrote about it in the New York Times a few months ago (click here to link to the article).

Pollan also explains in a succinct manner why making ethanol from corn to fuel our cars does not make sense: it is the fertilizer. To make the fertilizer, you need natural gas, and more natural gas than you end up producing thorough from the ethanol.

More on this as I listen...

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