Includes bibliographical references (p. [206]-228) and index.

pt. 1. The age of nutritionism. -- From foods to nutrients -- Nutritionism defined -- Nutritionism comes to market -- Food science's golden age -- The melting of the lipid hypothesis -- Eat right, get fatter -- Beyond the pleasure principle -- The proof in the low-fat pudding -- Bad science -- Nutritionism's children -- pt. 2. The Western diet and the diseases of civilization. -- The Aborigine in all of us -- The elephant in the room -- The industrialization of eating : what we do know : From whole foods to refined ; From complexity to simplicity ; From quality to quantity ; From leaves to seeds ; From food culture to food science -- pt. 3. Getting over nutritionism. -- Escape from the Western diet -- Eat food : food defined -- Mostly plants : what to eat -- Not too much : how to eat.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of food journalist Pollan's thesis. Humans used to know how to eat well, he argues, but the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." Indeed, plain old eating is being replaced by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Pollan's advice is: "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food." Looking at what science does and does not know about diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about what to eat, informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the nutrient-by-nutrient approach.