Reddit mentions of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Of the 45,000 items in a supermarket, more than a quarter contain corn.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

I encourage you to read The Omnivores Dilemma and come to your own conclusion about whether the current standards are fair or not.

Let's just add this to pile, along with Fast Food Nation, Omnivore's Dilemma, and maybe The Jungle.

Though animals are delicious; sadly I'll just have to continue eating them.

A great book about the impact of corn on the U.S.'s agriculture is "The Omnivore's Dilemma". I highly recommend reading it.

Michael Pollan.

I don't think I can recommend his book The Omnivore's Dilemma highly enough.

Read The Omnivore's Dilemma but the upshot is that you should eat more plants than animals and stay away from processed stuff.

Only tangentially related, but I'm reading Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, and the first section is about corn (from seed to food product). There is mention of the pros/cons of regular corn vs. the Monsanto seed, but there's a ton more (depressing) stuff about the entire industry as well.

I grew up in farm country in the 60's in an area where there were no corporate farms. The small farms never thrived. It was always hard, dirty work with little money. The fundamental problem with agriculture in general is that when the crops are good, the selling price for them is low and when the crops are bad, the price is high. On top of that is a wholesale distribution system that tends to maximize it's profit at the expense of the farmer.

I suggest you read The Omnivore's dilemma and Mother Earth News magazine

I'd love a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma. I've been really interested in food and and how it effects us and how our diets can be better lately. I'm actively working on mine and this book has been on my list for a while. (I am happy with either hardcover or paperback, my only request is used books be in good shape)

Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal

Don't blame Carter.

The large farm bill changes that built our corn empire happened under the Nixon administration, not Carter. Earl Butz (who was interviewed in the film) was one of the principle people who changed reimbursement metrics to be based on bushels/acre yield. He was appointed Secretary of Agriculture under Nixon and continued the position under Ford. For more information, please read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma.

http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/1594200823

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Butz

Michael Pollan rocks, I'm in the process of finishing up Omnivore's Dilemma and I'm going for In Defense of Food next. You should check out OD too.

One doesn't need to be an animal rights activist to believe that killing (especially in job lots) should be done in as painless and efficient a manner as we are capable of. We owe that not only to the animals we've raised as part of our food supply but also to ourselves since we are the ones who have to live with what we've done (and are doing).

If you haven't already read it, take a look at Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma for elaboration.

You should read this, but tl;dr, we (the taxpayer) are subsidizing food and food-creation processes that are unsustainable.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is something I've been reading recently. It's a really fascinating book about tracing the sources of the food we eat.

http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/1594200823

In my view, there is a huge disconnect between people and food in general (not just meat-eaters). A majority of people just do not realize what it takes to get food on the table and the process that goes into it. Our ease of access to food has a lot to do with it. Worse, because of the need to meet such a high demand for consistent food, we've been accustomed to eating the metaphorical pink slime that is/was chicken mcnuggets-type foods.

I think it's contradictory when people get squeamish during dissections or seeing a butcher/farmer do their work, but have no problem engulfing a whopper, some ribs, or a steak. Just my view.

A book I found really interesting was Omnivore's Dilemma and the typical documentaries like Food Inc are a good watch as well as long as you remember to not take everything they say fact or the norm and look past the sensationalism.

On an industrial scale, probably yes. On a small scale, it's more productive than ag farms.

Also, typically only outputs are considered - inputs like fuel, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are considered to be free, or that their enviromental impact (externalities like soil erosion, nitrate leaching, stream poisoning, etc) do not exist.

You may want to read The omnivore's dilemma. There's a chapter on farming the permaculture way, and how the efficiency, acre per acre, is better than the neighboring industrial farms.

Many people would have to return to the land, for it to be so. It's not a 'sexy' profession, and modern man is disconnected from what sustents him, but one way or the other, it'll happen.

A bit longer, but all are solid suggestions, and although I could add two dozen more, I'm sure others will take up the cause.

• What the dog saw, by Malcolm Gladwell
  
  
• Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre
  
  
• 
  God is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens
  
  
• The Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris
  
  
• The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein
  
  
• Super Freakonomics, by Levitt & Dubner
  
  
• The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
  
  
• The Case for Mars, by Robert Zubrin
  
  
• The Value of Nothing, by Raj Patel
  
  
  

I loved The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He takes a thorough look at where our food comes from, and it is half scary but still offers a solution (kinda... would take a LOT of education to succeed which is unrealistic).

I'm not really interested in arguing - whatever works for you works for you. You don't have to agree with me. But some points:

My cereal and milk and banana every morning is roughly the same .47 as your shake - within a few cents - and mine are all organic and have an ingredients list I can read.

As for your salmon comparison - it's normally a negligible difference between the two - and I can choose to have either in moderation.

You also preach nutrition and in the same breath recommend food-replacement with shakes made of chemicals. Can I recommend some books/movies:

http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/1594200823

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Inc-Eric-Schlosser/dp/B0027BOL4G

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594201455

That's because it's true for most meat in America. I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, but if you want to understand the food you are putting into your body I highly recommend reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Polian.

But my answer is to just eat less meat.

Another book to look into is The Omnivore's Dilemma. I've only read a few short excerpts, but those were quite good.

This is a good choice. A thinly veiled polemic against the reader backed by a superficial knowledge of eastern philosophy and a boundless sense of smug superiority. You'd have to look to The story of B, or The Omnivores Dillema for a book more willing to suck its own dick.

It is a pretentious, over-wordy piece of shit, and not liking it makes you a better person. +1, would +1 again.

Start by walking. two miles. It's not as long as you think. After a month move up to three miles. do this until about five miles then start jogging portions of it and so on. This will put excersize into your life. Start cooking for yourself, and as you start take the time to learn about eating healthy. I recommend the book http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/1594200823 Cooking for yourself will also give you a sense of self reliance. As you start to eat more healthy I also recommend taking a multivitamin. I would recommend talking to your doctor too. Tell him what you are planning to do and that you are having energy problems. He will probably run some blood tests and do a physical. Make sure you are healthy enough to start a workout. The energy will come quicker than you think.

Hi De,

Sorry, I'm not positive I understand why the answer was unsatisfactory to you.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

Who is they?

There are the voice of corporate money -- finance in particular -- which has overwhelmed the power of people's votes. See Food inc, Omnivore Dilema, In Defence of Food, Supersize Me.

One theme that recurs through out these four works on the politics of food is that the will of the people gets overruled by corporate money once it gets to Washington. That money, in turn, is required to be this amoral by the atmosphere in Wall St.

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It's possible that you are asking for a simple answer to a complicated question. I can understand that, to someone who hasn't invested a fair amount of effort educating themselves on the issue, the one-liners used in the manifesto might seem trite. But they refer to very specific organizational behaviors that are well documented.

I'm happy to continue the conversation, though at one point you will have to read a long-form book or watch a documentary or two, in order to understand the conversation on the ground at Liberty Square.

Regarding kettlebells- it's unlikely at your current fitness level that your doctor will be cool with a swing progression, but I think farmer's walks and turkish getups could be great for you. Think about your muscle-building efforts in terms of the five fundamental human movements: Push, Pull, Hinge, Squat, and Loaded Carry. Push is like a bench press, overhead press or pushup. Pull is like a row, or pullup. Hinge is a deadlift, kettlebell swing, or good morning. Squat is self explanatory, and Loaded Carry is like a farmer's walk. Ideally to make a balanced routine you'd get some work done in every category over the course of a week.

How much food: There are many TDEE calculators out there- I'd reccomend plugging your stats into a few to see what you get. Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is how many calories you need to eat to stay the weight you currently are. (Note: your TDEE is not your BMR (Base Metabolic Rate). Your BMR is what you would need to consume to maintain weight if you were in a coma and absolutely not doing anything.) To stay the same weight, you track your calories to try to hit that number, and weigh yourself regularly (I reccomend early morning before breakfast- makes it easiest to catch when the normal couple pounds of variation starts to drift) and put it in to myfitnesspal so you can see it on a graph. Tracking your weight and your calories is the only way to know if your estimated numbers are the correct TDEE for you.

This last bit can be confusing. There's the obvious issue with correctly estimating your exercise when you put it into the calculator- what does 'three times a week' really mean? But there's also the tracking calories accurately issue: You know how you sometimes hear people say 'I only eat 1100 calories a day, but I just can't lose weight!' Welllllllll.... no. They are either not recording food they eat, or not recording it correctly. Food labels can be up to 25% off, and it's very easy if you're measuring in anything other than grams (looking at you, myfitnesspal listings for 'one chicken breast'. Not helpful) to be off by quite a bit. But what you can be is consistent. If your daily calorie count is consistently wrong by 300 calories, your weight probably won't move much. (500 calories one way or the other off of your TDEE is about the right amount to gain or lose weight.) So what you do is watch your weight to see what's actually happening. If you don't see any movement over the course of a couple weeks, then you change your calorie goal for the day with the knowledge that it's a bit like aiming for a target with a gun that pulls to the left. In order to hit the target, you're overcompensating by aiming 'too far' to the right.

Macros: Depends on the kind of exercise you are doing, but for now when you're setting up your myfitnesspal goals I'd suggest trying for an 50% carb, 25% protein 25% fat split. This is actually a pretty high carb ratio, but probably less than you are currently eating. When you adjust to it, try to increase your protein and fats. And do try to get your carbs from 'complex' sources. Get your sugar bundled with some fiber like it is in fruit and whole grains. (There's a whole deep and I think very interesting rabbit hole about grain and how we process it interacts with our bodies. Basically grain is pretty okay, but what we do with it to make it into modern bread is pretty terrible.)

Okay, that was probably super overwhelming, but I wanted to give you a good base of understanding.

TLDR: On a daily basis, it looks like this. You've calculated your TDEE, decided you want to gain weight so you're eating goal is 500 calories over that. Before breakfast, you weigh yourself and put that into myfitnesspal during breakfast computer-time, during which you can also enter breakfast (probably the same thing every day, or one of a couple of common things, so easy to enter) and lunch (which you precalculated when you made up the big batch of it on the weekend.) Then you have a pretty good idea of what macros you need to 'fill in' with, and can make educated decisions about snacking and dinner. Maybe once a week look at your weight and food graphs, and see if you are hitting your goals, and what you might want to adjust.

Fiber is actually pretty easy to get enough of if you eat fruits and veggies. But if you have yogurt for breakfast, soup and sandwich for lunch, and pasta for dinner, you can find yourself in trouble even if you're 'eating healthy' and at a good weight. If you're worried about it, there's nothing wrong with taking a fiber supplement. I actually buy psyllium husk and mix it into my morning yogurt- I rather like how it thickens up the texture. But you can also take it in pill form, both work.

While we're on the topic of supplements- there are only a couple that have any proven health benefits to a basically healthy person. Vitamin D has good data, as does fish oil. Unless your doctor tells you that you do, you don't need a multivitamin. I also suggest eating probiotics- the data coming out on the gut/brain connection is really quite compelling, and home-made saurkraut/kimchi/preserved lemons/kombucha is actually dead-easy to make if you're interested, and can be a nice 'Wow, you made that?!' confidence boost.

Books that helped me learn:

• Enter the Kettlebell by Pavel
  
  
• The Well Fed books you're already looking for
  
  
• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
  
  
• Becoming a Supple Leopard by Dr. Kelly Starrett
  
  
• The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz

Read The Omnivore's Dilemma