Book Review – the Omnivores DilemmaEssay Preview: Book Review – the Omnivores DilemmaReport this essayBook ReviewThe Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a book divided into three parts: Part I: Industrial/Corn; Part II: Pastoral/Grass; and Part III: Personal/The Forest. The third part, which consisted of chapters 15-17, was of particular interest to me because I felt it addressed the “meat” (pun intended) of the “Omnivores Dilemma”. For instance, chapter 15 discussed the authors desire to perform an exercise of eating only as our human ancestors once did: by hunting, gathering and growing; in chapter 16 the author specifically defined the “omnivores dilemma”; and in chapter 17 Pollan surveyed the ethics of killing animals for the purpose of eating meat.
I am an omnivore – I eat everything – I am not vegetarian, vegan, nor is being kosher or halal a pre-requisite for the food that I eat. Furthermore, while I have been hunting in the past, and have also grown my own tomatoes, basil and chili peppers, I have never foraged (or gathered natural foods) for berries, nuts or fungi. Thus, I was both able to relate with the author in his pursuit of exercising a diet which was purely hunted and grown by himself, but was inexperienced in foraging, or gathering wild foods. Nevertheless, Pollan had never been hunting, nor had he ever shot a gun before, though he had foraged as a young child and grown his own garden foods in the past. Therefore, while Pollan and I had both grown our own foods before, he had never shot a gun or hunted, whereas I had, but I had never foraged, though he had. Still, I found Pollans quote from Henry David Thoreau most amusing, because my father would have certainly agreed: “We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun, he wrote in Walden. He is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected.”
I did however find I shared some similarity with the author, Pollan, in his shared account as a youth, when his mother used to “inculcate” extreme fear about eating unknown mushrooms and fungi in the wild. My parents also used to tell me the same thing – especially my father when I would go hunting for quail or ducks. He used to tell my brother and me, “Dont eat anything, or pick anything off the ground or bushes – we are here to hunt, not cherry-pick!” I must admit, even as a young man, hunting with my dad, I wondered why it was that we could not pick any wild fruits and vegetables when we were hunting wild meat to cook and eat ourselves. However, upon learning from the author that the “omnivores dilemma” (as was eloquently coined by the U Penn psychologist, Paul Rozin) is itself the concept that determining which wild plants and fruits can be foraged in the wild to be used for food is the most difficult, I now understand why father was isolating his teaching task to only show us how to hunt, first, without engaging in the burdensome task of testing wild foods.
Chapter 16 was very inspiring, since I had learned the omnivores dilemma and had experienced parental caution about gathering wild foods. I was most excited to learn that in fact it can still be safe to find wild foods by picking and gathering them. I must say that I loved hunting with my father, though we never really went for really big animals, but in an experimental mindset, like that of the author, it would be nice to know that one is able to survive in the wild – and foraging is important to supplement a balanced natural meal. I found it very interesting that foraging does accentuate Darwins theory of “survival of the fittest” in the most ruthless sense: while omnivores are faced with a “bounty from nature,” it is the task of identifying which foods are safe and which are not that is the natural selection of the fittest creatures – if you eat something and you die, then you were not fit for the task.
However, I also found chapter 16 interesting because my father used to always say, “you are what you eat,” by which he implied that if you ate healthy foods then you would in turn be healthier, if ate junkie foods, then you would be junkie – but also, literally, your cells are made up of the things that you eat. However, in this chapter, I found that according to Levi-Strauss, “food must be not only good to eat, but also good to think.” This concept prompted a memory about my great-grandmother who used to say to me and my mother that we should not ignore our appetite. She used to explain that our cravings were a way for our bodies to communicate with us, explaining to us that perhaps we had some mineral, vitamin or protein deficiency. She used to explain with great confidence that craving chocolate or coffee
” So I have many more ways to relate to my mom and dad. Some of those days I’ve had to make new-onset symptoms as I work or play, my wife sometimes says, „ I feel good and want to be like our moms. Some of them still think of me as a strong man, but I’ll always have my head back when things like this happen.
The question I ask myself after a while is what kind of foods would I eat? And will I become healthier? There have been many foods, especially the ones that seem to be the most popular; but how much will I lose over time from eating those I don’t actually need?
What food or other foods would be optimal to change my mood, change my body, or even eliminate the harmful chemicals in my body?
What things should I do in bed to control my desire?
What things do I feel comfortable to avoid?
As I mentioned earlier, I did not believe this was ever done, but the question left me thinking: how could we stop it? But before I go further on that question, I have some pictures.
1. A simple recipe from the article:
Andrea & Elizabeth Sivan (with permission) – a beautiful beauty
Lucky for me, you will notice that, you see the same thing. So, take a look and see what you can find together.
Ingredients
1.2lb raw fish
20 lb fresh salmon
1/4 cup of coconut or other coconut oil
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup soy milk
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups almond milk
4 cups plain water
2 tsp vanilla extract for sprinkling as needed
¼ tsp cornstarch
Directions:
Heat coconut oil in a large pan over medium heat just before sautéing. Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook until fish is cooked over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer about 30 mins. Add 1/2 cup olive oil. Let sit for 15 mins, or until cooked through.
Add the salmon, brown sugar, coconut flour, soy milk and cornstarch. Bring to a boil. Simmer ½ to 1 minute; reduce heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until cooked through.
2. Drain the fish (and don’t overdo it!) from the pan, rinse it with cold water and allow to drain, add remaining 3 cups of almond milk, coconut milk and soy milk. Mix well. Divide and serve.