Shane Heaton – our resident nutritionist

Shane Heaton’s a nutritionist on a mission to save the world. With a passion for food and its influence on individual and environmental health, he’s the author of the widely acclaimed book Organic Farming, Food Quality and Human Health. Based in his native land of Australia, Shane is the nutrition spokesperson for the Biological Farmers of Australia (bfa.com.au). He is also resident nutritionist for whyorganic.org, contributing editor of Clean Food Organics magazine, founder and managing director of one of Australia’s leading organic online retailers, freshorganics.com.au, and a regular contributor to media and conferences around the world.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Soil Association.

In Defense of Food: A book review

I’m taking a break this month from my current series of nutrition advice to tell you about a wonderfully insightful new book by American author Michael Pollan about food, food-like edible substances, why you shouldn’t listen to experts, and how the resurgence of local and organic food is making it possible for the first time in decades to eat real food if you choose to do so.

The question of what to eat, Michael points out, has for most of human history been navigated quite well without professional guidance, and the fact that we now need nutritionists, journalists, government food pyramids and the food industry itself to tell us what to eat is evidence of our disconcerting alienation from food and farming.

He argues that all the dietary advice on offer these days hasn’t made us any healthier - if anything, less healthy and considerably fatter. The Age of Nutritionism, as Michael calls it, has focused far too much on nutrients instead of food itself. ‘Food is also about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world, and about expressing our identity.’

I particularly liked Michael’s hypothesis of an inverse relationship between the amount of time people spend worrying about nutrition and their overall health and happiness. The message throughout the book is to eat simply and to eat well. It’s a powerfully constructed argument for eating local, fresh, organic food.

Entertaining and informative, Michael makes simple suggestions like, ‘If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food is a strong indication it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.’

These themes are of course close to the heart of the organic movement, and anyone with an interest in food and food culture would find this book an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. 

The introduction to In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto is available for free at www.michaelpollan.com

Shane Heaton
Nutritionist

To find out more about why organic food is more nutritious click here

Back to top