Recommending a book: "In Defense Of Food"

Dear family and friends,

I'm currently sitting onboard a flight from Tel-Aviv to Los-Angeles, en-route to the bay area (Mountain View, CA), where Google's main office is located. At almost 15 hours, it's the longest lag I've ever flew. It's also the first trans-atlantic flight for me, with no kids, for more than a decade! And being lousy at sleeping in planes, I do have some time to write...

This is my first visit to the US since we returned to Israel. It'll be my first entrance into the land of unlimited opportunities, as a US citizen. It dawned on me when I had to present my US passport in the airport. Weird. Quite naturally, and as I wrote in my previous posting, I feel less American today than I did a year ago.Those of you who have been following this blog in the past few years know that I have strong sentiments for the US. While I do have quite some criticism, I value many important aspects of the society, culture and way of life.

Talking about the American way of life, I'd like to warmly recommend a book I recently read - "In Defense Of Food" (http://www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php). I found this short book (about 200 pages; if you're really lazy, you can check the 1 hour video of the author, Michael Pollan, talking about the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-t-7lTw6mA), strikingly enlightening and eye-opening. A follow-up on Pollan's ecology-focused "The Omnivore Dilemma" (which I didn't read), this book discusses nutrition, the "Western Diet" and the dangers to one's health stemming from the plethora of processed foods in the US, and from the American way of eating in general.
The book is full of fascinating information. I learned a lot from reading it, and I believe many of you may similarly benefit. Want an example? I grew up believing that saturated fats were bad, and should be avoided as much as possible. The book convincingly explains and demonstrates why this is believed today to be a fallacy. Few books can make you change the way you do things in your daily life, let alone the way you're eating. This one is such a rare book. I would recommend it to any curious person, and for those of you who live in the US, I think it's a must-read.
For those who live in Israel, I have a copy I'll be happy to lend.

Take care,
Giora