The Omnivore's Dilemma

In an effort to entertain my brother, we went to B&N. There's something there for everyone.

I wanted to continue reading a book about birth that I picked up last time. The Birth Book did a very good job describing the various interventions used in modern hospitals. In addition to discussing how they work, it also attempted to ascertain their merits based on scientific studies. I got as far as pitocin and electronic fetal monitoring (surprisingly, unnecessary) before forced to leave the store. Unfortunately, when I attempted to find the book again, I couldn't. It was on hold for someone. I know I am selectively reading books that agree with my birth philosophy without giving the same consideration for the other side. However, I am loathe to try and find the opposing side. I will justify this with the excuse that I am trying to find out what average natural births are like.

Disappointed, I wandered around trying to find a book that piqued and held my interest. I chanced upon the much talked about Michael Pollan book The Omnivore's Dilemma (btw, who coined the term "foodie"? What does it even mean?). Perfect. I randomly flipped through some chapters and stopped at his journey in following a typical cow from birth to grill. After reading about the problems steers have with eating corn along with all its associated problems (the one I remember, acidosis, which incubated the much feared e. coli), I am horrified that I eat regular beef at all. Why am I not eating grass-fed beef? What is our diet supposed to be? Are we really supposed to consume so much meat? Obviously, because of corn subsidy and because we don't figure environmental costs in to our food prices, the true price of beef that we currently eat should be much higher. But if not this, then what? I know from experience that with the eating culture that I am familiar, if I don't eat protein during lunch, I will be hungry three hours later, which is a little ridiculous to me.

As I find myself trying more and more to come up with healthy and filling meals, it's quite a mental exercise to come up with variety, figure out cost of food and calculate preparation time. Healthy meals, at least for me, takes a lot of time and effort (which is why I really appreciate it when someone else cleans up afterwards). How do other people eat? How many people are succeeding at this balancing game?

Also, one more book I thought would be interesting to read, Genome, The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. The author was a science journalist. Hence the book seems to be fairly accessible to anyone without a biology degree. Yet, it seems to give a good sense of where genetics stand as the last 5-10 years. It doesn't claim to be comprehensive, that would be too much information. I thought the fun thing about the book was the his structure: 23 chromosomes, 1 gene selected from each chromosome, so 23 genes in 23 chapters.