I found the time we spent in Genesis 1 to be so helpful. Concentrating on the provision of God as an overwhelming provider helps me to worry less about all the details I find so important. As we were studying Genesis 1, I also read another book that surprised me in the ways it tied in with what we were learning in Genesis.

I had visited the doctor and in talking about nutrition he quoted the author Michael Pollan, “Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants.” The quote intrigued me and so I checked out the book from the library. The title of the book is In Defense of Food.

There is a lot I liked about the book and I could talk a lot about the book, just ask Jenelle, but I want to write specifically about the author’s premise that much of the nutritional crisis in our country is the result of allowing science to dictate the answer to the question “What should I eat?” Science? Don’t you mean McDonald’s?

Obviously, I’m glossing over things here, but I am going to summarize the author’s argument as,

when science reduced food to a pile of nutrients needed for the biological 
function of the body, it opened the door for commercial food production.

Now food can be produced and manufactured to contain the right nutrients and we can eliminate the bad nutrients. We can produce things to eat based on the most efficient (i.e. cheapest) products because they provide the nutrients we need. If we really want it to taste like something else, well that can be arranged. And there isn’t a downside, right? Because the things we eat are tailored to have exactly the nutrients we need. As a matter of fact we can produce better things to eat than God provided in nature. Really?

Well, as it turns out the history of food production is the history of hubris and mistakes. It is almost comical. As a matter of fact there are jokes about the fickle winds of popular nutritional guidance. Comical, except it appears to be killing us.

As I read this book and spent time in Genesis, I was shocked at the way I am quick to judge the gift of food that God has so generously provided. Food is not just a pile of nutrients. It is a “good” provision of God for nutrition, yes, but also for enjoyment and for building communities, at the table, in the kitchen and in the garden. When we reduce it to just nutrition we refuse to recognize the full gift of God.

My one concern about the book was that I would become a foodie, ok, more of a foodie. I hope I don’t. A foodie, to me, feels a sense of deserving good food. But food is a gift. We can twist it and hoard it and obsess about it. But having food provided means receiving, enjoying, and thanking the provider.