A Better Theory: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

I'm faced with the problem that I live in a Czech-speaking country, and thus am completely unable to pronounce the word for asparagus. 'Maltodextrin', however, is the same as in English, and thus causes me no problems.On a more serious note, I'm failing to see what's interesting or new about this book, from the summary given. It seems the advice is the same as that consistently given by nutritionists for as long as the discipline has existed - to avoid processed foods and eat a balanced diet. What am I missing?

I've always been a bit dubious about the palaeolithic approach to diet. I do not have the digestive system of a palaeolithic hunter-gatherer. I am the descendant of several hundred generations of the people who were best able to thrive in an agricultural setting on the foods available there. I consume large quantites of milk of cheese without becoming ill - something our palaeolithic ancestors had difficulty doing.Now, I've heard evidence that this dairy consumption may be having long-term detrimental effects of my health, and I may be better off without it. Nevertheless, the fact that I am a facultative lactophage suggests to me that there are different things happening in my stomach that happened in the stomach of my ancestors 15,000 years ago, and it's not at all clear to me that I'd manage better eating like them.

Okay - sorry if I misunderstood.As for lactose-tolerance, I'd always just assumed it was genetically based. Societies with milk and cheese had higher levels of lactose-tolerance because of past natural selection - but I suppose it's equally well explained if people who grow up with milk and cheese in their diet retain the ability to digest it.A very cursory glance through Google suggests there is a genetic basis - see here from the American Journal of Human Genetics, for example. I don't know how well supported the idea is, though.