"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

So Michael Pollan writes in his new book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. The book is about why we need to think about eating as something more than just providing nutrition, why the more we worry about healthy eating, the more unhealthy we've become. He suggests, "We forget that, historically, people have eaten for a great many reasons other than biological necessity. Food is also about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world, and about expressing our identity. As long as humans have been taking meals together, eating has been as much about culture as it has been about biology."

A visit to a farmers' market is one path to happy eating: fresh, local food grown without chemicals, a chance to know the farmer who grows it, support for local businesses, and time to visit with friends at the market.