We went to Whistler for a few days this week. I mention this partly to tempt those readers currently living in Abu Dabi to move back to the promised land, but also because any sort of vacation always creates a major issue for me… what do I bring to read?

Out of the teetering pile of books and magazines on my endtable (okay, okay, and those that have fallen onto the floor like the big earthquake already hit), I have to choose just one item to jam in beside my extra sandals.

Perfect, you might say. You’ll have lots of time to dig into The Shock Doctrine. Well, yes. But do I really want to spend my vacation reading about the atrocities of Augusto Pinochet?

I settled instead on In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan’s follow up to The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Mr. Pollan is a conspiracy theorist, and he has me completely, totally convinced. The government and HeartSmart and McCain’s Deep and Delicious have all been lying to me. Lying! I read at least three-quarters of the book aloud to Min, because I couldn’t believe what I was learning.

And now, even Min is convinced that we should uphold Mr. Pollan’s main principles: eat food (as in real food, not processed), not too much, mostly plants. (I know, those who’ve met Min in person might have to sit down after reading that part about eating plants.)

This brings me to my mistake. If I had read this book at home, I could have opened the fridge and gazed sanctimoniously at the contents of my last organics delivery box. But no. I had to read it on vacation. Where I’d stocked the cupboards of our condo with the kind of food that I could feed our toddlers with a minimal amount of effort: golfish crackers, teddy grahams, instant noodles…

Honestly, I’m surprised the book didn’t burn through my hypocritical hands. I made roast vegetables last night as my repentance.