Q& A | Michael Pollan

The other side of it is our health. We need a great variety of food. If we don't get it, we're not getting what we need.

You're very critical of the foods made from corn, and processed foods in general. Why?

Corn products are not fresh food. To make them, you're using corn as an industrial raw material.

Did researching the book make you reevaluate your diet?

I avoid foods with more than five ingredients on the label, and I eat as few processed foods as I can -- in particular, anything made with high-fructose corn syrup. It's not evil, but it's a marker of a highly processed food.

You don't eat fast foods now. Did you ever?

I had a kid who liked to go to McDonald's. What turned me off was visiting a feedlot and spending time with a steer through his life. I saw how they live and how we make them into meat. Once you've seen that, it changes the way you eat. And my talking about it turned my son off fast foods.

Do you eat any meat now?