It seems, dear Laura, that your diet guilt is showing through in almost every sentence of your article on Michael Pollan and his books. I find his books entirely mesmerizing.

The earthy approach Mr. Pollan takes to the food and the interconnected environmental issues he writes about are an almost perfect match to my own. Reading his work is like connecting to a kindred spirit or finding someone who speaks my language while traveling in a foreign country.

I'm a professional chef who chose to pursue a culinary degree because I had an instinctive need to eat healthier foods than I was finding at my local supermarkets and restaurants. I wanted to know where to find it and how to prepare it. I found the education I was looking for and have put it into delicious practice for more than a decade now. My cooking gets rave reviews.

I focus more these days on writing about food than cooking it professionally and I must admit to a bit of envy of Mr. Pollan. He's successfully writing the books I wish I had the opportunities to write. But as long as I'm not writing them myself, I'm so very grateful that he is.

And apparently he and I are not the only people "lost" on his own delicious planet because big-business publishing houses are repeatedly publishing his books. They wouldn't be doing that if the books didn't command a large and lucrative market share.

Perhaps you started reading the book with a negative mindset instead of looking for ways to incorporate healthier and more ecologically friendly dining habits into your daily life and environment. It's almost impossible to follow to the letter the healthiest diet that is also beneficial to the environment but it is possible to improve our habits a little at a time. You don't have to buy the whole hog to eat locally.

Mr. Pollan has been blessed with the opportunity to explore the concept of eating foods as close to their natural state as possible and to explore that concept in depth. Those of us who learn from his discoveries want him to keep exploring. And writing about it. And we're right here, on planet Earth, avidly discussing and sharing his books in person as well as in cyberspace.

I have not yet had the pleasure to read his "In Defense of Food" myself. But I will do so very soon. And based on the delightful and informative experiences I've had reading other books written by Mr. Pollan, I'm eagerly anticipating an exciting and educational culinary adventure with this one, too. I'm sure I won't be able to put it down until I've turned the very last page.

And let's face it. The food supply in the US is dismal and highly polluted. The publication and widespread distribution of the seemingly extreme measures described in Mr. Pollan's books gives me hope for a nutritious food supply of the future. Technology is wonderful but, on the dinner table, I think we need to go back in culinary time for optimum nutrition.

Besides, real food just plain tastes better than factory fodder.

I, for one, am hungry for a dietary revolution.