In the last section, of Cooked, Pollan goes into great depths explaining the wonders that the microbiological world has to offer. He explains several great processes that many people forget are entirely driven by microbial life and their unique fermentation abilities.
In the first two sections, Pollan discusses fermentation of food. He goes through the process of making sour kraut in extreme detail. I enjoyed reading some of the scientific aspects of it, which I understood quite well knowing what I do about microbiology and biochemistry. I definitely appreciated the section, although it was quite long.
The last section was devoted to alcohol, a very unique process entirely dependent on microbes. I enjoyed the historical discussion on alcohol, talking about what it means for us in different aspects of life such as religion and social relationships. Pollan gave a nice context on what alcohol means for us historically, as well as some animals. We all use it similarly. This section was once again a nice scientific discussion that I enjoyed.
One of the main themes of this section was the emphasis on probiotics. Pollan presents us with our history of wanting to be sterile, completely free of bacteria and other flora that populate our bodies. In the first chapter of this section, he mentions a fermentation festival he went to where many people strongly advocated the idea of nourishing the natural microbial flora. Pollan argues for the health aspect of using probiotics, and that our modern diets and the western diseases could be alleviated by being more careful and conscientious about caring for our microbial companions. Pollan also makes a very interesting point that humans evolved as super-beings, that we are an incredibly complex network of various organisms working together.
It's no doubt we need to respect the world we can't see, and not by just focusing on pathogens but realising that there is a lot more to microbial life than the germs that make us sick. Microbiology is a relatively recent and emerging field, and it will be a long time until we understand how it works.
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