“We eat by the grace of nature, not industry, and what we’re eating is never anything more or less than the body of the world.” So concludes The Omnivore’s Dilemma, author Michael Pollan’s epic journey into the varied American food systems making up our country’s diet. Along the way he takes a cleaver to your perspectives on just what it is we’re eating for dinner, leaving you open to new ruminations and maybe even, gasp, lifestyle changes.

These changes aren’t simple or specific, though — Pollan cuts into all deeply held beliefs about food. If you’re a meat eater, you may find your complicity in cruelty and public health hazards too much to bear. But vegetarians and vegans aren’t safe either — they will be confronted with logical arguments that hurl their leafy and supposedly nonviolent habits into moral peril. This is a testament to the book’s strength; while Pollan is not advocating for any specific agenda (he’s an avid carnivore himself), he says we must begin to pay more attention to where our daily bread comes from, else we get poisoned by our food ignorance.

Now put that in your salad bowl and toss it.

—Paul Rice