''Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.'' So begins Michael Pollan's snappy, commonsensical companion to 2006's hulking The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food. In this witty, blessedly bite-size summation of his research, Pollan marches through the sorry history of nutrition science (margarine, anyone?), then offers advice that ranges from planting a garden to shunning products that tout health-enhancing properties (''Don't take the silence of the yams as a sign that they have nothing valuable to say about health''). Unlike, say, a lite potato chip, this book of Pollan lite is not only crisp and tasty, but good for you. A-

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