I borrowed this one from the public library, but it's one I'll be ordering and adding to my own library. I'm also, having whet my appetite on one of his shorter works, planning to read at least one more of Pollan's books on the topic of food - where our food comes from, and how to eat in a way that will make us healthier. Pollan sums up his healthy eating philosophy in seven words. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." You can't get much simpler than that. More than that, though, this particular book was funny in preventing it's wisdom. It was broken into three sections of rules, 64 total, one for each sentence in Pollan's seven word philosophy of eating. I'm including some of my favorite rules from each section below:
Eat Food:
- Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
- Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce
- Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle
- Eat only foods that will eventually rot
- If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
- It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
- It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language. (Think Big Mac, Cheetos, or Pringles.)
- Eat your colors
- Eat animals that have themselves eaten well
- Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk
- "The whiter the bread, the sooner you'll be dead."
- Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
- ...Eat less
- Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.
- Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it
- Don't get your fuel from the same place you car does.
- Treat treats as treats
- Cook
- Break the rules once in a while
My question is this - which of these rules do you like the best, or what "rules" of your own do you live by for healthy eating?
2 comments:
I've always been curious about Pollan's books when I've seen them, and I'm pretty sure I've got a few on my Amazon wishlist. I've been a healthy eater for the past several years (had to due to some seriously nasty stomach & digestive issues), but James and I recently both got a kick in the pants with Jillian Michael's Master Your Metabolism book. Since it was marketed as a weight-loss book, I didn't expect to find a lot of the same wisdom that you iterated here. She even goes into beauty products, cleaning products, what we cook in, what we store food in -- and how it can all affect your hormones and overall health. Pretty stunning stuff, and like I said, sounds like a lot of the same wisdom (I never knew some of those ingredients in processed foods were as bad as all that.) But they are -- they are baaaaaaaaaad!!
hmm... might have to look for that one... but definitely recommend Food Rules for sure :)
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