This is a brief review of a very brief book by Michael Pollan. FOOD RULES An Eaters Manual. I'll share a few of the rules after the following WHEE box.....
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This is a cute little book , all of 140 pages. I believe it has been mentioned in WHEE diaries before. Here are some of the rules:
Eat Food, Mostly Plants, Not Too Much
Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
Avoid food products that contain ingredients no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.
Avoid high-fructose corn syrup.
Avoid foods with a sugar or sugar substitute as one of the first three ingredients.
Avoid food products with more than 5 ingredients.
Avoid foods with ingredients a third grader can't pronounce.
Avoid foods with non-fat, lowfat, or lite in their names.
Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not.
Avoid foods advertised on television.
Stay out of the middle aisles of the supermarket.
Eat only foods that will eventually rot.
Get out of the supermarket whenever you can.
Buy your snacks at the farmers market.
Buy only foods that have been cooked by humans.
It's not food if it arrived through the window of the car,
Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food.
Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.
Eat well grown food from healthy soil.
Eat wild foods when you can.
Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
Pay more, eat less.
Stop eating before you are full.
Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.
Eat slowly.
Buy smaller glasses and plates.
Do all your eating at the table.
Try not to eat alone.
It is a great little book with about 64 rules explained. More of a casual read and reference guide than an actual book, just enough information to get your head in the right direction.
You can get the book here. Or hit your local library to check one out. Eating real whole foods is what the book offers rules for. Sometimes I feel like I could use a little guidance, a paragraph or two of information, not volumes of info to digest. This hits the mark for me. A very on target reference for things I already know but am not really paying enough attention to.
The line in the beginning of the book that spoke to me is: People who get off the Western Diet see dramatic improvements in their health. I have had health issues brought on primarily by obesity and an autoimmune arthritis. I joined WHEE looking for a way to regain/improve my health. Kessler's book The End of Over Eating has filled me with lots of information on the whys:
Why did this happen?
Pollan is helpful with the hows:
How do I get better? How should I change my eating?
One rule that really rings true: Avoid foods you see advertised on television. Pollan states that bogus health claims and faulty food science have made supermarkets particularly treacherous places to shop for real food. A few days ago I was watching TV, which I seldom do, and there was a commercial for High Fructose Corn Syrup - a commercial. This commercial told me how it was actually good for me.
Check it out:
Of course Pollan reminds us to not tar the whole food producers who advertise (i.e. walnut growers) with the same brush as the 2/3's of advertisers who are selling processed foods and alcohol.
Fabian suggested commercials for vegetables in a previous WHEE diary thread. I found a banned vegetable commercial here:
SEXY VEGETABLES - who knew?
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