We Americans suffer a national eating disorder: our unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. The paradox is that we worry unreasonably about dietary health yet have the worst diets in the world. And the worst part of this diet is that is has been and continues to spread throughout the developing world as a option to nutritious home-cooked food.
I think it is time to revisit some basic food and eating rules (I hate the word “rules” but think it is appropriate to use here given that these rules are NOT new but need to be emphasized again to help cut through the weight of constantly changing/misleading advice). I have selected and consolidated 7 food rules from Michael Pollan’s list of 64 rules. A lot of them are interrelated but I think these 7 pretty much capture the essence of what one can do easily and simply.
- If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, avoid it as much as possible.
- Following from the above rule, eat “real” food. Many food items in grocery stores these days don’t deserve to be called food. They are barely edible items trying to mimic the taste of “real” foods and often shamelessly claiming that they are whole wheat, high fiber, heart healthy, or gut healthy. Normally, they are processed concoctions designed by food scientist, consisting mostly of ingredients derived from corn and soy, containing chemical additives hard to pronounce and even harder to digest (for e.g., high protein bars, energy drinks, so-called heart-healthy boxed cereals, frozen dinners, all kinds of sliced bread, pastries, and other desserts, and so on).
- Avoid food products with the word “lite” or the terms “low fat” or “nonfat” in their names, because these are the foods that often have lots of unhealthy saturated fats, added sugars, excess salt, not to mention a laundry list of dubious ingredients masquerading as food.
- Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot. “There are exceptions – honey and maple syrup – but as a rule, any “real” food goes bad eventually.
- It is not just what you eat but how you eat. “Always leave the table a little hungry,” Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule. And relatedly, if you chew your food well, you will enjoy the food more and feel full sooner.
- Don’t buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.
- Eating what stands on one leg [mushrooms and plant foods] is better than eating what stands on two legs [fowl], which is better than eating what stands on four legs [cows, pigs and other mammals].
References:
Michael Pollan, 2009. Food Rules: An Eaters Manual. Penguin Press
Michael Pollan, 2007. Unhappy Meals. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html
CDC. Improving your Eating Habits. 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/eating_habits.html
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