Michael Pollans Simple Rules for Healthy Eating

I love author Michael Pollan as he is a voice of reason in the sometimes shrieky green food movement.  Although, with the way many of us choose the food we buy and eat, those who have taken the time to educate themselves find it difficult not to be shrieky.

Michael, if I can be so bold as to use his first name (he seems like a friend to me), has compiled a list of 86 simple rules in his new book “Food Rules.” (not an affiliate link)  The idea for the book started when a cardiologist asked Michael for something simple and easy to read that the doctor could hand to his patients.

I’ve chosen my 10 favorites from the book, and I urge each of you to adopt one or two rules and see if you start to feel better and maybe even lose weight without trying.

1. Eat food. This has been Michael’s mantra for years: avoid chemicals, preservatives and flavorings.  Steer towards fruits, vegetables and proteins.  If you can recognize it as food, i.e. an apple as opposed to a Pop Tart, you’re choosing well.
2. Cook your own food. It takes as much time to cook at home as it does to eat out.  Really.  Stop whining about it, pick up a spatula, and peruse some recipes.  It’s easy and rewarding.  You’ll save money and consume less calories.
3. Eat at a table. Our “rush, rush society” has led us to shove food down our throats as an afterthought to our schedules.  Eating at a table allows your brain some real down-time and usually results in fewer calories consumed.  And, no you can’t bring reading material or check your email!
4. Pay more, eat less. Here’s what I’ve found: high-quality food tastes better and you don’t need to eat as much of it to feel sated!  At my house, we slightly decreased our protein portions, threw in some extra veggies here and there, and wound up with healthier, lower calorie meals without even thinking about it.  And it tastes good.
5. Eat your colors. Food was not meant to be beige.  Try red bell peppers, blueberries, green apples, or vibrant carrots.  Diets with a lot of color automatically have a broad spectrum of nutrients that protect us in so many ways, from fighting the common cold to preventing cancer.
6. Eat animals that have eaten well themselves. Most meat in the U.S. has a life filled with misery that ends in a terrible slaughter. Jonathan Safran Foer’s book “Eating Animals” covers this thoroughly if you’d like more information.  I don’t eat meat unless I know where it comes from and I’ve spent hours grilling my local green butcher and then going back and researching the farms on the internet.  Just like #4 above, by eating higher quality cuts of meat, smaller portions make me feel full and I get to save some extra calories.
7. Avoid foods that have sugar as the first three ingredients. Check your cereal boxes!  You’ll be surprised how much sugar is in even “healthy” options.  Once you start reading labels on all your foods, you’ll start making smarter choices.
8. Avoid food products that make health claims. If the food is claiming to be healthy, it probably isn’t!  Have you ever seen a cucumber with a “lite” food label on it? (See rule #1 above)
9. The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead. White bread is highly processed, low in nutritional value (unless the manufacturer adds it back in), and doesn’t even have that much flavor.  Look for breads with whole wheats and blended grains.  Read your labels though; many manufacturers will have only a small percentage of whole grains while the rest is still just white, processed flour.
10. Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself. It takes some effort to cook cupcakes and then scarf them down.  If you stick to this rule, you eliminate mindless snacking, which is one of the biggest reasons our waist lines have expanded.  I love this rule!

I would love to have some feedback to this post.  Let me know what you’ve done that has worked for you.  I’d also like to know which “rule(s)” you plan to try.

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