Book review: Food Rules
Dietary related ailments in a world where there’s more choice in food than there are meals to eat them doesn’t make sense. Michael Pollan’s Food Rules gives us 64 rules to help get you closer to your straight and narrow. Not only have you probably heard many number of them before, but here they are all in one neat spot: what and how to eat for health.
Pollan points out that populations who rely on the so-called Western diet eat lots of processed foods, meat, added fat, sugar and refined grains “invariably suffer from high rates of the so-called Western diseases: obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.” And as people in Asian and Mediterranean countries have become more Westernized (affluent, citified and exposed to the fast foods exported from the United States), they have become increasingly prone to the same afflictions.
On the flip side though, Pollan notes T hat people who consume traditional diets, free of the food-like products from supermarket shelves, experience these diseases at much lower rates. And those who, for reasons of ill health or dietary philosophy, have abandoned Western eating habits often experience a rapid and significant improvement in their health indicators.
With ever growing products and ever growing populations, can we afford to keep going as we are? (Thus the rules!).
Mr. Pollan summarized his approach in just seven words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” The new book provides the practical steps, starting with advice to avoid “processed concoctions,” no matter what the label may claim (“no trans fats,” “low cholesterol,” “less sugar,” “reduced sodium,” “high in antioxidants” and so forth).
As Mr. Pollan puts it, “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.”
Also avoid foods advertised on television, imitation foods and food products that make health claims. No natural food is simply a collection of nutrients, and a processed food stripped of its natural goodness to which nutrients are then added is no bargain for your body.
Some memorable rules:
Cook: “Cooking for yourself,” he writes, “is the only sure way to take back control of your diet from the food scientists and food processors.” Home cooking need not be arduous or very time-consuming, and you can make up time spent at the stove with time saved not visiting doctors or shopping for new clothes to accommodate an expanding girth
do all your eating at a table, not at a desk, while working, watching television or driving. If you’re not paying attention to what you’re eating, you’re likely to eat more than you realize
“Stop eating before you’re full” includes both practicing portion control and eat slowly to the point of satiation, not fullness.
And my personal reminder (cos he obviously wrote this book only for me haha): “No snacks, no seconds, no sweets except on days that begin with the letter S.”
And it’s that personal point I think Pollan probably needed to add to if I can stand next to professor of science journalism from my humble position. We’re all unique. Sure we should all eat food (so not clown food!), not too much (which is largely our problem, but ‘mostly plsnts’ doesn’t work for everyone. For me it depends on the time of the month, the season, my exercise and work output? Maybe ‘eat as you train and think with the season’. Summer shade just don’t cut it in winter and slow cooked meats in summer have the same nose twitch!
it’s good to feel good and applying good rules to an ever growing food offering amidst sun ever growing population sure needs some guidelines. But we can then use those to attune how we feel with what’s in season and then if the rule applies you’ve instinctual and pragmatic backup to go for launch!
