Feb
22
An Eater’s Manual for Anyone Who Eats
February 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Posted by: Kathleen Daniel
Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto put forth three simple “rules” for eating healthily while being mindful of the impact your food choices make on the planet: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” His latest book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual uses these categories, but adds what he’s learned about the psychology of food and eating. “The games we play with ourselves about food, about how we confuse lots of food with lots of food experience. They’re not the same thing. You can have an intense food experience with less food. Europeans have intense food experiences but eat less food.” Pollan questions the premise that science is the only authority we have on matters having to do with food in our bodies. Long before nutrition science, culture guided us, with what’s now relegated to old wives’ tales. His goal is to resurrect that cultural wisdom, and the book is full of the rules of our grandmothers’ – 64 of them.
Eat food is devoted to rules that help you distinguish real food from edible food-like substances. “If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.” “It’s not food if it’s served 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.
Mostly plants, is about making distinctions between foods, eating meat, and the kinds of foods to eat. “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.” For instance, eat the French fries you love – as long as you cook it yourself, a natural deterrent that helps create balance. And his favorite rule: “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”
Not too much is about the manners of eating, the cultural rules that prevent overeating, things like “Stop before you’re full,” and “Buy smaller plates and glasses.”
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