Earlier today, I announced I plan to write a series about Michael Pollan’s book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. Let’s look at rules 1-3.
The first 21 rules fall into a section called, “What Should I Eat? (Eat Food.).”
Rule 1: Eat food.
Pollan writes that
“this section will help you distinguish real foods — the plants, animals, and fungi people have been eating for generations — from the highly processed products of modern food science that, increasingly, have come to dominate the American food marketplace and diet.”
He suggests we choose real food instead of one of the 17,000 new products that appear in supermarkets each year — many derived from corn, soy and new chemical additives.
New chemical additives, of course, might have unforeseen effects on our biology, despite their initial safety approval — after all, the rules are always changing, but most real foods are perfectly safe for most people.
Rule 2: Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
Pollan’s example is colored yogurt in tubes, which might perplex a shopper ca. 1900 — “is it a food or is it toothpaste?” Pollan asks. A glue? He points out the many reasons to avoid such “foodish products,” including additives, corn and soy derivatives, and plastics in which they are packaged (“some of which are probably toxic”).
He also points out that many of these new “foodish” items contain unhealthy things, like added fat, sugar or MSG, that make them taste fabulous so that we want more and more, tending to overeat.
And Pollan notes that if your great-grandmother was a terrible cook or eater, you can substitute someone else’s grandmother — “a Sicilian or French one works particularly well.” This is a Eurocentric perspective, however — how about just saying “Eat food someone’s grandma would recognize.” (I’m not about to give up my perfectly real sushi for this rule, and pho is as real as it gets, even though my great-grandma wouldn’t have known a thing about it.)
Rule 3: Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.
This one speaks for itself — all those crazy chemicals? Avoid ‘em.
If you want more detailed instructions, check out this list of additives that you should avoid or use caution with, courtesy of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Or for a graphic depiction of the big words that go into “simple” processed foods, look at this poster of everything in a Ham & Cheese Hot Pockets, by artist Justin Perricone:
… I see at least 3 of the “avoid” additives on that poster.
How do you do?
I think rule #3 is the hardest. Today, for instance, for breakfast I had coffee with milk, homemade yogurt with homemade raspberry syrup (made, however, with Splenda) and granola; for dinner, we are likely having octopus and tomatoes over pasta, or we might have lasagna.
For lunch, however, I’m likely to be in a rush and break out one of the frozen meals I have in the freezer — sesame chicken. I think Grandma would recognize it as food — rice and breaded chicken, with vegetables. The ingredients list appears to have only one “avoid” item from the CSPI list.
Rule #3 is sketchy here — dextrin? maltodextrin? dextrose? OK, those are sugars, so we could stretch and call them “sugar.” But “extractives of” spices? What are those? Not to mention soy protein isolate and medium chain triglycerides – ugh. Fortunately, it could be worse. But it’s good motivation to dig into some of the multiple-portion dinners we have planned this week so we can have leftovers for lunch.
Are these rules challenging to you? Do you think they’re worthwhile?
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Comments ( 6 )
[...] creamer. It contains two items on the “avoid” list, and the only item that would pass Pollan’s rules 2 and 3 is “sugar.” [...]
Friday Wrap-Up: “I Confess” edition | Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on Mar 05 10 at 5:11 amI love your disclaimers on sushi and pho. Thank goodness we have even more real (and yummy) food choices now than our great grandmothers did. I think having more adventurous food tastes actually helps people eat better — we eat a wider variety of fresh foods that way.
Yogurt in a tube — I have never understood that one.
A.J. added these pithy words on
Mar 02 10 at
4:47 pm
I think you hit the nail on the head — the biggest issue for me in trying to eat real food is planning and time. I identify with your frozen sesame chicken, I think we need to recognize that there are going to be times we are rushed or under-prepared and try to have a back-up system in place we can live with. Whether it is stocking up on prepared meals that are not chock full of unwanted chemicals or actually making and freezing emergency meals yourself, what we don’t need is to feel like we fail every time we aren’t perfect. “Diets” have shown us how counterproductive that can be. I had decided not to keep much in my pantry and only buy what I would be using up soon but now I’ve slowly started to add back more considered items that can fill the gap between good intentions and reality. Canned salmon in the cupboard, capers in the fridge, brown rice in the freezer. Otherwise, those take-out menus start looking pretty tempting.
Robin added these pithy words on
Mar 02 10 at
5:22 pm
If you’re still looking for a lunch option, yes, they’re a little pricier, but the Kashi Sweet & Sour Chicken is yummy and filling, but not full of crazy ingredients.
Melissa added these pithy words on
Mar 02 10 at
5:25 pm
Thank you for understanding my frozen meal. When I got home and looked, it was even plainer than I thought, but still a couple of mystery items. @Melissa, I do like the Kashi meals! Now if only all of these didn’t come in plastic — Amy’s meals don’t.
Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on
Mar 02 10 at
7:23 pm
In many people’s opinion, Splenda should be on the list of things to avoid as well. Check out http://www.mercola.com for his opinion and scientific evidence.
Carla added these pithy words on
Mar 22 10 at
1:08 am
