My five favorite (of Pollans) Food Rules:
• #3 Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human being would keep in the pantry. Pollan remarks “if you wouldn’t cook with it yourself, why let others use these ingredients to cook for you?”
• #23 Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food. Americans eat too much meat; I suggest trying to keep animal protein to once a day a portion no bigger than a blackberry.
• #37 The whiter the bread the sooner you’ll be dead. I love this rule. I love this rule because the whites (bread, pasta, sugar) contribute to systemic inflammation which leads to all major diseases . But really I love this rule because it rhymes!
• #39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself. Cookie monster? Use oats and dark chocolate chips when baking. French Fry fan? Try sweet potatoes and oven-frying. And it’s not only about healthy modifications, it’s about the ingredients mentioned in rule #3 (above) that will be absent from your homemade junk food.
• #58 Do all your eating at the table. This comes from a section of the book entitled “how should I eat.” This is my favorite part of the book as it focuses on what I call eating style. Eating style: where we eat, the pace of our eating, the distractions present while eating is an overlooked component of eating. Mr. Pollan is asking us to pay attention to our eating. And in case you were trying to fudge it he says “no, a desk it not a table.”
What are your personal food rules? Which of the above favorite 5 rules resonates with you?
these are great rules....especially about junk food.
ReplyDeletei have to say though, a little white bread on thee side can't hurt much (although it would be better were it whole grain). as long as it's just flour, water, yeast....I'm ok with it. but what do i know?