Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

I Love Michael Pollan. I have read all of his books and eagerly await his next one, Cooked, due out the end of April. Food Rules: An Eater's Manual is the best one to start with. He stands by the fact that eating does not have to be complicated. He actually has a list of 64 "food rules" that can help you decide what you should eat and what you should avoid. The three that really sum it up are the title of this post.

Eat Food.

When Michael Pollan tells you to eat food, he is telling you to eat 'real' food! One of my favorite lines of his is "Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." He goes on to use GoGurt as an example! Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry. I love that he uses the term 'food products'. He wants you to stick to food that nature intended you to consume. You don't need high-fructose corn syrup. You should stay away from food products that have some form of sugar in the top three ingredients. Avoid processed food with more than 5 ingredients. Avoid the ingredients that you can't pronounce. 

Not Too Much.

Stop eating before you're full. Eat when you're hungry, not when you're bored. Eat Slowly. Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it. The slower you eat, the less you will eat. Eat a proper portion, not a super sized one. By not eating too much food, you can afford to pay more for the food that you do buy. Pay the money for grass fed beef, free of antibiotics and hormones. Michael Pollan says "Eat animals that have themselves eaten well." Buy the organic apples instead of the ones that have been heavily sprayed with pesticides.

Mostly Plants.

Eat all of the fruits and vegetables that you want. Leaves are full of nutrients! Think spinach and kale! Eat your colors! The more colorful your dinner plate, the better. Eat well-grown food from healthy soil. Organic is not a gimmick! Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food. We eat entirely too much in America. Another Pollan quote "Eating what stands on one leg (mushrooms and plant foods) is better than eating what stands on two legs (fowl), which is better than eating what stands on four legs (cows, pigs and other mammals)."

This is only a preview of his feelings toward food. I agree with everything that he has to say! He does a great job explaining what he means by what he says. You don't need fad diets and confusing health advice. Just stop and think about the food first. 

Eat mindfully.

Michael Pollan Books