In Defense Of Food

"Don't eat anything your grandmother or great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" wrote Michael Pollan in his book, Omnivore's Dilemma. I came across his wise advice while researching the real food or whole food movement.

I just read his more recent volume, In Defense Of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. I have to laugh...and recognize his philosophy's simplicity as truth.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

"...eating a little meat isn't going to kill you, though it might be better approached as a side dish than a main. "

"You're better off eating whole fresh foods rather than processed food products."

"Avoid foods that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it's not really food."

"The plain fact that the chronic diseases that now kill most of us can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food."

"Letting the scientists decide the menu would be a mistake."

"Nutritionism supplies the ultimate justification for processing food...fake foods can be made even more nutritious than the real thing."

"Nutritionism has become the official ideology of the FDA." "...presuaded thousands of Americans to trade all pleasure in eating for health-promoting dietary regimens."

"McGovern "Goals"...National Academy Of Sciences report...dietary guidelines of the American Cancer and Heart Associations...US Food Pyramid....direct responsibility for creating the public health crisis that now confronts us."

"Declines in deaths from heart disease is due not to changes in lifestyle, such as diet, but to improvements in medical care."

"What people don't eat matters as much as what they do."

"It might be wise to eat more plants and less meat." "People underestimate their food intake all the time."

"When you cook at home you seldom find yourself reaching for ethoxylated diglycerides or high fructose corn syrup."

"If you manage to just eat food most of the time, whatever that food is, you'll probably be okay."

"...using meat more as a flavor principle than as a main course, treating it as a condiment for vegetables."

"Organic Oreos are not a health food."

"Pay more, eat less."

"How often would you eat french fries if you had to peel, wash, cut and fry them yourself-and then cleanup the mess?"

"People tend to eat more when they can have exactly what they want."

"Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does."

"Eat deliberately."

"Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup. They have crossed from foods to food products. "

"Avoid food products that make health claims....to make a health claim it must have a package, so right off the bat it's more likely to be processed than a whole food."

"Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle." "Get out of the supermarket whenever possible." "You are what what you eat eats too."

"Eat mostly plants, especially leaves."