I just finished reading (or listening to) Michael Pollan’s excellent book In Defense of Food
In it, he provides an excellent rationale why you should change what and 
how you eat. A steady diet of what he calls “imitation food” is what he believes is responsible for the Western diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc. He suggests that you can improve your life and health by implementing a few food rules or algorithms as he calls them.
Food Rules to Eat By
The eating advice for the entire book can be summed up in the following 7 words.
“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants”
This advice is explained a little deeper in the third section of the book. Here are ways you can put this mantra in practical action.
1. Only eat food your great-great grandmother would recognize as food. (e.g Go-gurt is not food)
2. Consider things food only if it meets the following criteria.
- It has 5 ingredients or less. (Home-made recipes with more ingredients are ok).
- It has ingredient names you can pronounce
- It doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup
- It will eventually rot (Twinkies are out)
3. Buy foods only on the perimeter of the supermarket
4. Don’t buy your food where you get your gas
5. Eat meals, don’t snack
6. Eat with other people
7. Only eat at a table. (Your desk is not a table)
8. Use small plates & never have seconds
9. Cook your own food
10. Eat until you are 80% full
11. Drink a little alcohol every day – (shown to fight diseases)
12. Eat more plants than meat & specifically leafy plants rather than seeds
13. Eat a variety of foods including wild game
One of the things I like about the book In Defense of Food
I’m going to try and modify the way I eat because if I’m going to live until 107, I’ll need all the help I can get.
If you’ve read the book, what did you think? Should every joggler / runner / juggler start eating the same?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Oh my gosh, I just started doing this (as of this summer). I love it. I even use a 1940′s cookbook sometimes. Thanks for doing this post!