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CommentsFood Rules to Live By:
Can You Say No to "Edible Foodlike Substances"?
By Eve QuesnelPublished: July 19, 2010
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He’s at it again. Teaching us, hammering away at the importance of growing and eating food the right way, or at least the practices that are most beneficial to the environment and our bodies. Likely the most renowned writer on the subject at this time, Michael Pollan’s latest foodie publication diverts from his latter detailed narratives — “Botany of Desire,” “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” and “In Defense of Food” – to a slimmer pocketbook manual. In “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual,” Pollan lists 64 rules followed by brief one-paragraph explanations. Generally, the rules teach us what to eat, what not to eat, and how to eat.
It’s the type of book that can be read in snippets, even out of order. For example, rule number 10: “Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not.” Followed by the explanation: “Imitation butter — aka margarine — is the classic example. To make something like nonfat cream cheese that contains neither cream nor cheese requires an extreme degree of processing; such products should be labeled as imitations and avoided. The same rule applies to soy-based mock meats, artificial sweeteners and fake fats and starches.”
By the way, there are now some 40 types of sugar used in processed food. Or see rule number 12: “Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.” Really? How would we buy oats or mayonnaise or black beans and rice? His point of course is to avoid processed foods, which Pollan calls “edible foodlike substances,” or “industrial novelties” that are strategically placed in the center aisles that our carts instinctually roll through in obedient routine (Pollan claims there are 17,000 new products that grace the supermarket shelves each year).
Some rules don’t require an explanation, such as “It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.” And: “It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language. (Think Big Mac, Cheetos, or Pringles.)” Rule number 7: “Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.” A box of Cheerios lists Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, which I must admit sounds like a chemical added to swimming pools.
In the “How should I eat?” section, Pollan lists all those things we already know about eating but don’t necessarily follow: “…eat less.” In eating less we learn that “calorie restriction” has slowed aging in animals plus many researchers believe restricting calories offers the strongest link between diet and cancer prevention. In eating less, before we’re full — somewhere between 67 and 80 percent full — we finish a meal no longer hungry. So why eat more? One suggestion is to serve four ounces of beef and eight ounces of veggies, not the other way around. Another straightforward suggestion, “cook.”
Pollan’s new manual wouldn’t be a Pollan book without addressing corn (and especially high-fructose corn syrup), health claims, low-fat products, and, conversely, plants and farmers markets. In “Food Rules,” he hits them all; his top arguments are many of the same tenets he writes in detail in his previous books. He also tries to get us to eat together, at a table: “The shared meal elevates eating from a biological process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community.”
What I love about Pollan (and I’m a big fan) is his simplicity. In essence, he looks back to how people ate before large supermarkets and processed foods took center stage and wonders how the heck we got so out of whack. His mission, and he’s been on a mission for quite some time now, is to return to simpler days, to merely eating REAL food, not food made with modern science, and to eating less than what we’ve become accustomed to eating. Rule 6: “Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.” Rule 34: “Sweeten and salt your food yourself.”
The idiom we wait for and anticipate comes into play in rule 30: “Eat well-grown food from healthy soil.” Meaning organic, of course. Although Pollan is a big proponent of all things organic, he’s realistic and provides a caveat to the organic ideology in explaining the exceptions of farmers and ranchers who are not certified organic yet provide “excellent food … that should not be overlooked.” Add to eating organically, Pollan highlights eating locally because even organic food that is trucked cross-country will lose its nutritional quality.
Besides a quick read, “Food Rules” is a great gift to give to friends and family members of any age: the teen who’s interested in eating healthily (is that an oxymoron?), the college graduate who will start cooking his/her own meals, or the mom or dad who puts dinner on the table every night. Inevitably, the grandma or grandpa (or great grandma or great grandpa) will understand Pollan’s food rules the best. In their day they cultivated gardens, took their groceries home in cloth sacks, and spent a bunch of time preparing meals with real food. They even sat at tables, without TVs, iPods, Kindles, or Droids glaring brightly, with all family members in attendance. What a concept!
Buy it. Borrow it. Read it. And share with loved ones. In other words, Book it!
Addendum: As I write this review, a San Francisco Chronicle headline reads: “Some SpaghettiO’s, Marie Callender frozen dinners recalled.” SpaghettiO’s with meatballs weren’t adequately heated during processing, and Marie Callender’s cheesy chicken and rice frozen meals pose a risk of Salmonella infection. As Pollan picks up his morning Chron, I’m guessing he’s nodding his head and saying to himself, “Yep, no surprise there.”
To get more in depth with Pollan’s ideology check out his other works, “Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food,” previously reviewed in Moonshine Ink.
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