Someone recently recommended that I check out Michael Pollan, and the recent article he had in the New York Times titled Unhappy Meals. It’s a terribly good, and frightening read. As a result I ordered his new book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
The article begins with some very solid advice on eating -’Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.’ It goes on to expand on that statement, and to give a historical analysis for why Americans are moved to eat too much.
The article ends with nine great points on eating, and living, in a more healthy manner. I will paraphrase them here, but do yourself a favor and read the whole thing. It’s brilliant.
1. Eat food. Though in our current state of confusion, this is much easier said than done. So try this: Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims. They’re apt to be heavily processed, and the claims are often dubious at best.
3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number–or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market; you also won’t find food harvested long ago and far away.
5. Pay more, eat less. The American food system has for a century devoted its energies and policies to increasing quantity and reducing price, not to improving quality.
6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. Scientists may disagree on what’s so good about plants–the antioxidants? Fiber? Omega-3s?–but they do agree that they’re probably really good for you and certainly can’t hurt.
7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks. Confounding factors aside, people who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than we are.
8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden.
9. Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet.
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