Food Rules by Michael Pollan

In The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan gave us all the reasons we need to eat better and why our food system isn't as healthy as we think it is. In Food Rules, he takes his stripped-down advice, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants," and gives us some more tools to undo the ills of the Western diet on a personal level. Most of the rules are aimed at putting the ritual back into eating, as Pollan argues that we've stopped respecting all the ways the food is more than fuel to us: it binds us as a culture, allows us to socialize, and regulates our days, among other things.

The rules in this book, many of which are repetitive since they all boil down to the same idea of eating whole foods and taking time to prepare meals yourself rather than eating fast, processed foods, came mostly from New York Times readers whom Pollan solicited through Tara Parker-Pope's Wellness blog. They represent a wide range of cultures and generations, all of whom have successfully dealt with the questions of what to eat and how. Pollan breaks the book into three sections: the first is designed to help readers chose whole foods over highly processed ones, the second offers guidance on which of those whole food you should eat, once you've narrowed it down, and the third and final section is about building a practice around eating that will help you eat less and, according to Pollan, enjoy it more.

I've adopted some of these rules for myself, like "Eat your colors," "Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce," "Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored," "The banquet is in the first bite," and "Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it." I'm sure you will find something in here that speaks to your own habits, too.

Pollan, Michael. Food Rules. New York: Penguin, 2009. 140 pp.