ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Michael Pollan's Food Rules List An Eater's Manual

Updated on August 3, 2010
Photo courtesy of karimian's at Flickr
Photo courtesy of karimian's at Flickr

"Food Rules: An Eater's Manual" is the latest book by Michael Pollan. Pollan is a Knight Professor of Journalism at University of California -Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and he is also the Director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. In addition to teaching, he lectures widely on food, agriculture, and gardening but it is for his insight and philosophy on our food and diet that he has become a near household name leading to him being named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2010.

His two books prior to ”Food Rules”,“In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” have earned him many accolades. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” was one of New York Times ten best books of 2006 and it also won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and made it through to the final of for the National Book Critics Circle.

Pollan has summed up his philosophy in just seven simple words “"Eat food -not too much mostly plants." and “Food Rules” gives us 64 rules in just 139 pages by which to live this philosophy.

So why should we follow the 64 rules laid down by Pollan in the 139 pages of “Food Rules” to adapt our shopping and eating habits.

  • Americans and others who eat the typical “Western” diet high in processed foods, meat, added fat, sugar and refined grains suffer from the “Western” diseases of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
  • People who consume traditional diets, free of the highly processed foods that line our supermarket shelves, experience these diseases at much, much lower rates.
  • As countries with traditional cuisine have become more Westernized and exposed to our way of eating they have become increasingly likely to suffer from the Western diseases.
  • Those people who turn away from our Western eating habits often experience a rapid and significant improvement in their health.

Are there any surprises in the 64 rules – perhaps one or two but what these rules do is us provide a common sense approach to eating and shopping which many have said sounds just like the sort of sound guidance that their Mother or Grandmother would provide.

To give you some examples here are twelve of Pollan’s Food Rules

  1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food
  2. Avoid foods that have some form of sugar or sweetener listed among the top three ingredients
  3. Stop eating before you're full and try to eat only to 67 to 80 per cent capacity
  4. Don’t get your “fuel” from the same place your car does
  5. Do all your eating at a table, not at a desk, while working, watching television or driving
  6. Keep healthy things on hand if you need to snack between meals
  7. Eat food cooked by humans, not corporations
  8. Buy a freezer
  9. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well
  10. Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk
  11. Wherever possible buy fresh food at farmers' markets
  12. Break the Rules once in a while (My favorite!!!!)

If you found this article interesting you may also enjoy reading the series that I've written reviewing some of the more popular weight loss and lifestyle programs.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)