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Six Rules for Eating Wisely

Posted by Elise on Jun 8, 2006

Filed under Observations

Six Rules for Eating Wisely

In the June 4, 2006 online edition of Time Magazine, Michael Pollan has written an article entitled, Six Rules for Eating Wisely. For those of you unfamiliar with Michael, he is the author of The Botany of Desire and most recently, The Omnivore's Dilemma. Michael's Time article hits the mark, and is well worth a read. In short, the six rules are (with my notes in italics):

1) Don't eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
Well my German great-great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize the chipotle in adobo, and my Mexican great-great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize sauerkraut. But point taken.

2) Avoid foods containing high-fructose corn syrup.
Can't think of anything that contains it in our pantry or fridge, unless maybe some of the liqueurs? No soda pop here.

3) Spend more, eat less.
Spend more is hard to do when you are short on cash, but you can certainly eat better for the money. When I was a starving student I would beg bones from our local butcher and make my own stock, add a bunch of lentils, some onions, garlic and carrots, and live off of that for a week.

4) Pay no heed to nutritional science or the health claims on packages.
We don't buy much packaged food.

5) Shop at the farmers' market.
Every Saturday morning.

6) Eat with pleasure.
And with friends and family, absolutely!

To get Michael's reasoning behind the rules, check out the article

(Hat tip: Slashfood)

Links:
USDA Listing of Farmers Markets across the Country
Michael Ruhlman on High Fructose Corn Syrup

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12 Comments

Um, little problem with a couple of those things:
"Spend more, eat less." - How about just don't spend more, but still eat less? Not only save money, but make your buck stretch more.
"Shop at the farmer's market." - Kind of hard to do for most of us in the US; farmers' markets aren't exactly at the corner of every block.

Posted by: Connie on June 8, 2006 9:37 PM

Thanks for the link - I really enjoyed this article and agree with everything he says.

As far as the spend more thing - I think that it means that you can spend a touch more but end up with lots of delicious and healthy leftovers too. You can buy a whole chicken - get several meals out of it and a stock. And as you pointed out - it is possible to eat healthy without spending more. In the end I think it is more about convenience.

He put France in a positive light in his article and though the market culture is still quite strong (I go three times a week) the big supermarkets and processed foods are becoming more and more present - and the French are getting bigger.

Posted by: Sarah on June 9, 2006 3:05 AM

re corn syrup, you'll find it in unexpected and unnecessary places ... like canned tomatoes ... it's infiltrated most ... okay I don't know that so will say MANY ... commercial foods that aren't so obvious as soda / pop. BTW the print article includes a sidebar featuring our very own food blogger Barbara Fisher from Tigers & Strawberries ...

Posted by: Alanna on June 9, 2006 3:59 AM

Farmers Markets are more and more popular.

My old commute of 1hr I used to pass three of them, each on a different day.

Posted by: Travis on June 9, 2006 5:57 AM

Are you kidding?? THere are tons of farmers markets all over colorado. You just have to look for them. THey may not me as close as the corner grocer but the longer walk would probably be good for you!

Posted by: Alicia on June 9, 2006 6:38 AM

When we lived in Southern Maryland, we went to the Amish Market in Charlotte Hall all the time. Great produce, cheeses, butter, and baked goods. It was awesome! I wish there were something as good in Hampton Roads, but alas no.

Posted by: Andrea on June 9, 2006 7:16 AM

Elise:

Thank you for posting this. I love reading your blog and especially enjoyed today's note. It is unfortunate that we are so far removed from our food source. I live in Canada and am lucky enough to be able to order meat directly from the farmer. It's good for the farmer because he gets a higher price per pound than he would from wholesale markets, and it's good for the consumer who gets a reasonable price and knows the animals are well cared for.

BTW, I ordered Michael Pollan's book - can't wait to read it.

Darlene

Posted by: Darlene on June 9, 2006 9:06 AM

I would add to the no high fructose corn syrup, no hydrogenated oil. This is lurking in lots of stuff as well, but it is possible to never eat it if you are willing. My husband and I cut out hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup a couple years ago, and he immediately lost weight (I was not so lucky, but I never lose nor gain weight).

Posted by: Zoe on June 9, 2006 10:28 AM

I think the whole point he was making about "spend more, eat less" was that a lot of the cheaper, processed foods have little nutritional value and thus you have to eat more in order to be healthy and satisfied -- if you can at all. By spending a little more money on higher quality foods, you can get more nutrition and need less food.

Posted by: Cindy on June 9, 2006 11:32 AM

In Northern Virginia in some of the most suburbian sprawl there ever was, there's at least 10 farmers markets each weekend. You'd probably be surprised.

Posted by: Alex on June 9, 2006 8:25 PM

If you buy bread from the grocery store, check the nutritional label on it. I had to examine the labels of every brand of 100% whole wheat bread at the supermarket before I found one that didn't use high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener.

Posted by: Jan on June 10, 2006 6:24 AM

Here's a good article that explains exactly what high fructose corn syrup is: http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html

And here is a list (more foods will be added) of food that contain HFCS: http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2005/06/09/foods_and_products_containing_high_fruct

I've decided to avoid foods with this ingredient. As long as I am avoiding processed foods, that should be easy enough to do. (avoiding processed foods these days does require a certain amount of effort) I wish I still lived in Canada, when I went there last week I checked labels for HFCS. Most foods that contain it in the US, don't contain it there. Even soda pop is made with sugar in Canada. :-)

BTW, when 7-up claimed to go "all natural" my husband and I checked out the ingredients listed on a bottle of it while we were at the grocery store. It contains HFCS! How is that natural? SO, I have been tossing around the idea of writing to the company. Now I see that the Center for Science in the Public Interest is on top of it and is suing SchweppesCadbury for the claim. http://cspinet.org/new/200605111.html

Posted by: Tara on June 10, 2006 6:32 AM

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