Food Rules

These tips are taken from (some paraphrased) Michael Pollan's "Food Rules". The book goes into detail about each of these (and more- there are 64, total). Some of these are funny but they are all very true!

1. Eat food. Mostly Plants. Not too much.
2. Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
3. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot.
4. Avoid food products that make health claims.
5. Pay more, eat less.
6. Eat slowly, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure.
7. If it arrives through the car window, it isn't food.
8. Eat all the junk food you want--as long as you cook it yourself.
9. Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup.
10. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
11. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. (Use the Farmer's Market)
12. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
13. You are what, what you eat, eats too.
14. Eat well-grown food from healthy soils.
15. Do all your eating at a table.
16. Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does. (Think "snack shop" at Chevron!)
17. Consult your gut. (Eat until you’re 4/5 full.)
18. Cook and, if you can, plant a garden.
19. Be the kind of person who takes supplements. (Although don’t necessarily take supplements).
20. Eat more like the French. Or the Italians. Or the Japanese. Or the Indians. Or the Greeks.
21. Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism.
22. Don’t look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet.
23. Have a glass of wine with dinner.
24. Pay more, eat less.
25. Eat Meals.
26. Eat wild foods when you can: Wild greens have higher levels of useful phytochemicals and omega-3 fatty acids. Wild fish have higher omega-3 levels than grain-fed farmed fish.
27. If it’s a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.
28. Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of your milk.
29. Buy smaller glasses and plates.
30. It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language. (Think Big Mac, Chee-tos or Pringles.)
31. Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.
32. Break the rules once in a while.