Michael Pollan's rules from In Defense of Food

by Shayna Glick, Posted Mar 19th 2008 @ 12:05PM

Squashes and green beans on a table at a farmers market.

You can find a lot of information online these days, especially about food. Everyone is either trying to tell you what to eat, or that it doesn't matter what you eat. It's really hard to tell what information is correct and what can be disregarded.

When the information is coming from a celebrity foodie and someone who has made a career out of studying how humans eat, maybe we should at least take a look at it.

I came across an article on Julie's Health Club about a new rating system a grocery store chain in Illinois will be implementing. It's a 100 point scale that will tell the consumer how healthy that item is. This is all fine and good, but the good part was at the bottom of the page. The author included a list of recommendations from Michael Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food. The list makes sense and is humorous, so it's easy to follow and sticks with you (at least in my opinion).

We all have to make our own food choices. I'm not saying "follow this list or else." Nor am I saying that it is the last word in deciding what you should eat. I am only suggesting that it's worth consideration, and it makes sense to me. Michael Pollan's list is after the jump.

DON'T EAT ANYTHING YOUR GREAT-GRANDMOTHER WOULDN'T RECOGNIZE AS FOOD.
No Go-Gurt Portable Yogurt tubes. (She wouldn't be able to identify high-fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, kosher gelatin, carrageenan, tricalcium phosphate, natural and artificial flavors, etc.) No "protein waters," "nondairy creamers" or foods that never grow stale.
AVOID FOOD PRODUCTS CONTAINING INGREDIENTS THAT ARE A) UNFAMILIAR, B) UNPRONOUNCABLE, C) MORE THAN FIVE IN NUMBER, OR THAT INCLUDE D) HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. Pollan's example: Sara Lee's Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread, which fails every test proposed by this rule. "If not for the indulgence of the Food and Drug Administration, (it) could not even be labeled "bread," he wrote.
AVOID PRODUCTS THAT MAKE HEALTH CLAIMS.
If a food has a health claim, it probably has a package and that means it's very likely processed. Moreover, the FDA's "qualified" health claims" are all but meaningless.
SHOP THE PERIPHERIES OF THE SUPERMARKET AND STAY OUT OF THE MIDDLE.
"Processed foods products dominate the center aisles of the store while the cases of ostensibly fresh food--dairy, produce, meat and fish--line the walls," Pollan wrote. Be careful though, because high-fructose corn syrup lurks in the dairy case.
GET OUT OF THE SUPERMARKET WHENEVER POSSIBLE.
"You won't find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer's market. Also look into CSA (community supported agriculture), in which you can subscribe to a farm and receive a box of produce.)"

Filed Under: On the Blogs, Ingredients, Celebrities, How To
Tags: vegetables

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-19-2008 @2:45PM Patrick said... More importantly, I think the author of that article was pointing out that any rating scale is bound to only add more confusion to an already crowded landscape of jargon. Labeling everything, from "cookies to carrots," is sort of senseless when you consider that 90% of cookies on store shelves wouldn't even meet Pollan's definition of "food," much less be worth placing on any sort of nutrition scale.
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3-19-2008 @4:05PM Chris Furniss said... My grandmother probably wouldn't be able to identify fois gras or sweetbreads or tripe or anything fancy as food either. That's not a very good rule. While I appreciate turning people off of processed stuff, my grandmother isn't the best source to look to for food advice.
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3-19-2008 @4:20PM twizzle said... I think the first rule is the best one. Of course we don't all have grandmothers to use as solid reference points, and I think that's over-analyzing it. All he's really trying to say is, think of food two generations back, before the processed food boom. I say think even further, if you can. Rule 4, about staying on the outskirts of the market, I've heard before and I've unconsciously adapted due to economic restraints. Bulk dried food like beans, hearty raw veggies for stews and roasts, and large cuts of meat go so much further in the kitchen. I still have a few 'inner market' indulgences ("instant" hashbrowns, instant cocoa), but I'm slowly weaning myself. Obviously this means more cooking, but it's been worth it!
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3-19-2008 @4:33PM JustaTech said... Maybe it would be better to interpret Rule 1 as food that *someone's* great-grandmother would recognize. None of my ancestors would have gone for sushi (but lutkafisk would be ok), but there are plenty of people out there who's great-grandmothers would know sushi, or tripe, or foie gras.
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