Friday, March 30, 2012

FOOD RULES - RULE #57

from, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," by Michael Pollan

*****

PART III: How Should I Eat? (Not too much.)

Rule #57 - Don't get your fuel from the place your car does.

American gas stations now make more money inside selling food (and cigarettes) than they do outside selling gasoline. But consider what kind of food this is: Except for perhaps the milk and water, it's all highly processed., imperishable snack foods and extravagantly sweetened soft drinks in hefty twenty-ounce bottle. Gas station shave become "process corn stations": ethanol outside for your car and high-fructose corn syrup inside for you. Don't eat here.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Monday, March 26, 2012

FOOD RULES - RULE #56

from, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," by Michael Pollan

*****

PART III: How Should I Eat? (Not too much.)

Rule #56 - Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods.

Remember the old taboo against "between-meal snacks"? Decades of determined food marketing have driven the phrase from our consciousness. But the bulk of the 500 calories Americans have added to their daily diet since 1980 (the start of the obesity epidemic) have come in the form of snack foods laden with salt, fat, and sugar. If you are going to snack, try to limit yourself to fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Friday, March 23, 2012

FOOD RULES - RULE #55

from, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," by Michael Pollan

*****

PART III: How Should I Eat? (Not too much.)

Rule #55 - Eat meals.

This recommendation sounds almost as ridiculous as "eat food," but nowadays it too no longer goes without saying. We are snacking more and eating fewer meals together. Sociologists and market researchers who study American eating habits no longer organize their results around the increasingly quaint concept of the meal: They now measure "eating occasions" and report that we have added to the traditional Big Three - breakfast, lunch, and dinner - an as yet untitled fourth daily eating occasion that lasts all day long: the constant sipping and snacking we do while watching TV, driving, working, and so on. (One study found that among Americans ages eighteen to fifty nearly a fifth of all eating takes place in the car.) In theory, grazing - eating five or six small meals over the course of the day - makes sense, but in practice, people eating this way often end up eating more, and eating more processed snack foods. So unless you can confine your grazing to real food, stick to meals.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Monday, March 19, 2012

FOOD RULES - RULE #54

from, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," by Michael Pollan

*****

PART III: How Should I Eat? (Not too much.)

Rule #54 - "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper."

Eating a big meal late in the day sounds unhealthy, though in fact the science isn't conclusive. Some research suggests that eating close to bedtime elevates triglyceride levels in the blood, a market for heart disease that is also implicated in weight gain. Also, the more physically active you are after a meal, the more of the energy in that meal your muscles will burn before your body stores it as fat. But some researchers believe a calorie is a calorie, no matter what time of day it is consumed. Even if this is true, however, front-loading your eating in the early part of the day will probably result in fewer total calories consumed, since people are generally less hungry in the morning. A related adage: "After lunch, sleep awhile; after dinner, walk a mile."

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Friday, March 16, 2012

FOOD RULES - RULE #53

from, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," by Michael Pollan

*****

PART III: How Should I Eat? (Not too much.)

Rule #53 - Serve a proper portion and don't go back for seconds.

You lose all control over portion size when you have second helpings. So what is a proper portion? There is folklore offering some sensible rules of thumb based on your size. One adage says you should never eat a portion of animal protein bigger than your fist. Another says that you should eat no more food at a meal than would fit into the bowl formed by your hands when cupped together. If you are going to break the rule on seconds, at least wait several minutes before doing it: Yu may well discover you don't really need seconds, of if you do, not as much as you thought.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Monday, March 12, 2012

FOOD RULES - RULE #52

from, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," by Michael Pollan

*****

PART III: How Should I Eat? (Not too much.)

Rule #52 - Buy smaller plates and glasses.

The bigger the portion, the more we will eat - upward of 30 percent more. Food marketers know this, so they supersize our portions as a way to get us to buy more. But we don't have to supersize our portions at home, and shouldn't. One researcher found that simply switching from a twelve-inch to a ten-inch dinner plate caused people to reduce their consumption by 22 percent.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Friday, March 9, 2012

FOOD RULES - RULE #51

from, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," by Michael Pollan

*****

PART III: How Should I Eat? (Not too much.)

Rule #51 - Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.

This is a pretty good metric that honours the cook for the care you or he or she has put into the meal at the same time that it helps you to slow down and savour it.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Monday, March 5, 2012

FOOD RULES - RULE #50

from, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," by Michael Pollan

*****

PART III: How Should I Eat? (Not too much.)

Rule #50 - "The banquet is in the first bite."

Taking this adage to heart will help you enjoy your food and eat more slowly. No other bite will taste as good as the first, and every subsequent bite will progressively diminish in satisfaction. Economists call this the law of diminishing marginal utility, and it argues for savouring the first few bites and stopping sooner than you otherwise might. For as you go on, you'll be getting more calories., but not necessarily more pleasure.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Friday, March 2, 2012

FOOD RULES - RULE #49

from, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," by Michael Pollan

*****

PART III: How Should I Eat? (Not too much.)

Rule #49 - Eat slowly.

Not just so you'll be more likely to know when to stop. Eat slowly enough to savour your food: you'll need less of it to feel satisfied. If it is a food experience rather than mere calories you're after, the slower you eat, the more of an experience you will have. There is an Indian proverb that gets at this idea: "Drink your food, chew your drink." In other word, eat slowly enough , and chew thoroughly enough, to liquefy your food, and move your drink around your mouth to thoroughly taste it before swallowing. The recommendation sounds a bit clinical perhaps, but try following it at least to the point of fully appreciating what's in your mouth. Another strategy, encoded in a table manner that's been all but forgotten: "Put down your fork between bites."

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Week #5 - Run #3 (cancelled)

0K (6-7K scheduled)

Guess who is feeling like crap again today?

My phlegm-ish throat from the other day turned into a sore and scratchy throat. Sucks to be me! It's funny how I have had years with nary a cold or the flu, but it's caught up with me this year; it has been a winter in which I am susceptible to every bug. In spite of eating more fruits and vegetables on a daily basis than ever before, my immunity system is clearly compromised. :(