FOOD RULES - RULE #64

THE END! This is it, everyone! We have reviewed all of the Food Rules, from #1 to #64.

And guess what? I am going to post all of them again. :) I think they were great and should be reviewed again. This time, I will add a short commentary of my own with each one to share where I have succeeded with them and the areas that I still need to work on.

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

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

Rule #64 - Break the rules once in a while.

Obsessing over food rules is bad for your happiness, and probably for your health, too. Our experience over the past few decades suggests that dieting and worrying too much about nutrition has made us no healthier or slimmer; cultivating a relaxed attitude toward food is important. There will be special occasions when you will want to throw these rules out the window. All will not be lost (especially if you don't throw out Rule #60). What matters is not the the special occasion but the everyday practice - the default habits that govern your eating on a typical day. "All things in moderation," it is often said, but we should never forget the wise addendum, sometimes attributed to Oscar Wilde: "Including moderation."

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #63

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

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

Rule #63 - Cook.

In theory, it should make little difference to your health whether you cook for yourself or let someone else do the work. But unless you can afford to hire a private chef to prepare meals exactly to your specifications, letting other people cook for you means losing control over your eating life, the portions as much as the ingredients. Cooking for yourself is the only sure way to take back control of your diet from the food scientists and food processors, and to guarantee you're eating real food ad not edible food-like substances, with their unhealthy oils, high-fructose corn syrup, and surfeit of salt. Not surprisingly, the decline in home cooking closely parallels the rise in obesity, and research suggests that people who cook are more likely to eat a more healthful diet.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #62

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

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

Rule #62 - Plant a vegetable garden if you have the space, a window box if you don't.

What does growing some of your own food have to do with repairing your relationship to food and eating? Everything. To take part in the intricate and endlessly interesting processes of providing for your sustenance is the surest way to escape the culture of fast food and the values implicit in it: that food should be fast, cheap, and easy; that food is a product of industry, not nature; that food is fuel rather than a form of communion with other people, and also with other species - with nature. On a more practical level, you will eat what your garden yields, which will be the freshest, most nutritious produce obtainable; you will get exercise growing it (and get outdoors and away from screens); you will save money (according to the National Garden Association, a $70 investment in a vegetable garden will yield $600 worth of food); and you will be that much more likely to follow the next, all important rule.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #61

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

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

Rule #61 - Leave something on your plate.

Many of us were told by our parents while growing up that we should always clean our plates - an instruction that later in life we have perhaps taken a little too much to heart. But thee is an older and healthier tradition that holds it is more genteel not to finish every last morsel of food: "Leave something for Mr. Manners," some children once were told, or, "Better to go to waste than to waist." Practice not cleaning your plate; it will help you eat less in the short term and develop self-control in the long.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #60

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

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

Rule #60 - Treat treats as treats.

There is nothing wrong with special occasion foods, as long as every day is not a special occasion. This is another case where the outsourcing of our food preparation to corporations has gotten us into trouble: It's made formerly expensive or time-consuming foods - everything from fried chicken and french fries to pastries and ice cream - easy and readily accessible. Frying chicken is so much trouble that people didn't use to make it unless they had guests coming over and a lot of time to prepare. The amount of work involved kept the frequency of indulgence in check. These special occasion foods offer some of the great pleasures of life , so we shouldn't deprive ourselves of them, but the sense of occasion needs to be restored. One way is to start making thee foods yourself ; if you bake dessert yourself, you won't go to that much trouble every day. Another is to limit your consumption of such foods to weekends or social occasions. Some people follow a so-called S policy: "no snacks, no seconds, no sweets - except on days that begin with the letter S."

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #59

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

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

Rule #59 - Try not to eat alone.

Americans are increasingly eating in solitude. Although there is some research to suggest that light eaters will eat more when they dine with others (perhaps because they spend more time at the table), for people prone to overeating, communal meals tend to limit consumption, if only because we're less likely to stuff ourselves when others are watching. We also tend to eat more slowly, since there's usually more going on at the table than ingestion. This is precisely why so much food marketing is designed to encourage us to eat in front of the TV or in the car: When we eat alone, we eat more. But regulating appetite is only part of the story: The shared meal elevates eating from a biological process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #58

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

*****

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

Rule #58 - Do all your eating at a table.

No, a desk is not at a table. If we eat while we are working, or while watching TV or driving, we eat mindlessly - and as a result eat a lot more than we would if we were eating at a table, paying attention to what we're doing. This phenomenon can be tested (and put to good use): Place a child in front of a television set and place a bowl of fresh vegetables in front of him or her. The child will eat everything in the bowl, often even vegetables he or she doesn't ordinarily touch, without noticing what's going on. Which suggests an exception to the rule.: When eating somewhere other than at a table, stick to fruits and vegetables.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #57

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

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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.

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.

FOOD RULES - RULE #55

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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

FOOD RULES - RULE #48

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

*****

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

Rule #48 - Consult your gut.

Most of us allow external, and usually visual, cues to determine how much we eat. The larger the portion, for example, the more we eat; the bigger the container, the more we pour. As in so many areas of modern life, the culture of food has become a culture of the eye. But when it comes to food, it pays to cultivate the other senses, which often provide more useful and accurate information. It can take twenty minutes before your brain gets the word that your belly is full: that means that if you take less than twenty minutes to finish a meal, the sensation of satiety will arrive too late to be of any use. So slow down and pay attention to what your body - and not just your sense of sight - is telling you. This is what your grandparents were getting at with the adage "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach."

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #47

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

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

Rule #47 - Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.

For many of us, eating has surprisingly little to do with hunger. We eat out of boredom, for entertainment, to comfort or reward ourselves. Try to be aware of why you're eating, and ask yourself if you're really hungry - before you eat and then again along the way. (One old wives' test: If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you're not hungry.) Food is a costly antidepressant.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #46

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

*****

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

Rule #46 - Stop eating before you're full.

Nowadays we think it is normal and right to eat until you are full, but many cultures specifically advise stopping well before that point is reached. The Japanese have a saying - hara hachi bu - counseling people to stop eating when they are 80 percent full. The Ayurvedic tradition in India advises eating until you are 70 percent, and the prophet Muhammad described a full belly as one that contained 1/3 food and 1/3 liquid - and 1/3 air, i.e., nothing. (Note the relatively narrow range specified in all this advice: somewhere between 67 and 80 percent of capacity. Take your pick.) There's also a German expression that says: "You need to tie off the sack before it gets completely full." And how many of us have grandparents who talk of "leaving the table a little bit hungry"? Here again the French may have something to teach us. To say "I'm hungry" in French you say "J'ai faim" - I have hunger" - and when you are finished, you do not say that you are full, but "Je n'ai plus faim" - "I have no more hunger." That is a completely different way of thinking about satiety. So: Ask yourself not, Am I full? but, Is my hunger gone? That moment will arrive several bites sooner.

*****

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

FOOD RULES - RULE #45

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

*****

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

RULE #45 - ... Eat less.

This is probably the most unwelcome advice of all, but in fact the scientific case for eating a lot less than we currently do - regardless of whether you are overweight - is compelling. "Calories restriction" has repeatedly been shown to slow aging in animals, and many researchers believe it offers the single strongest link between diet and cancer prevention. We eat much more than our bodies need to be healthy, and the excess wreaks havoc - and not just on our weight. But we are not the first people in history to grapple with the special challenges posed by food abundance, and previous cultures have devised various ways to promote the idea of moderation. The rules that follow offer a few proven strategies.

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"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."