Darina told us about a book by Michael Pollan called, “Food Rules an Eater’s Manual,” early on in the course, I bought it, and only just managed to read it. It takes about thirty minutes to read, and is so worth reading. He goes through 64 rules in 3 different sections, some of the rules he elaborates on, others he just leaves as they are. Most of these rules are Ballymaloe rules too, and most of these, I thankfully already abide by at home (maybe not # 43…) I have typed up the rules below, and pulled a few other quotes out from some of the rules.

He dedicates the book to his mother, “who always knew butter was better for you than margarine.”

“Part I

What should I eat?

(Eat Food)

1. Eat food.
2. Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
3. Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.
4. Avoid food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
5. Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) amongst the top three ingredients.
6. Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.
7. Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.
8. Avoid food products that make health claims.
9. Avoid food products with the wordoid “lite” or the terms “low-fat” or nonfat” in their names.
10. Avoid food products that are pretending to be something they are not.
11. Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
12. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
13. Eat only foods that will eventually rot.
14. Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature.
15. Get out of the supermarket whenever you can.
16. Buy your snacks at the farmers’ market.
17. Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans.
18. Don’t ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap.
19. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.
20. It is not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
21. It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language. (Think Big Mac, Cheetos, or Pringles.)

Part II

What kind of food should I eat?

(Mostly plants.)

22. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
23. Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food.
24. “Eating what stands on one leg [mushrooms and plant foods] is better than eating what stands on two legs [fowl], which is better than eating what stands on four legs [cows, pigs, and other mammals].”
25. Eat your colours.
26. Drink the spinach water.
27. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.
28. If you have the space buy a freezer.
29. Eat like an omnivore.
30. Eat well grown food from healthy soil.
31. Eat wild foods when you can.
32. Don’t overlook the oily fishes.
33. Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacteria or fungi.
34. Sweeten and salt your food yourself.
35. Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature.
36. Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
37. “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”
38. Favor the kinds of oils and grains that have been traditionally stone-ground.
39. Eat all of the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
40. Be the kind of person who takes supplements – then skip the supplements.
41. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.
42. Regard nontraditional foods with skepticism.
43. Have a glass of wine with dinner.

Part III

How should I eat?

(Not too much.)

44. Pay more, eat less.
45. … Eat less.
46. Stop eating before you’re full.
47. Eat when you’re hungry, not when you’re bored.
48. Consult your gut.
49. Eat slowly.
50. “The banquet is in the first bite.”
51. Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.
52. Buy smaller plates and glasses.
53. Serve a proper portion and don’t go back for seconds.
54. “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper.”
55. Eat meals.
56. Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods.
57. Don’t eat your fuel from the same place your car does.
58. Do all your eating at a table.
59. Try not to eat alone.
60. Treat treats as treats.
61. Leave something on your plate.
62. Plant a vegetable garden if you have the space, a window box if you don’t.
63. Cook.
64. Break the rules once in a while.

#8

“This sounds counterintuitive, but consider: For a product to carry a health claim on its package, it must first have a package, so right off the bat it’s more likely to be processed rather than a whole food… The healthiest food in the supermarket – the fresh produce – doesn’t boast about its healthfulness, because the growers don’t have the budget or the packaging. Don’t take the silence of the yams as a sign they have nothing valuable to say about your health.”

#10

“The same rule applies to soy-based mock meats, artificial sweeteners and fake fats and starches.”

#15

“You also won’t find… anything microwaveable, or, perhaps best of all, any old food from far away. What you will find are fresh, whole foods harvested at the peak of their taste and nutritional quality…”

#16

“Meat, which humans have been eating and relishing for a very long time, is nourishing food, which is why I suggest “mostly” plants, not “only.” It turns out that near vegetarians, or “felxitarians” – people who eat meat a couple of times a week – are just as healthy as vegetarians.”

#26

Could this sound anymore like Darina? Rory? Rachel?

#28

“When you find a good source of pastured meat, you’ll want to buy it in quantity… A freezer will also enable you to put up food from the farmers’ market, and encourage you to buy produce in bulk at the height of the season, when it will be most abundant – and therefore the cheapest.”

#39

“If you made all of the French fries you ate, you would eat them much less often, if only because they’re so much work.”

#41

“In the case of the French paradox, for example, it may not be the dietary nutrients that keep the French healthy (lots of saturated fates and white flour?!) as much as their food habits” small portions eaten at leisurely communal meals…”

#43

“Mindful of the social and health effects of alcoholism, public health authorities are loath the recommend drinking, but the fact is that people who drink moderately and regularly live longer and suffer considerably less heart disease than teetotalers.”

#44

“Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is a literal shame, but most of us can: Americans spend lass than 10 percent of their income on food… As the cost of food in America has declined, in terms of both price and the effort required to put it on the table, we have been eating much more (and spending more on health care). If you spend more for better food, you’ll probably eat less of it, and treat it with more care. And if that higher-quality food tastes better, you will need less of it to feel satisfied. Choose quality over quantity, food experience over calories.”

#46

“ Ask yourself not, Am I full? But, Is my hunger gone?” That moment will arrive several bites sooner.”

#47

“If you’re not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you’re not hungry.”

#48

“… the culture of food has become the culture of the eye.”

#49

“Eat slowly enough to savor your food; you’ll need less to be satisfied… ‘Put down your fork between bites.’”

#52

“.. we don’t have to supersize portions at home, and shouldn’t.”

#55

“This recommendation sounds almost as ridiculous as “eat food,” but nowadays it too no longer goes without saying…. unless you can continue your grazing to real food, stick to meals.”

#58

“The phenomenon can be tested (and put to good use): Place a child in front of a television 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.”

#60

“There is nothing wrong with special occasion food, as long as every day is not a special occasion.”

#64

“Obsessing over food rules is bad for your happiness, and probably for your health too… What matters is not the special occasion but the everyday practice – the default habits that govern our eating on a typical day. ‘All things in moderation,’ is often said, but we should never forget the wise addendum, sometimes attributed to Oscar Wilde: ‘Including moderation.’”

Seriously, read the book… So much truth. So many of these things go with Darina’s idea of “Forgotten Skills.”

 

“… many of the rules in this book are designed to help you avoid heavily processed foods – which I prefer to call “edible food like substances.”” – Michael Pollan

 

*All quotes in this post come from Food Rules An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan.