FOOD RULES part 1

So, one of the really interesting and unique things about this pregnancy has been my desire to eat really healthy whole foods. Not any one thing per say, just healthy eating in general rather. I've never been much of a chef so to say, but since I've been pregnant, I've been cooking dinner almost every single night. Shocker! I have also started baking too. And I have to say I'm really enjoying it. I enjoy perusing cookbooks and thinking about good things to make for my family. I realize that I finally have the time to cook and bake, and for the first time in my life, I actually have the desire. I blame it on the hormones.

So the other day I was in Barnes and Noble perusing the aisles, when I saw this little gem on an end post. I picked it up and looked at it, and I knew it looked familiar but I wasn't sure where. Then I remembered Michael Pollan was a guest on Oprah the other day that I happened to catch. I really identified with his ideas, so I decided to purchase the little book. It's not a long or hard read, but it is filled with some of the most logical, wise advice I've ever read (and believe me, I've read a LOT of diet books) regarding food and eating. So, I decided to buy it. And then I decided that I should share this wisdom with y'all cause it's just so great.

In this book he basically talks about the reasons we as a nation are so unhealthy (i.e. diseases and obesity), and then gives the rules or guidelines to the ways in which we should be eating. His entire book can be summed up in 7 simple words.

Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.

And there it is. The basic simplicity of all his guidelines. In his book he has 64 food rules, divided into three sections to better and more thoroughly explain these seven words. He divides the 64 rules into three separate sections: What should I eat? What kind of food should I eat? And How should I eat? And since I thought it might be a bit much to list all 64 rules on here at once, I decided to give them to ya in three separate posts, divided up along the lines of his three questions. The rules are his. The little blurb of thought after are mine. For his full reasoning and description buy the book.

Get ready to change your life friends. You can thank me later.

Michael Pollan's Food Rules

What Should I Eat?

1. Eat Food. --Not over processed packaged stuff passing for food.
2. Don't Eat Anything Your Great-Grandmother Wouldn't Recognize as Food --example: Go Gurt. Is it yogurt or toothpaste? Over processed, packaged food isn't really food.
3. Avoid Food Products containing Ingredients That No Ordinary Human would keep in the pantry. --Ethoxylated diglycerides. You wouldn't cook with it, so don't eat stuff that contains it.
4. Avoid Food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup. --Usually a food that contains HFCS has been highly processed..
5. Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top 3 ingredients.
6. Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients. --I love Lara Bars. They usually only have 3 ingredients. Fruit, dried fruit and nuts. Delish.
7. Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.
8. Avoid food products that make health claims. -- Low fat? Maybe, but I bet they added sugar to up the taste. Also, fruits and vegetables do not make health claims, yet we know they are healthy.
9. Avoid food products with the wordoid "lite" or the terms "low-fat" or "non-fat" in their names. --Same reason as above. Often times full fat items have fewer calories than their non-fat counterparts.
10. Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not. --margarine is the classic example. Artificial sweeteners too.
11. Avoid foods you see advertised on television. --Usually over processed yuck.
12. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle. --you've heard this before. Do it.
13. Eat only foods that will eventually rot. --preservatives are not your friend.
14. Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature. --For fun check out a twinkie ingredient list. Do not eat Twinkie.
15. Get out of the Supermarket whenever you can. --And into the Farmers Market.
16. Buy your snacks at the Farmers Market. ie--fruit, veggies and nuts.
17. Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans. --Corporations but large amounts of sugar, salt and fat in their food. Yuck.
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's not food if it arrived through the window of your car. --one exception--Au Natural.
21. It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language. (Thing Big Mac, Cheetos, Pringles.)

And there you have it. The rules to good, wise and delicious eating. Now, I don't want you even for a minute to think I am going to follow this perfectly. I am no food saint. Believe me. But I'm gonna simply lean in to it. Try eating more healthfully. At least 90% of the time.

Stay tuned for Parts 2 & 3 from Michael Pollan's Food Rules. Or just go buy the book yo-self. Cause it's good reads people. Good reads I say.