Can't believe no one has quoted Michael Pollan yet, but his 7 rules still ring true (see #4 for your question):
1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" Pollan says.
2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
4. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"
6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.
7. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.
There are some good rules of thumb here, but this:
> 2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
This just smacks of so much ignorance as to be disgraceful. Something isn't good for you just because there's a short word for it, or bad for you because it has a scientific name. And it's definitely not bad for you
just because it has more than 5 ingredients.
People should do research and be informed, not make ridiculous decisions about food based on whatever words happen to be associated to their ingredients.
This is true but the purpose of such lists of rules is that they are easy to follow for people who otherwise would have no idea what to do. Every rule has exceptions and once someone tries such a system for a time they'll probably learn them. Having them avoid such food until then and start eating healthier right now would be more beneficial than waiting.
Most of rule #2 would be encapsulated by rule #1 anyway, it just reinforces it.
> This just smacks of so much ignorance as to be disgraceful.
This is a wildly uninformed, reactionary statement, Michael Pollan is literally an expert in this field in multiple domains (professor, journalist, consultant). If you stop and think for a second, perhaps an expert is choosing his words carefully, and consider that he is trying to make rules for people who think Arby's 7 nights a week is healthy, not folk who are health conscious and informed.
But hey, if you want to point me to all of the books you've written and research you've done on nutrition, I'll take a seat.
> 2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
That's dumb. I struggled with "Quinoa."
> 4. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
That's dumb. Twinkies go bad and popping corn doesn't.
> 5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says.
That's dumb. Leaving a meal hungry just means you'll snack later. Eat fewer, large meals, and nothing in between.
1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" Pollan says.
2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
4. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"
6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.
7. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.