Is what you eat related to how you feel?

In Defense of Food

Michael Pollan

Have you ever read the labels on food? You know the one, Nutrition Facts. “All” of the ingredients are listed, the percentages of daily diet for calories, fats, vitamins and more. I've always been a little compulsive about reading these labels. Judy rolls her eyes and groans when I read them aloud.

Michael Pollan, in his latest book, In Defence of Food, leads me to pay even more attention to food labels. Pollan uses a circuitous route, debunking “nutritionism” to the point where I find it hard to believe anything the food industry tells me.

Pollan builds his case layer by layer, starting in the early 19^th century, through the McGovern hearings in the 1970's that gave us our fear of fats, and into the ingredients and FDA approvals for food like substances. By the time he gets to the recommendations, I am ready to stop eating anything with the ubiquitous nutrition facts label. (It's not often that raw carrots or fresh fruit have those labels!)

In 1973 the food industry convinced the FDA to stop enforcing the 1938 law that required imitation foods be labeled imitation. For example, margarine had had to be labeled “imitation butter.” The feeding frenzy started immediately. Everything was open to adulteration (New! Improved!)

The second subtitle of the book is Eat Food, Not too Much, Mostly Plants. The second half of the book contains simple rules to guide you to a diet that promises to be much healthier.

His recommendations do not lower the cost of food, but they may reduce your lifetime medical expenses. He blames many western diseases (diabetes, heart disease, obesity ...) on our diet of food-like substances. A better diet should yield lower disease rates and significant medical savings.

Although Pollan never mentions Crohn's disease, the obvious conclusion I draw is the it could be caused by our American diet. The epidemiologic studies of Crohn's disease show almost exactly the same pattern as the diseases he claims are diet related. Maybe switching to an even healthier diet will ameliorate my disease symptoms?

I will try to follow Pollan's recommendations as much as possible. We eat close to them, but we have some ways to go. For example, I haven't darkened the door of a McDonald's for about two years. Now it's time to do more to improve my diet.

Good book. I recommend it.

The rules:

1. Don't eat anything your Great Grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.

2. Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup.

3. Avoid food products that make health claims.

4. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

5. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.

6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.

7. You are what you eat eats, too.

8. If you have the space, buy a freezer.

9. Eat like an omnivore.

10. Eat well grown foods from healthy soils.

11. Eat wild foods when you can.

12. Be the kind of person who eats supplements.

13. Eat more like the French, or the Italians, or the Japanese, or the Indians, or the Greeks, or ...

14. Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism.

15. Don't look for the magic bullet in traditional foods.

16. Have a glass of wine with dinner.

17. Pay more, eat less.

18. Eat meals.

19. Do all your eating at a table.

20. Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does.

21. Try not to eat alone.

22. Consult your gut. (That means pay attention to the full feeling.)

23. Eat slowly.

24. Cook, and if you can, plant a garden.

Simple rules, not too many, but they appear to go against the grain of “modern” habits. Let's go there.

= = = = Guy