Michael Pollan Prescribes 64 Rules for Healthy Eating

The nation's favorite food journalist is at it again, this time coming out with Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, an accessible list of 64 rules people can follow to eat well in the processed minefield of our food system. He was spurred to write the book by doctors who requested a pamphlet on healthy eating to give their patients. He modeled the book after the guidelines he had included in the end of his previous book, In Defense of Food, in which he emphasizes the difference between food and "edible food-like substances."

The rules Pollan lays out are sensible and fun to read, and each is accompanied by a bite-size explanatory paragraph. Here's a preview:

• #11 Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
• #19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
• #36 Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
• #39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

Coming as it does in the midst of our national debate about health insurance, this is more than just a how-to guide to eating right. The implications of Pollan's advice is deeper than it first seems; the way of eating he is attempting to counter places a massive burden on the health system we are attempting to reform. "Make no mistake: our health care crisis is in large part a crisis of the American diet," he wrote in The Huffington Post. "Roughly three quarters of the two-trillion plus we spend on health care in this country goes to treat chronic diseases, most of which can be prevented by a change in lifestyle, especially diet."

Photo: roland on flickr