Michael Pollan’s “Food Rules”

Michael Pollan is getting there, but he hasn’t yet taken the logical step of telling his readers not to shop in supermarkets. Perhaps this is because he’s American, and there’s nowhere else to go. Isn’t there? His latest book, “Food Rules”, which expands on the advice he gave in his excellent “In Defence of Food”, recommends that you shop in the periphery of the supermarket, and stay out of the middle, on the basis that most of the fresh produce lines the walls, while the processed stuff is in the middle. He also says “get out of the supermarket whenever you can”. Come on, Michael, this is pathetically feeble – the logic of everything you say is never to go near the place.

But there’s a lot of fun to be had in his list of rules for healthy eating. Here are some of them:

2. Don’t eat anything your great grand-mother wouldn’t recognise as food.
11. Avoid foods you see advertised on TV

18. Don’t eat 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.

21. It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language (Think Big Mac, Cheetos, or Pringles)

40. Be the kind of person who takes supplements – then skip the supplements.
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57. Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.