Food Caveats

Michael Pollan, author of the best seller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, has a new book out entitled In Defense of Food. At the end of it he lists tips and/or admonitions about food.

1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2. Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting.
3. Avoid products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose syrup.
4. Avoid food products that make health claims.
5. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
6. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.
7. Shake the hand that feeds you.
8. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
9. You are what you eat eats too.
10. If you have the space, buy a freezer.
11. Eat like an omnivore.
12. Eat well-grown food from healthy soils.
13. Eat wild foods when you can.
14. Eat more like the French. Or the Italians. Or the Japanese. Or the Indians. Or the Greeks.
15. Regard nontraditional foods with skepticism.
16. Don’t look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet.
17. Have a glass of wine with dinner.
18. Pay more, eat less.
19. Eat meals.
20. Do all of your eating at a table.
21. Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.
22. Try not to eat alone.
23. Consult your gut.
24. Eat slowly.
25. Cook, and if you can, plant a garden.

I offer these without snark, or humor, because most of the time I am quite serious about food.