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A Forward: Six Rules For Eating Wisely

This week I ran out of time to compose a weekly blog, so I want to share an article by one of my favorite food/diet authors, Michael Pollan. Michael has a way of saying what needs to be said in a simple and understanding way. He gets it! At the end of his article I have added some points, or more of a question with points that follow. Fyi, I have been putting a lot of time into next week's blog. I think it may raise some eyebrow ;)

Six Rules For Eating Wisely:

By Michael Pollan
TIME Magazine, June 4, 2006:

"Once upon a time Americans had a culture of food to guide us through the increasingly treacherous landscape of food choices: fat vs. carbs, organic vs. conventional, vegetarian vs. carnivorous. Culture in this case is just a fancy way of saying "your mom." She taught us what to eat, when to eat it, how much of it to eat, even the order in which to eat it. But Mom's influence over the dinner menu has proved no match for the $36 billion in food-marketing dollars ($10 billion directed to kids alone) designed to get us to eat more, eat all manner of dubious neofoods, and create entire new eating occasions, such as in the car. Some food culture.

I've spent the past five years exploring this daunting food landscape, following the industrial food chain from the Happy Meal back to the not-so-happy feedlots in Kansas and cornfields in Iowa where it begins and tracing the organic food chain back to the farms. My aim was simply to figure out what-as a nutritional, ethical, political and environmental matter-I should eat. Along the way, I've collected a few rules of thumb that may be useful in navigating what I call the Omnivore's Dilemma.

Don't eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. Imagine how baffled your ancestors would be in a modern supermarket: the epoxy-like tubes of Go-Gurt, the preternaturally fresh Twinkies, the vaguely pharmaceutical Vitamin Water. Those aren't foods, quite; they're food products. History suggests you might want to wait a few decades or so before adding such novelties to your diet, the substitution of margarine for butter being the classic case in point. My mother used to predict "they" would eventually discover that butter was better for you. She was right: the trans-fatty margarine is killing us. Eat food, not food products.

Avoid foods containing high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It's not just in cereals and soft drinks but also in ketchup and bologna, baked goods, soups and salad dressings. Though HFCS was not part of the human diet until 1975, each of us now consumes more than 40 lbs. a year, some 200 calories a day. Is HFCS any worse for you than sugar? Probably not, but by avoiding it you'll avoid thousands of empty calories and perhaps even more important, cut out highly processed foods-the ones that contain the most sugar, fat and salt. Besides, what chef uses high-fructose corn syrup? Not one. It's found only in the pantry of the food scientist, and that's not who you want cooking your meals. (I will add that the corn in HFCS is almost 100% genetically modified...yet another reason to avoid it -Dr. Mason)

Spend more, eat less. Americans are as addicted to cheap food as we are to cheap oil. We spend only 9.7% of our income on food, a smaller share than any other nation. Is it a coincidence we spend a larger percentage than any other on health care (16%)? All this "cheap food" is making us fat and sick. It's also bad for the health of the environment. The higher the quality of the food you eat, the more nutritious it is and the less of it you'll need to feel satisfied.

Pay no heed to nutritional science or the health claims on packages. It was science that told us margarine made from trans fats is better for us than butter made from cow's milk. The more I learn about the science of nutrition, the less certain I am that we've learned anything important about food that our ancestors didn't know. Consider that the healthiest foods in the supermarket-the fresh produce-are the ones that don't make FDA-approved health claims, which typically festoon the packages of the most highly processed foods. When Whole Grain Lucky Charms show up in the cereal aisle, it's time to stop paying attention to health claims.

Shop at the farmers' market. You'll begin to eat foods in season, when they are at the peak of their nutritional value and flavor, and you'll cook, because you won't find anything processed or microwavable. You'll also be supporting farmers in your community, helping defend the countryside from sprawl, saving oil by eating food produced nearby and teaching your children that a carrot is a root, not a machine-lathed orange bullet that comes in a plastic bag. A lot more is going on at the farmers' market than the exchange of money for food.

How you eat is as important as what you eat. Americans are fixated on nutrients, good and bad, while the French and Italians focus on the whole eating experience. The lesson of the "French paradox" is you can eat all kinds of supposedly toxic substances (triple crme cheese, foie gras) as long as you follow your culture's (i.e., mother's) rules: eat moderate portions, don't go for seconds or snacks between meals, never eat alone. But perhaps most important, eat with pleasure, because eating with anxiety leads to poor digestion and bingeing. There is no French paradox, really, only an American paradox: a notably unhealthy people obsessed with the idea of eating healthily. So, relax. Eat Food. And savor it."

(end of article)

Consider what you are eating...is it real food?

Ask yourself, What is Real Food?
-Real food spoils.
-Real food has a recent connection to the earth. In fact the shorter time a food can spend away from its natural environment on earth, the more we can consider it real food.

-Real food doesn't need a fancy package, or any package at all.
-Real food doesn't need to be cooked in order to make it edible.

-Real food can be eaten raw.

-Real food doesn't need to tell you how healthy it is. Be suspicious of any claims that companies use to promote their own products.

-Real food ate real food (animals)

-Real food does not need to be altered.

-Real food does not need to have components added, fortified or removed to make them healthy.

-Real food is not a supplement. That's not to say that some supplements aren't beneficial (I take 4 per day), but supplements are not a replacement for real food.

-Eat local as much as possible.

Just Eat Real Food !!

 

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"Keep it Real" -Dr Mason

 

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