How To: Get Back to Real Food
Michael Pollan helps us to rediscover the joy of eating (full article here). This part deals with how we can counteract the forces of industrialization and the “nutritionism” that have pervaded our diets.
- Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
Our mothers and grandmothers are likely as confused as we are about food. We need to go back a couple of generations to get past the era of modern food. Pollan uses the example of tubes of flavored yogurt. Heck, I wouldn’t have recognized those 110 years ago! - Avoid food products that make health claims
For a product to make health claims on its package, it must first have a package, so right off the bat it is more likely to be a processed than a whole food. If they have to try and convince us it’s healthy, it’s usually not. Real foods make health claims, but for the most part it is the products of food science that make the boldest claims, and these are often founded on incomplete or erroneous science. - Get out of the supermarket
The supermarket, the convenience store and fast-food outlets are the best places to avert a life-shortening western diet. It is hard to eat badly from a farmers' market, from a weekly organic vegetable box or from your garden. I personally believe you don’t have to avoid the supermarket, but rather it’s a good idea to avoid most of the processed products that are sold there. It is never a bad idea to frequent farmers markets as you’ll get more locally grown goods. - Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
Almost everybody agrees that plants are really good for you. Without plants, for example, we would be hard-pressed to get enough vitamin C, an essential nutrient that humans long ago lost the ability to synthesize themselves. Aside from what’s in the plants – eating more plant foods means you’re eating less of other unhealthy and otherwise caloric fare. - Eat wild foods when you can
Two of the most nutritious plants in the world are weeds - fat-hen (also known as lamb's quarters) and purslane. Wild greens tend to have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids than their domesticated cousins. Wild animals, too, are worth adding to your diet when you have the opportunity, if you can be sure you are not putting further pressure on endangered species. Game generally has less saturated fat and more omega-3 fatty acids than domesticated animals and wild fish generally have higher levels of omega-3s than farmed fish. - Don't look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet
Scientists have spent an exhaustive amount of hours trying to tease out the disease-fighting components of particular diets. Yet when researchers extract a single food from a diet of proven value, it usually fails to adequately explain why the people living on that diet live longer or have lower rates of heart disease or cancer than those eating a modern western diet. The whole of a dietary pattern is evidently greater than the sum of its parts. - Eat less
Calorie restriction has repeatedly been shown to slow aging in animals, and some researchers believe it is the single strongest link between a change in the diet and the prevention of cancer. The people of Okinawa, for example, one of the longest-lived and healthiest populations in the world, practice a principle they call hara hachi bu: eat until you are 80% full. - Eat meals
We are snacking more and eating fewer meals together. Americans have added to the traditional big three "eating occasions" - breakfast, lunch and dinner - an as-yet-untitled fourth that lasts all day long: the constant sipping and snacking while watching TV, driving, and so on.
Happy eating!
The preceding is an excerpt of Michael Pollan’s book “In defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto”.
More like this in Food
47 Comments
Add Your Comment
ADVERTISING
New
- FROM DIET BLOG
- On-Off Fasting: Does It Work?
- 400 Calorie Fix
- 5 Factor World Diet
- Quick Giveaway: Powerhouse Weight Loss Game
- FORUM
- Low Carb Atkins Diet- Tips to Cut the Carbs.
- How Can I Gain a Healthy Weight and Keep it?
- How Do I Eat Healthy at University?
- Starving Myself and Exercising, But Not Losing an Ounce?
Categories
| Body Image Celebrities Diet Pills Diets Exercise |
Fast Food Funny Stuff Success Stories Teens and Kids Tips and Tools |
RSS Feed
Follow @DietBlog on Twitter
Good article. Especially 1 & 4!
ReplyNumbers 4 & 7 suck.
"Eat mostly plants": Like grains and legumes? That's what most people would hear with such a statement. "Eat mostly anti-nutrients." Bad idea. (Animals are the best food.)
"Eat less": How about "Don't eat to bursting." "Eat less" is the anorexics motto. And most people would read this as "eat less often", which is another bad idea.
I really don't like this guy.
Number 5, though, I do like, because he mentions lambs quarters. They taste great. I'm going to grow some in my garden this year.
ReplyI love Tip #1, although my great-grandmother would have eaten head "cheese".
I read some good advice about supermarket shopping... When shopping there, stick to the perimeter. The middle aisles are more likely to have the processed food, but you generally have everything you need on the sides and along the back. The store designers figure if you have to walk past the processed stuff, you'll be more likely to buy it. Instead, just walk around the edges!
ReplyThis article gave me a new way of looking at eating. I think it gave some great tips about what foods are good for you too!
ReplyThe one which made me stop and think the most was #1. I guess that our way of eating (like so many other aspects of our lives) has probably changed more in the past 50 years than in the 500 before that.
Kailash - I'm intrigued that you see plants as "anti nutrients". Surely the vitamins, minerals, fibre etc from plants are all an important part of a balanced diet?
Ali
ReplyHey Kailash, I agree. Eatly most plants is a vegetarian propaganda and eat less is pro-anorexia. I think a person should eat a minimum of several pieces of veggies a day and more if they like it for the nutrients and fiber. Regarding how much to eat, that depends on your workout level.
ReplyAre people so weak that they can't ever pass through the middle aisles and load up on junk? Some good items are in the middle aisles like low-carb crackers, mustard, vinegar, cans of tomato sauce. Not everything in the middle section is evil, nor should people be such ninnies that they can't handle it. No wonder America is going down the drain.
ReplyIts all been said before. Eat healthy, eat less, eat naturally, avoid fast food, eat your veggies...yeah, yeah..
ReplyThat's "Eat less" in the context of how Americans are gorging themselves. I think if you're already eating right, the last thing you need to do is eat less. But I guess this article is aimed at severely overweight slobs.
ReplyPerhaps one of you would like to tell this guy to eat less plants :-)
Replyhttp://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120122116182915297.html
Oatmeal makes health claims, should I avoid it?
Farmers market? Never seen one.
I weight train so I need to eat more not less!
ReplyFarmer's markets are for the elitist rich. The rest of us have to do with shabby produce at the supermarket.
ReplyGood ol'#7. They should stop telling overweight people to eat less. It sounds like a death sentence. You might mean "eat fewer calories", but that's not what anyone hears. You say, "cut out 100 calories", and I hear "only eat half the protein bar", not "eat 5 times as many grapes so you don't need to eat a protein bar".
We don't like to be hungry. It hurts. It sends us into a panic. It makes us sad, cranky, irritable, and tired. This is from someone who has fasted before, and I know what hunger feels like. Now, even the hint of hunger makes me anxious.
It's too difficult to stop eating while you are still hungry and there is food on the table. Or in the cabinet. You might do it for a little while, but sooner or later, it catches up to you, and you find yourself elbow deep in a box of cheese-its.
We should be focusing instead on eating the foods that can make us full, but not fat. There's 3 kinds of foods in this world. Some make us full and fat (a'la fast-food), some leave us hungry but thin (here's to you Splenda), and others make us full before you've had a lot of calories.
I don't think the third category is the same for everyone. My mom swears by air-popped popcorn, but I can eat like 6 cups and still be looking for something to munch on. Similar with cereal (I can put back a whole box. Yes, even the high fiber ones). But if I start the day with low-fat yogurt, wheat toast, and an apple, I've had about 250 calories but sometimes I'm still not hungry by lunch time.
For times when I want to mindlessly pick at things, I can eat 3-4 cups of raw spinach (yum) before I get full, and I've had all of 30 calories. I get stuffed on 1 scrambled egg, and if I am really ready to binge, tuna fish can usually shut down the urge to eat instantly (not because I don't like tuna-fish, I do).
The point is, don't eat less. Find foods that you like, that you can eat as much as you want of, without making you fat.
And the big hint is: Processed foods will never ever make you full on a reasonable number of calories.
ReplyIsn't "low-carb crackers" a contradiction in terms? Truth is, they are just another form of processed junk that have had anything resembling nature stripped away. The same goes for nutrition bars, meal replacement shakes and the like, low-carb or not.
ReplyRye-krisps are pretty healthy snack in moderation. Just because something is processed doesn't mean you can't have it a few times a week in moderation. I bet you are holier-then-thou and manage to never eat a single processed item in your diet.
ReplyI tend to eat like my grandma does because she grew up having very little money and having to make do with what was available. On their farm, they raised chickens and they kept a cow for milk. Every year, they raised a steer and a pig for butchering and they lived on that meat for a year. Their diet was really light on the meat for the most part. My great-grandma was very good at making meat stretch...she'd often make soups or stews using a little meat and lots of potatoes and carrots and stock.
As far as the weeds thing goes...they are extremely delicious and nutritious. My grandma told me that they'd often go out to the field and pick dandelion greens (you have to pick them BEFORE the dandelions bloom though) and either eat them raw as a salad or steamed with a little lemon juice. I never thought I'd like them, but they're YUMMY!
I think processed foods are a huge culprit of the weight problem in America. Think about it, you can eat a plate full of celery and carrots for a LOT fewer calories than a bowl of chips. And they keep you fuller longer. What's really interesting is that when you make things from scratch, whether it be soup, bread, stir-fry, pasta sauces, etc., they're a LOT healthier than the processed stuff you buy. Food companies add a lot of sneaky things to add "flavor" to foods...extra HFCS, extra fats, and LOTS of extra salt. Canned soup is so expensive and when you make your own, you can make it cheaper and put what YOU want in it.
ReplyNo, not at all! LOL. I eat processed foods on a regular basis--it doesn't mean it's good for me, and I won't pretend it is. I do try to avoid anything with partially hydrogenated oils, but I'm far from perfect.
ReplyGrains, legumes and tubers will kill you if they aren't processed.
Take a look at "pellagra". Good reason why these plants weren't a part of man's diet until the last 10,000 years.
ReplyHere's a study showing what good grains are:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/12/2578
Potatoes are poisonous:
http://www.drlam.com/opinion/rawpotato.cfm
Sweet potatoes too (and several others):
http://rawveg.info/rawfoodtoxins.html
Beans are poisonous:
http://www.rawfoodinfo.com/real%20letters/ltr_greenbeans.html
Do please note that I'm referencing raw foodists' own websites.
ReplyI am glad to read a variety of articles on the topic of eating healthy, such as this article as well as various ones by Michael Pollan. I don't agree with everything that Michael Pollan has written, but he certainly has given me "food for thought".
I am glad that I have the opportunity to find out what works for me, and to enjoy sampling from the variety of diets that other peoples in the world have found to nourish themselves.
@Fitness_Fanatic: Just because someone makes decisions different from yours regarding what works for them, doesn't make them "holier than thou". I hope the rest of your day goes much better -- you sound like you need some cheering up. :)
@Spectra: I too have learned to make meat stretch by using a small amount with a lot of veggies in soups, stews, saucy stir-fries and the like. People who argue that eating healthy is too expensive may not be aware of how to cook things from scratch or may not know how to shop for bargains in different food categories.
@Kat: You make a good point regarding finding a way to avoid hunger while keeping the calorie count to a reasonable level. Thanks for your post. It sounds like you have thought a lot about how our minds and bodies are linked, and how we need to find a message for our minds that our bodies can also live with.
Thanks, Mike for a great post -- you've given us lots to discuss!
Replymy local grocery store has a great selection of local products but they have also caught on to the perimeter idea. if i shopped that way i could buy chips/soda, deli/hot prepared food, bakery, packaged lunch meats/cheeses, and ice cream/ frozen cake. the healthy stuff is hidden in the middle aisles.
ReplyWhy are we picking on farmers markets? SCal, never seen one?? I spend every summer in a small lake town on the Canadian Prairies and here and in every other town within driving distance, they have a farmers market. And in the city of 1 million I live in the rest of the year, there are several. Fitness Fanatic, for the elitist rich only? The hutterite farmers who sell me big bags of beets, carrots or onions for $3 would have a good laugh at that one. I can keep the good flavors of the berries, fruit and vegetables I purchase all through the canadian winter by freezing, and some canning.
There is a good element of truth to all the suggestions, but of course you can pick anything apart if you want. If I was going to take exception to anything, it would be #8 - I don't see anything wrong with eating between meals, a healthy snack between meals really helps me keep my portion sizes under control. But I understand that the intent is that it's good not to eat junk all day long.
ReplyI was just going to say that... all the local stores around here stock the ends of the aisles with Little Debbie snack cakes and junk from the bakery so when you're walking around the perimeter of the store you're still assaulted by fake foods.
ReplyIn my town the cheapest place to get fruits and veggies is the farmers market.Our big box chain, Giant Eagle, is for the elitest rich. Also the money I spend stays inn my own community instead of being shipped off to HQ.
Replycheri said:
Also the money I spend stays inn my own community instead of being shipped off to HQ.[...]
That's a great point Cheri. Also, almost everything in the big supermarkets is trucked in or flown in from far away. Eating locally grown food helps reduce co2 in the atmosphere. Plus, the cost of transportation is part of the food cost when you buy in the grocery store.
Where I live, it's pretty hard to live just on locally grown food, because the growing season is short. But I do make it a priority to try to incorporate as much of it into our family's eating as I can.
ReplyI was going to say that our farmer's market generally has the cheapest produce as well. It's also locally grown and some of it is organic. We have a large Hmong population here and they have a community garden. Everyone helps plant it and take care of it and everyone shares the harvest. One woman I work with sells me her extra cucumbers for a nickel apiece. And you can usually find terrific tomatoes for $.50 a pound or less (and they're always ripe and juicy). So yeah, not all farmer's markets are snooty and expensive. Most of them are just people who have a lot of extra produce and want to make some money on it.
ReplyAnyone know Atlanta (Alpharetta) area farmer's markets? I'd love to hit one but all I see are Whole Paychecks (Whole Foods) on every corner! ;)
ReplyI buy 80% of my food at the Farmer's Market. Mine is the oldest, largest, in the country. Rich elites? Hardly. I'm by far in the minority there, to the extent that I'm startled by seeing another whitefolk. And it's cheap, and good. The only stuff I get at the store is rice/grains, milk, occasionally cheese, or processed stuff, which I occasionally enjoy. I can go to the elitest one and get grass fed meat, for the rare occasion that I eat it. I think Michael Pollan is right on. I think getting all freaked out about him telling people to eat less is overblown, I'm sure you all know what you're doing, but even in my foodie town, people eat way too much shit.
ReplyHeather, I live 1000's of miles away from Atlanta. But I googled 'atlanta farmers market" and got 294,000 hits, so I have a feeling there might be one or two there! Don't know if they are close to you though, I don't know anything about your area.
ReplyI see a lot of extreme comments here(go veggie or avoid all the middle aisles), this is disconcerting for me.
ReplyKailish, really, how many people are chowing down on raw potatoes and sweet potatoes?? From what I can see, that's what the websites you referenced are referring to. Re: green beans, your source is saying that some people might be sensitive to raw green beans. And they may very well be, because I think for every food, you will find some people who are sensitive to it. I eat them cooked, but I have to say I have been chomping on them straight out of the garden too, for over 40 years, and I'm still here to tell the story. Never felt bad after eating a raw green bean, or a yellow or purple one for that matter. Sometimes I think you're just trying to get a rise out of us to see if we're paying attention!
ReplyI've come to realize at this stage in my life that I need to develop a plan to eat right and exercise.
ReplyI think we need to focus on getting back to real work as well. Exercise is more important than ever in a day when many of us sit in front of computers all day. Back in Grandma's day most people had physically demanding jobs. Not so much today.
ReplyGood for you. Personally, I enjoy sparkpeople.com though there are similar sites out there. (No, I am not affiliated with the site other than as a user. :) )
I started running 9 years ago and it's done so many good things for my life.
My advice: don't get too caught up in the details or you'll go mad and won't want to stick to it. Make a small change at a time, find an exercise activity you LOVE, and let your life change around you. :)
ReplyLook, there is a reason that the raw foodists are sharing this information with one another:
Beans, grains, etc. do not want to be eaten. But instead of behaving like animals, to turn tail and run, the plants stick up for themselves. Which I have to respect. The plants develop thorns, a bitter flavor, or a poison and, sometimes, a color to warn us off.
The most devilish of these is soy! Soy chemically castrates the male mammals who eat it, curtailing the propogation of any species foolish enough to consume it.
Plants are not the best food. Their nutrients are not as readily absorbed as that found in animals, being in a plant form. Then, where the nutrients do exist, they are often blocked by phytic acid and other anti-nutrients.
"Eat plants that aren't grains, legumes or tubers, but get most of your calories from animals. Especially aquatic creatures, ruminants, and organ meats." That's my counter to Michael Pollan's #4 above.
And pretty much my whole nutrition philosophy. It's based on obtaining the nutrients we need in the balance that is most natural for our species.
(BTW, I noticed the addition of ", especially leaves" to the original article above. Good move!)
ReplyI'll just say that probably anyone who has grown anything in a garden would probably think of that. I know that's what I thought of when I read this statement of his; I think I might have thought of tomatoes or cucumbers first. And quite honestly, you sound paranoid in your latest comment. Perhaps animal foods work best for you, but I feel like crap when I eat too many of them. I run better on mostly vegetables, some fruit, some whole grains, minimal amounts of dairy and eggs, and a little bit of fish. What works for you may not work best for someone else.
ReplyMessed up above. "Probably anyone who has grown anything in a garden probably wouldn't think of that." I can't type today.
ReplyLots of extreme views here. What happened to moderate thinking? Humans are omnivores, we need vegetables and meat to survive.
ReplyEarly humans ate lots more plants than they did animals. Men would go hunt for prey and they were probably lucky if they got one or two antelope or bison or rabbits a week. The women gathered wild berries, greens (like dandelion, watercress, etc), edible roots (probably wild celery-type plants, radishes, salsify, etc.), nuts, fruits, and other things. Although some plants DO try to warn animals not to eat them, other plants actually entice animals to eat them. A lot of berries rely on being eaten to spread their seeds. Why do you think they change color when they are ripe??
I'm not saying animals are bad to eat; I wholly agree with you Kailash on the fact that animals are very nourishing. I'm just saying that it's absolutely ridiculous to say that they are the ONLY source of nutrition that we should eat. Early humans probably ate a diet of like, 20% meat and 80% plants. It probably varied with the seasons and what was available, but I'm pretty sure that they figured out which plants were safe and which were poisonous and ate accordingly.
ReplyWhoa, whoa, when did I say that? I love me some fruit and nuts, leafy greens and squash, even roots like carrots, parsnips, etc. But some of those can be just as hard to gather as prey animals are to successfully hunt, if you're wild foraging rather than gardening. And when calories mean life or death.
Particularly if it's the wrong season! You ever try foraging in the early summer? Fugghedaboutit
So, I think you're underestimating the hunters' ability. Particularly back in the old days, when prey were plentiful (habitats, and all that). Look at the Native American travel food, for instance: Pemmican. Meat and berries. Sure, the Egyptians relied on falafal. And look where that got them. They were the first to record high instances of dental caries, heart disease, etc. which we think of as diseases of modernity. There's the error of agriculture, for you.
And while you go on about the women's ability to gather more than the men hunted... Don't forget about mollusks! Our paleo-sista's were harvesting them by the basketful. That's why today we need so much omega-3 fats. And have such large brains built upon DHA. Check out the nutritional profile of mollusks. They are astounding! (And taste great too.)
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c215X.html
And while you're at it, check out the story of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, and what he found in the Arctic. Those people had and have no problem getting plenty of animals to eat. 90% of their diet! Check out the nutritional profile on seal oil, it'll blow your mind. I mean, eat that olive oil + flax oil!
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c226r.html
I've had a garden myself, and of course, grew no grains in it. (Some people do corn.) But yet, when I read "Eat mostly plants", I realized most people would read that as "Eat mostly not animals" and scarf corn and soy like it's going out of style.
Think of how stupid is the average person. Now realize that about half of everyone is dumber than that.
Then, of course, the post above was modified to say ", especially leaves", which changes everything. And makes actual sense. Particularly for a dieter who is relying on caloric restriction. Salads w/ meat can be very useful in this regard.
Reply