Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual

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3 Sentence Summary

In this lighthearted and quick read, Michael Pollan reminds us that eating well doesn’t need to be complicated. Adages like “avoid foods with ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce,” “eat mostly plants, especially leaves,” “stop eating before you’re full,” and 80 others fill these colorful pages. This book is a fun reminder that a healthy relationship with food boils down to making simple choices.

5 Key Takeaways

1. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
2. Eating healthy is common sense. Don’t make it complicated.
3. Avoid processed foods and ingredients you don’t recognize.
4. Use meat for flavor, not the main course.
5. Pay more, eat less.

Food Rules Summary

Introduction

• The “Western” diet is characterized by lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, and lots of refined grains.
• People who eat the Western diet invariably suffer from high rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
• Populations eating a remarkably wide range of traditional diets generally don’t suffer from these chronic diseases.
• There is no ideal human diet, other than avoiding the Western diet that reliably makes people sick.

What Should I Eat? (Eat Food)

1. Eat food (not edible, highly processed, food-like substances)
2. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food
3. Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry
4. Avoid food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup
5. Avoid foods that that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients
6. Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients
7. Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce
8. Avoid food products that make health claims
9. Avoid food products with the word “lite” or the terms “low-fat” or “nonfat” in their name
10. Avoid food that are pretending to be something they are not
11. Avoid foods that you see advertised on television
12. Get out of the supermarket whenever you can
13. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle
14. Eat only foods that will eventually rot
15. Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature
16. Go food shopping every week
17. Buy your snacks at the farmers’ market
18. Eat close to the earth
19. Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans
20. Don’t ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap
21. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t
22. It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car
23. It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language (think Big Mac, Cheetos, Pringles)
24. When you eat real food, you don’t need rules

What Kind of Foods Should I Eat? (Mostly Plants)

25. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
26. Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food
27. “Eating what stands on one leg [mushrooms and plant foods] is better than eating what stands on two legs [fowl], which is better than eating what stands on four legs [cows, pigs, and other mammals]”
28. Eat your colors
29. Drink the spinach water
30. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well (grass-fed)
31. If you have the space, buy a freezer
32. Eat like an omnivore
33. Eat well-grown food from healthy soil
34. Eat wild foods when you can
35. Don’t overlook the oily little fishes
36. Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacteria or fungi
37. Sweeten and salt your food yourself
38. Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature
39. Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk
40. Make water your beverage of choice
41. Milk is a food, not a beverage
42. “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead”
43. Avoid sugary and starchy foods if you’re concerned about your weight
44. Favor the kinds of oils and grains that have traditionally been stone ground
45. Eat all the junk food you want, as long as you cook it yourself
46. Love your spices
47. Be the kind of person who takes supplements—then skip the supplements
48. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.
49. Regard nontraditional foods with skepticism
50. Avoid ingredients that lie to your body (fake sugars, starches, and fats)
51. Enjoy drinks that have been caffeinated by nature, not food science
52. Have a glass of wine with dinner

How Should I Eat? (Not too much)

53. Pay more, eat less
54. …Eat less
55. Stop eating before you’re full
56. Eat when you’re hungry, not when you’re bored
57. If you’re not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you’re probably not hungry
58. It’s okay to be a little hungry
59. Don’t let yourself get too hungry
60. Consult your gut
61. Serve the vegetables first
62. Eat slowly
63. “The banquet is in the first bite”
64. Try to spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it
65. Give some thought to where your food comes from
66. Don’t become a short-order cook
67. Buy smaller plates and glasses
68. Serve a proper portion and don’t go back for seconds
69. Order the small
70. “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dine like a pauper”
71. Eat meals
72. Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods
73. Do all your eating at a table
74. Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does
75. “No labels on the table”
76. Place a bouquet of flowers on the table and everything will taste twice as good
77. Leave something on your plate
78. Eat with other people whenever you can
79. Treat treats as treats
80. Compost
81. Plant a vegetable garden if you have the space, a window box if you don’t
82. Cook
83. Break the rules once in a while