Common Sense Nutrition Rules

In my study of nutrition and food, I have come face to face with a startling fact. Americans eat very poorly. In an article I will post tomorrow explaining the value of organic foods, I have come to the realization that organic is not the prime issue of concern in the American diet. Our young people are getting far more calories from soft drinks than from all their combined vegetable consumption (web). To argue that the few vegetables that they eat be organic is missing the point of eating healthfully.

So what are we eating rather than food? What is an edible food like substance? The classic example is the Twinkie. It can sit on the shelf and not rot or mold and hold its texture for years. It seems the fungi and bacteria have better sense as to what is good food than most Americans!


So here are some simple diet rules:

1. Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
2. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
3. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
4. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
5. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
6. Always leave the table a little hungry.
7. Enjoy meals with the people you love.
8. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. (rule 1-8 from web)
9. Don't purchase a cereal that will color the milk. (video)
10. The whiter the bread, the sooner you'l be dead. (video)
11. Cook for yourself, it's going to be healthier than what you're buying. (web and video)
12. Don't buy a food that is advertised on TV. (video)
13. Wash hands and food with running water.
14. Don't eat foods that once had a face. 

Do you have a favorite rule that helps your family eat healthfully?


Resources:

• Edible Food Like Substances (web)
• 'Real Food' vs. 'Edible, Food-Like Substances' (video)
• 7 Words & 7 Rules for Eating per Michael Pollen (web)