Everyday Systems

Michael Pollan wrote:I’d like your help gathering some rules for eating well. My premise is that culture has a lot to teach us about how to choose, prepare and eat food, and that this wisdom is worth collecting and preserving before it disappears.

In recent years, we’ve deferred to the voices of science and industry when it comes to eating, yet often their advice has served us poorly, or has merely confirmed the wisdom of our grandmother after the fact. “Eat your colors,†an Australian reader’s grandmother used to tell her; now we hear the same advice from nutritionists, citing the value of including as many different phytochemicals in the diet as possible.

I’ve also found that many ethnic traditions have their own memorable expressions for what amounts to the same recommendation. Many cultures, for example, have grappled with the problem of food abundance and come up with different ways of suggesting you should stop eating before you’re completely full. The Japanese say “hara hachi bu†(“eat until you are four-fifths fullâ€). Germans advise eaters to “tie off the sack before it’s full.†And the Prophet Muhammad recommended that a full belly should contain one-third food, one-third drink and one-third air. My own Russian-Jewish grandfather used to say at the end of every meal, “I always like to leave the table a little bit hungry.â€

I want to create a compendium of such rules, across cultures and also time. Some of the rules readers have sent me so far are specifically about navigating the modern food landscape: “It’s not food if it comes to you through the window of a car.†“Don’t eat at any restaurant of which there is more than just one.†“A snack is not the same thing as a treat.†“If a bug won’t eat it, why would you?†and so on.

Will you send me a food rule you try to live by? Something perhaps passed down by your parents or grandparents? Or something you’ve come up with to tell your children – or yourself?

I will post your suggestions on my Web site and plan to include the best in a collection of food rules I’m now compiling. Thanks in advance for your contribution.

Nichole wrote:Great article, thanks for sharing! I am also amazed at the comments. Since you read the Times, did you see the article on the funeral museum? Interesting and fascinating (though gross to me), pictures.

Food is nothing more than fuel for your body, like gasoline for your car. If you can divorce as much pleasure as you can from food, it’s easier to control/restrict your calories and also eat healthier, but in some instances, less “tasty†foods. YMMV as most people don’t want to do this.

Thalia wrote:The comments run the gamut from interesting, thoughtful, and useful to kind of loony -- i guess you'd expect that.

This one made me sad:

Food is nothing more than fuel for your body, like gasoline for your car. If you can divorce as much pleasure as you can from food, it’s easier to control/restrict your calories and also eat healthier, but in some instances, less “tasty†foods. YMMV as most people don’t want to do this.

Thalia wrote:The comments run the gamut from interesting, thoughtful, and useful to kind of loony -- i guess you'd expect that.

This one made me sad:

Food is nothing more than fuel for your body, like gasoline for your car. If you can divorce as much pleasure as you can from food, it’s easier to control/restrict your calories and also eat healthier, but in some instances, less “tasty†foods. YMMV as most people don’t want to do this.

Nichole wrote:What I really hate about most of the responses is that most people are sooo condecending about it. Anyone else notice that?

Thalia wrote: I don't know if you're familiar with followers of Nourishing Traditions or the Paleolithic diet people, but many of them are INSUFFERABLE.

Nichole wrote:It's those people who say "you should visit the farm where you get your food" and "I don't eat anything that comes from a box" that come off as self-righteous.