Everyday Systems

As mentioned on the other board, I'm currently reading Michael Pollan's Food Rules. I like it. It's divided into three parts based on his mantra from In Defense of Food: Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.

Each section begins with a question:
What should I eat? Eat food.
What kind of food should I eat? Mostly plants.
How should I eat? Not too much.

Each rule is followed by a brief explanation (usually about a page). Most of his rules are compatible with No-S and some are almost taken from No-S (Serve a proper portion and don't go back for seconds).

I recommend it.

Good to know. Michael Pollan has the ear of a lot of influential people - specifically educated, employed people with healthy amounts of disposable income.

Some of my work overlaps the Ag sector, producers mainly as opposed to Big Food (ADM, Cargill and Con Ag) and they - even the producers - really, really don't like Michael Pollan's message. Of course, Michael Pollan is the face of all sorts of anti- big ag movements some of which he represents and some of which he doesn't (PETA, for example).

The USDA, in an attempt to resolve this rift, has developed the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative.

I'm a fan of both Pollan and Mark Bittman. While their messages are similar, they're not identical. I like Part 12 of this video. The whole video is good.

I can understand why Pollan's message would be extremely unpopular among some sectors. Unfortunately, those sectors are contributing to the obesity and poor health among Americans (and others).

I'd love to be able to figure out how to get the message to a wider audience -- and get them started making changes. I have an idea how to do it and it doesn't involve books, the internet, magazine or newspaper articles. It's TV -- and not TV shows, but commercials, maybe "infomercials." Also I think Jamie Oliver has a good idea in Food Revolution. It's very simple: Pass it on. He's specifically talking about cooking and recipes, but why not better, healthier eating?

I've been talking about all this with a neighbor -- just in conversation, not so much to "teach" her. She's not only started eating more "real" food, she's started cooking more (previously did a lot of take-out and frozen meals, etc.). I think she thought I was nuts, but I know she's checked it out with others who agree with me!

Just received this book yesterday and was interested to find that Pollan actually mentions No S, on page 131, in the section called "Treat treats as treats." I don't think he pays Reinhard his due, though.

Another is to limit your consumption of such foods to weekends or social occasions. Some people follow a so-called S policy: "no snacks, no seconds, no sweets -- except on days that begin with the letter S."

I completely missed that! To be honest, I only read the subject line and thought "it's similar to No-S."

If you have any food rules that you think Michael Pollan should know about, he's still collecting them. There's an email address in the body of this article where they can be sent.

And yet another article complete with reader comments.

Piece of Pollan trivia: Michael Pollan is the brother of actress Tracy Pollan and brother-in-law to Michael J. Fox.

Food Rules is actually where I heard about No S and why I decided to Google and ultimately buy the book. My Mom loaned Food Rules to me and it's a pretty good book but I have to admit that some of his rules went in one ear and out the other. The "it's not food if it comes through the window of your car" one seems catchy but like it would suffer a quick death in most people's realities.

amake616 wrote:Food Rules is actually where I heard about No S and why I decided to Google and ultimately buy the book. My Mom loaned Food Rules to me and it's a pretty good book but I have to admit that some of his rules went in one ear and out the other. The "it's not food if it comes through the window of your car" one seems catchy but like it would suffer a quick death in most people's realities.

I'm amazed at how many people I know who have either sworn off fast food or strictly limit it. Neither of my daughters eat it anymore.

That's pretty awesome for them, I know a lot of people who have tried it but none that have totally succeeded in entirely cutting it out. It definitely saves a lot of sodium and fat grams just by reducing it.