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Food Rules: A Completely Different Way To Fix The Health Care Crisis
The idea for this book came from a doctor--a couple of them, as a
matter of fact. They had read my last book, "In Defense of Food", which
ended with a handful of tips for eating well: simple ways to navigate
the treacherous landscape of modern food and the often-confusing
science of nutrition. "What I would love is a pamphlet I could hand to
my patients with some rules for eating wisely," they would say. "I
don't have time for the big nutrition lecture and, anyway, they really
don't need to know what an antioxidant is in order to eat wisely."
Another doctor, a transplant cardiologist, wrote to say "you can't
imagine what I see on the insides of people these days wrecked by
eating food products instead of food." So rather than leaving his heart
patients with yet another prescription or lecture on cholesterol, he
gives them a simple recipe for roasting a chicken, and getting three
wholesome meals out of it -- a very different way of thinking about
health.
Make no mistake: our health care crisis is in large part a crisis of the American diet -- roughly three quarters of the two-trillion plus we spend on health care in this country goes to treat chronic diseases, most of which can be prevented by a change in lifestyle, especially diet. And a healthy diet is a whole lot simpler than the food industry and many nutritional scientists -- what I call the Nutritional Industrial Complex -- would have us believe. After spending several years trying to answer the supposedly incredibly complicated question of how we should eat in order to be maximally healthy, I discovered the answer was shockingly simple: eat real food, not too much of it, and more plants than meat. Or, put another way, get off the modern western diet, with its abundance of processed food, refined grains and sugars, and its sore lack of vegetables, whole grains and fruit.
So I decided to take the doctors up on the challenge. I set out to collect and formulate some straightforward, memorable, everyday rules for eating, a set of personal policies that would, taken together or even separately, nudge people onto a healthier and happier path. I solicited rules from doctors, scientist, chefs, and readers, and then wrote a bunch myself, trying to boil down into everyday language what we really know about healthy eating. And while most of the rules are backed by science, they are not framed in the vocabulary of science but rather culture -- a source of wisdom about eating that turns out to have as much, if not more, to teach us than nutritional science does.
What follows is a small sample of "Food Rules", a half dozen policies that will give you a taste of what you'll find in the book: sixty-four food rules, each with a paragraph of explanation. I think you'll see from this little appetizer that "Food Rules" is a most unconventional diet book. You can read it in an hour and it just might change your eating life. I hope you'll take away something you can put to good use, and maybe get a chuckle or two along the way. And do let me know if have any food rules I should know about. I'm still collecting them, at pollanfoodrules@gmail.com.
#11 Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
Food marketers are ingenious at turning criticisms of their products --
and rules like these -- into new ways to sell slightly different
versions of the same processed foods: They simply reformulate (to be
low-fat, have no HFCS or transfats, or to contain fewer ingredients)
and then boast about their implied healthfulness, whether the boast is
meaningful or not. The best way to escape these marketing ploys is to
tune out the marketing itself, by refusing to buy heavily promoted
foods. Only the biggest food manufacturers can afford to advertise
their products on television: More than two thirds of food advertising
is spent promoting processed foods (and alcohol), so if you avoid
products with big ad budgets, you'll automatically be avoiding edible
foodlike substances. As for the 5 percent of food ads that promote
whole foods (the prune or walnut growers or the beef ranchers), common
sense will, one hopes, keep you from tarring them with the same brush
-- these are the exceptions that prove the rule.
From "Food Rules":
#19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
#36 Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
This should go without saying. Such cereals are highly processed and
full of refined carbohydrates as well as chemical additives.
#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
There is nothing wrong with eating sweets, fried foods, pastries,
even drinking soda every now and then, but food manufacturers have made
eating these formerly expensive and hard-to-make treats so cheap and
easy that we're eating them every day. The french fry did not become
America's most popular vegetable until industry took over the jobs of
washing, peeling, cutting, and frying the potatoes -- and cleaning up
the mess. If you made all the french fries you ate, you would eat them
much less often, if only because they're so much work. The same holds
true for fried chicken, chips, cakes, pies, and ice cream. Enjoy these
treats as often as you're willing to prepare them -- chances are good
it won't be every day.
#47 Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.
For many of us, eating has surprisingly little to do with hunger. We eat out of boredom, for entertainment, to comfort or reward ourselves. Try to be aware of why you're eating, and ask yourself if you're really hungry -- before you eat and then again along the way. (One old wive's test: If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you're not hungry.) Food is a costly antidepressant.
#58 Do all your eating at a table.
No, a desk is not a table. If we eat while we're working, or while watching TV or driving, we eat mindlessly -- and as a result eat a lot more than we would if we were eating at a table, paying attention to what we're doing. This phenomenon can be tested (and put to good use): Place a child in front of a television set and place a bowl of fresh vegetables in front of him or her. The child will eat everything in the bowl, often even vegetables that he or she doesn't ordinarily touch, without noticing what's going on. Which suggests an exception to the rule: When eating somewhere other than at a table, stick to fruits and vegetables.
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54 Comments so far
Show AllAnother great source of info:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/recipes/
The Nutrition Source
Recipes
5 quick tips healthy kitchen (5-quick-tips-healthy-kitchen.jpg)
Healthy eating begins in the kitchen, whether it's in a home, restaurant, dining hall, or other venue. To get the most out of the recipes you prepare, keep your kitchen stocked with ingredients from the Healthy Eating Pyramid.
1. Produce. Choose locally grown vegetables and fruits whenever you can. Keep on hand garlic, onions, dark salad greens like spinach and romaine, carrots, and apples. When you shop, select produce that looks good, or what's on sale. Read about vegetables, fruits and health or try these delicious vegetable recipes.
2. Grains. Trade in white rice for the bounty of great whole grains: barley, cracked wheat (bulgur), oat berries, quinoa, brown rice, and a host of others. Try whole wheat pasta or one of the whole wheat blends now on the market. Read about whole grains and health or try these whole grain recipes.
3. Protein. Rely on healthy protein packages such as fresh fish, chicken or turkey, tofu, eggs, and a variety of beans and nuts. And move away from the traditional mealtime paradigm of a large portion of meat at the center of your plate. Instead, build a healthy plate with equal servings of protein, whole grains, and vegetables. Try these healthy recipes for nuts and tofu, fish and chicken.
4. Fats and oils. Use liquid vegetable oils whenever possible for sautéing vegetables, stir-frying fish or chicken, and as the base of salad dressings. Good choices include canola, sunflower, corn, soybean, peanut, and olive oil. A dash of a specialty oil, like extra-virgin olive oil, walnut or pistachio oil, sesame oil, or truffle oil, can make steamed vegetables come alive. Mashed avocado, rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, makes a fabulous topping for sandwiches. Read more about fats and health, or try these recipes that use healthy fats.
5. Other essentials. Learn what chefs have known for a long time: A small amount of a high-quality ingredient goes a long way toward boosting flavor. Stock your kitchen with good-quality tomato sauce, balsamic vinegar, fresh and dried herbs, dried cherries or cranberries, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and a variety of unsalted nuts (such as walnuts, almonds, and pistachios).
The Bottom Line
Healthy eating can be as delicious as it is nutritious—a feast for the senses as well as good for the body.
I could be wrong BUT I'm not - in this case!
blessed be ... the chef!
right as rain, Harvard, ... and friend.
"a feast for the senses as well as good for the body."
... which brings relief, focuses awareness, dispels depression,
engages creativity, wonder, happiness, hope, joy and will to live.
total counter to being angry about the "Savior" who's Health Plan ain't.
slow food nation realization.
This is fine advice for healthy eating, but it most decidedly won't fix the health care crisis.
It is, frankly, more of the same self-righteous, hyper-individualized, blame-the-victim thinking adopted by affluent liberals from the "libertarian" right.
Pleanty of healthy eaters get sick and need medical care. And plenty of rich junky food is eaten in countries with far lower health care costs.
The problem is the system, not the individual.
You are correct. Thank you.
"It is the system that is at fault"... Meaning our society.
You really think fighting corporations and saving others is more efficacious,
than minding what goes into your own body, don't you?
Good Lord.
Slowly: If you want health, find it. "Make It So."
everything that you presume for others, might just be
simply "minding their own business".
The system is the problem yes, but we as individuals could do way more to determine our own health and well-being. As Pollan notes, three quarters of healthcare dollars are spent on diet-related illnesses. I know many people who, even though they are well aware of the corruptness of our "food" system, continue to buy into it. Just don't! It doesn't have to be expensive and for "affluent liberals" only. Education is the key and it's a shame Pollan's message won't get out to the people who need to hear it most.
"As Pollan notes, three quarters of healthcare dollars are spent on diet-related illnesses."
And how can was this determined? Such a direct causual connection between diet and illness is impossible. I assume this pseudo-statiastic was obtained by simply calling every heart disease, artery disease, or colon cancer "diet related" - even though a majority of these cases would have still happened, perhaps a bit later in life, regardless of diet. So, such a "statistic" is nonsense.
And while the importance of making heallthy lifestyle choices is a truism individual lifestyle choices all too often end up becoming waht is done instead of action. The decline of our public water supplies is a classic example - the rich liberals just buy a $1000 reverse-osmosos filter syatem, and to hell with those who can't afford it.
Well, the incidence of obesity in the population over time is measurable, as is the prevalence of diabetes, asthma, etc., and if the changes match those of diet change, that's certainly something to look twice at, and so we are. It's not any more of a stretch than the smoking = lung cancer meme which everyone seems to have accepted.
I think it's a great article. I would add something I didn't see in the piece - the fact that most of the potentially harmful processed foods are made by BigCorps whom we already support through tax breaks, agricultural subsidies, etc.
The acquaintance of mine who died of lung cancer never touched a cigarette.
I am not suggesting that the US doesn't have public health problems, notably mass-marketed junk food related obesity but the contribution of these conditions to health care costs is far down the list compared to other factors like lack of price controls or a lack of a universal single-payer system.
This article reflects an un-compassionate, blame-the-victim, every-man-for-himself attitude more typical of the right and the so-called "libertarians".
and there are certainly unavoidable carcinogens galore, everywhere around and in us, and we won't get rid of them without changing the system,
(www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/04-3)
but we can also avoid a lot of others by not eating the food or taking part in the system. stopping our own participation is the first step to everything: replacing it with a better system of systems, being healthier, educating ourselves and becoming more aware... and the feedback gotten from the first step tells us what the second is.
we're not likely to win a war while paying our enemies more than our allies.
"we're not likely to win a war while paying our enemies more than our allies."
sometimes, the "allies" are far worse than the perceived enemies.
and i'm not "playing" at all.
no one here is going to stop what really is happening, it is every man
for themselves. get it.
obviously, if they are worse than enemies they are not allies. i said allies and oddly, by that i meant... allies. i could also have said "paying our enemies more than our own soldiers" which would have fit the metaphor.
the metaphor was war, not play.
no one said anything about playing.
and thinking it's every[one] for him or herself is conservative philosophy. we are in it for ourselves AND for everyone else, and they for us, recognize it or not. physically, psychologically, and in every other way we are in it together.
no one knows what it is that is happening, because everything is happening: collapse, revival, oppression, revolt, advance of both monsanto and organic permaculture. No one knows how it's going to turn out, and buddhism, the best answer i know to the dilemma, says we should act the best way we know and let go of attachment to results, which we have no control over.
The kindred spirits: you mean fellow 'progressives' – allies?
The ones which fundamentally misunderstand conservatism, and equally "liberal agenda", would be worse in many ways than the perceived 'enemies'. Think of why this is stated.
Layla is the play of Gods, and I'm glad you too are serious.
But does not your Tao, also say everyone must act ultimately for themselves,
first? You attempt to change an unchangeable situation, for all the wrong reasons.
You fail, the effort is only wasted, and the enemy wins by simple default.
Yell, or pray, to a wall of indifference –or ignorance– same result.
These are the contradictions I point at, in kinship with all.
The control we each have, is upon ourselves.
I mean allies, whatever situation or philosophy. That's why I said, several times, "allies" and not "something else".
"The ones WHO..." you mean?
Maybe you don't realize how insulting your little aftercomments are: "Think of..." "get it." What makes you think I'm not, and don't?
My 'Tao' is Buddhism which as far as I know says nothing of the kind. That kind of act is caused by an illusion---of separateness. When you act wisely, in touch with all that we're connected to, there is no such thing as a separate self to act for. You act for all, and doing that you act also in 'your own' best interest.
Indifference is the same thing as ignorance, and vice versa.
And control is an illusion. We can only act and let go.
"the rich liberals just buy a $1000 reverse-osmosos filter syatem, and to hell with those who can't afford it."
actually, that is a better way than accepting chlorine/fluoride poison to really completely destroy your health. try a quality solid carbon filter, and one for the shower. reverse-osmosos filters waste 5 gallons for each gallon filtered, leave treated water devoid of necessary minerals and were created for machine water purification.
and as to: "even though a majority of these cases would have still happened, perhaps a bit later in life, regardless of diet."
you really are not understanding "Eating Well" are you?
The difference between eating organic food and buying a water filter is that
eating organically is voting for a system that uses fewer pesticides, learns from nature and lives within it and recognizes it as us, and spreads the benefits of that vote around to all. There are fewer poisons in the world, fewer poisoned workers, less financial support for poisoning and eroding the world's capacity, and more support for the natural, ancient and future way of growing food, fiber and materials.
while buying a water filter is voting for a system of increasingly-poisonous water with a loophole for rich people. Of course it doesn't even begin to work, but the illusion that it does encourages ignore-ance of the malfunctions in the system.
If you're completely selfless you could buy a water filter and work for cleaner water (decreased fossil fuel, chemical industry and agriculture, etc.) but that's almost impossible for most, imperfect, people to sustain. Work to make your body burden less--by removing the poisons at their source, wherever that is.
PJD, most individuals just give lip service to changing there diet without doing the personal experiment themselves. It's easy just to be cynical about the natural food movement unless one actually has the experiential discovery of much more vibrate health.
The knowledge and principles of natural health have been around for 10,000 years or more ebbing and fllowing at different times and climes. Now we are in one of the darkest periods (read the article on CD about the hundreds, even thousands of chemicals that are secretly allowed to be added to our environments by the corporate controlled politicians) in history so there is a crying out from humanity for answers and the exacting laws of natural health and diet are becoming manifest to those who seek them.
In nature health is more of the norm and sickness and disease the exception (realizing that all creatures must eventually die either by predation or disease). Look at the deer, squirrels, dolphins. There is some degree of variations in size and strength, but generally most have a very high rate of positive normality, in athleticism, looks and overall life force. Man would be know different if he lived as the animals and ate a lived naturally according to his physiologic makeup.
Like many when I was younger I was a drinker, par-tier, and over indulged in any food that suited my fancy. Even though strong physically I suffered from chronic sickness that was always treated with allopathic drugs. I got sicker and sicker and new I wouldn't make it past 30 unless something changed. Luckily it was the late 60's I was a hippy and had the consciousness and motivation to change. I became a vegetarian, started eating whole foods in as natural a state as possible, gave up alcohol and eventually psychedelic drugs. Started exercising and doing yoga and my conscious changed from the inside out, and outside in.
Of course these personal choices aren't everything but you can't simply become a revolutionary on the outside while neglecting personal responsibility on the inside. One responsibility is personal and the other social like a two sided sword that cuts through the Mia (illusion and delusion that every person encounters in every time and age).
I do realize things are getting more and more difficult to live this natural life style as habitat (even for man) is disappearing. One used to be able to go a little further up the mountain or deeper in the jungle to avoid the rapaciousness of a corrupt society and habits but more and more where all becoming like the polar bear: stuck on an every shrinking island in a sea of cold hostility.
Please refer to Will Tuttles enlightening book: "The World Peace Diet" for more specifics.
PJD412: It's both the system AND the individual.
Some people tend to get sick no matter how well they eat, so yes, it would be best if we had a generous single payer system.
AND overall, we will have a positive effect by improving our eating and food purchasing habits.
Forget the labels - I'm not a liberal or wealthy, and I made a promise to treat my body, the food, and those who grow it with respect, for the greater good of everyone. That doesn't mean I won't get sick. But at least I have tried to do my part. How about you?
Obviously they have, or they wouldn't be sharing like that.
And if you get sick? Find an alternative, along the same lines
as you have for diet. You simply don't live forever, and the opportunity
now is as great for information as it is for food alternatives.
Seems like the 'dependency gene' is still firing quite well.
Brought down this Nation, now how about you?
We have overwhelmed ourselves, and the HeathCare System with this
"entitlement-lack of personal responsibility". Fix ourselves first.
the system as is will long outlive all of us. Small towns, trusted
family doctors are long gone, dear.
Michael Pollan got it exactly right and if you understood the immense power of food, he is not only promoting safe food but health.
How much of the health care crisis is about diabetes, which is food related? How quickly can someone get rid of type 2 diabetes with a change in diet? Very quickly.
How much does cancer have to do with food? How much cancer could be avoided by eating healthy food? How much cancer has increased since the advent of pesticides, antibiotics, hormones and GMOs in food?
What about asthma? GMO soy is associated with immediate and severe increases in asthma and with other disorders.
What about arthritis? If food weren't powerful for health, why would the FDA threaten cherry growers for simply including links to peer reviewed studies about cherries's value? It turns out that cherries are potentially ten times stronger than aspirin and other related drugs controlling pain and inflammation, drugs that hospitalize hundreds of thousands of people and kill thousands each year. Cherries don't. That's food.
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2006/mar2006_cover_cherries_01.htm
Indian spices like turmeric is now being studied in universities for its association with preventing cancer and properties for treating it and CF and arthritis and Alzheimers, and more. All the pickled things you normally eat along with barbequed meat actually has value in protecting you for the carbon from that meat. Raw milk is great for health in general, from teeth to allergies and was used by the Mayo Clinic years ago to treat a range of diseases. ...
There are many more diseases that are related to food and can be avoided or made better by real food. Help the millions of people sick with those diseases and you pull billions out of the equation for health care and you have a healthcare system that isn't collapsing under the weight of agribusiness and pharmaceutical harm.
Food is astounding. Why the drug companies are doing all they can to patent natural substances?
You said plenty of healthy eaters get sick and certainly many do but are you talking about chronic or acute diseases? And how do you define "healthy eaters"? Spinach from industrial farms? Only chicken, but from CAFOs and fed on GMO corn? Only soy but without realizing it's GM?
Pollan's book is a threat to the drug and health care industry which have the FDAdoing all it can to destroy food through
S 510 and to keep people from even having information on nutrition. They just kidnapped an herbalist for even suggesting he had something that might treat skin cancer. www.naturalnews.com/027750_Greg_Caton_FDA.html
Pollan, brilliantly, brings together food and health and with very simple rules that - without focusing there - leaves one without GMOs and pesticides, and many diseases that are avoidable.
Pollan isn't blaming the individual in making those simple rules. He is giving every single person a means of not only negotiating the completely corrupt system but of - in the millions - taking it fully apart.
"Pleanty of healthy eaters get sick and need medical care. And plenty of rich junky food is eaten in countries with far lower health care costs."
And plenty of people in single payer health care systems die regardless of the medical care.
Plenty of people in the UK, with single payer health care, suffer from diabetes. The UK, with its single payer health care system, ALSO has a problem with obesity.
pjd,
and as long as we continue to give our money to those who operate the system it will continue to control both our lives and politics. there's a fine line--or no line--between a "political" boycott and a "personal" lifestyle change. it is the combination of "personal" and "political", done consciously, at first by just a few, that changes worlds.
you can find incredible deals at local farmer's markets, CSAs, friends' and neighbors'.
grow your own. start small, with herbs and a few vegetables--yard, community garden, windowsill, roof... then work up to eating one meal a week just from your production. then one day a week.
don't like what's in bread? make your own; even organic whole grain flour is cheap. make an extra and share it with someone or trade for their backyard eggs or bicycle repair... there are a thousand ways to kiss the sky.
The biggest problems are that the Individual doesn't know their system, and The System doesn't know it's individuals.
Rule #1: if whatever you eat clogs or slows down or depletes the energy flow of your individual system, then stop eating or eat less or eat with a more conducive manner (relaxed, happier...) for digestion, assimilation and excretion whatever you're eating.
Rule #1A: Individuals and Systems are always in a state of change, what is healthy to eat one day is unhealthy the next then healthy again...as with all things, be present in the moment when eating, it's actually the most enjoyable and dynamic way to eat even if it's a mono meal of carrots.
Truth #1: smoking doesn't cause cancer, though a high mucus producing diet plus smoking is a recipe for disaster (all high process factory foods are high mucus producers).
Truth #2: "mind-set" is an over riding factor whether eating highly structured foods or denatured foods; a coarse bitter mind-set can bring on disease no matter the diet, a composed harmonious happy mind-set can assist the digestion and assimilation and excretion of most anything (I wouldn't test this with uranium broth, until you've sat with your guru in the Himalayas for awhile, but after...? (see Be Here Now; and Ram Das' Guru LSD story).
Truth #3: 30% of Individuals are allergic, to some degree, to any food; that's why the System not knowing it's Individuals is such a big problem (with Soy products being the latest infatuation of industrialized foodists; showing up in some form in perhaps every industrialized food product; has it passed refined sugar and wheat yet? Not bad for an industrial by-product: becoming the Nation's number one food; no there wasn't much democratic input on this republic decision!)
Rule #1Aa: Don't fight cancer or any other "sickness". Embrace the situation and learn it's lesson; whether that means learning a little bit more about a carrot or potato or the seasonality of a lettuce; or if it's the more difficult riddle of learning a new behavior and thought pattern after decades of imprinting.
Eat, Drink and Be Merry!...and don't miss out on each and every opportunity to touch and be touched by the peace.
Oh!...and please learn to optimally prepare and care for a pot of Gerson/Hippocrates soup...peace.
"more of the same self-righteous, hyper-individualized, blame-the-victim thinking adopted by affluent liberals from the "libertarian" right."
The "rat and rice" diet of the vietnamese, or any indigenous people, in fighting a forgein occupier satiated in gluttony (see Apocolypse Now) is a factor to winning a war...especially apparent when viewing the combination with the Mission's Morality (mind-set).
It is actually much harder to eat healthy in the US than Pollan (and others) suggest.
Nearly all "foodlike" stuff sold in supermarkets is adulterated one way or another, but so are the meat and produce. Last week I bought a package of "country style" pork ribs at a major chain and cooked a couple of them in my usual way. The first one didn't taste or chew right. I looked again at the packaging and saw in very fine print that around 15 percent of this "meat" was added fluids that included several chemicals including phosphates. I returned the remainder.
Bananas are the most consumed fruit in the US, but they are grown in other countries using chemicals I challenge the average American to even begin to understand.
Take bread, please! In-store bakeries (Krogers, Wal*Mart) have ingredient lists that compete with the national brands for unpronounceable chemicals.
I could go on and on here, but my point is that Pollan's suggestion that we need to take personal responsibility for what we eat, while noble, is almost impossible in practice, for most people. We have a history of food scandals in this country which gave rise to federal regulatory agencies such as the FDA and the USDA, but then along came Reagan and his deregulating successors.
It's like potholes. The street department could fill that major pothole for under $100, but people defunded the street department, so they didn't fill the pothole and now hundreds or thousands of cars hit that pothole, each damaged a little bit more, in the aggregate (pun intended) costing many thousands of dollars in cumulative costs. It is the intentional redistribution of pain.
A similar tactic permeates in many realms. If radiation is everywhere (due to atmospheric nuclear testing for example), then you can't blame the Three Mile Island disaster for your pancreatic cancer even if you were in the plume. And, while we're at it, let's get rid of those pesky civil defense attorneys and call it "tort reform."
You're On Your Own, Plebe. You're a worthless sack of sh*t, and you have only yourself to blame. You paid into Social Security and Medicare all your life. Now it's time to die. Tongue that wafer (loaded with high fructose corn syrup) and may God be with you. You want fries with that cremation?
It's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better. I notice CBS News' Katie Couric just announced a new poll "reporting" that Americans 65 and over are pessimistic about our national future while those 29 or under are quite optimistic. Fools.
This isn't Star Trek kids. You can't "make it so."
-30-
I'd advise reading labels BEFORE you buy things. Don't shop at Kroger or Wal-Mart. Support your local farmers market. Bake your own bread. Don't eat meat at all. We all know that BigAG is not about producing healthy food, so don't buy into it! By all means, fight for single-payer, but it ain't gonna happen any time soon so in the meantime, do what you can for yourself and your family. It's not that hard and doesn't have to be more expensive if you use your head. A bag of apples is certainly cheaper than a comparably-sized bag of chips!
Apologies...
I forgot to note, again, that the unfilled pothole actually adds to the Gross Domestic Product or Gross National Product, because repairing all those busted suspension systems increases "commerce."
Same with that pancreatic cancer. Look at the thousands upon thousands of dollars spent on heroic "health care" to keep you alive when you have a better chance with the Lottery. That expense adds to the GDP/GNP.
We need a fundamental shift in our sense of what it means to "produce" goods and services and how we measure it.
-30-
All good suggestions, but I am not sure the best way to get "Food Rules" out to everyone is to ask them to plunk down six-fifty. Why not get a foundation to fund free distribution to doctors who would hand them out to the neediest patients? We've got to start finding ways to step out of the capitalist model. Posting the "Food Rules" on the internet would be another possibility. Michael Pollan has enough money; he should start thinking how to share his insights with all of us--especially the poor--for nothing.
Two excellent books on diet: "Food and Feeding" by Herbert M. Shelton and "The Natural Food of Man" by Dr. Emmet Densmore. They will surprise you. Michael Pollan's books are better regarding the political and economic angles of food, but these two go deeper into the optimal diet.
"The same holds true for fried chicken, chips, cakes, pies, and ice cream. Enjoy these treats as often as you're willing to prepare them -- chances are good it won't be every day."
Here Pollan offers the same old unthinking, anthropocentric nonsense, effectively equating a living animal with a bag of chips. Some "treat," especially from the chicken's point of view! Go vegan/vegetarian ought to be rule #1, for the health of the animals, humans, environment, and economy.
Not everybody can handle a vegetarian diet. Some people are weakened by not getting the proteins and other nutrients that can only come from meat or fish. After a few years of trying to be a vegetarian, they end up with very unhealthy bodies, sicker than when they started.
You don't need meat or fish to get proteins and other nutrients. Milk and cheese, and tofu, all everyday foods which you can get anywhere, supply lots of protein.
rfloh is right: there's never been one documented case of a person requiring animal protein for optimum health; the supposed necessity of animal protein is simply a common and convenient myth. Move on.
"Here Pollan offers the same old unthinking, anthropocentric nonsense, effectively equating a living animal with a bag of chips."
If you were a real chicken I'd agree. But as you are not, I will continue to eat them.
Soy products are poison to the human body. And there goes your Great Green Hope.
In fact something to consider, is that the whole earth™ con of veganism, et.al. is the world consortium future explicitly mapped out for destroying human health en mass, sponsored by the most unkindly types of folks ... you know them, they keep your accounts. And we pay their 'bailouts'. Look into it, perhaps.
This is not to say that much can (and must) be improved in modern agribusiness, but that requires thought and introspection, not 'parrot talk' from AL GORE, who's new business is legally incorporated, perfectly enough, as GORE and BLOOD. try google.
and let our broccoli live!
Much to his discredit, Al Gore never mentions intensive animal agriculture -- the source of more greenhouse gasses than all transportation combined. Real men can imagine a life without harming little chickens, no?
"Soy products are poison to the human body. And there goes your Great Green Hope" Do I sense a little selective listening and learning here? If you learned that 'soy is poison' you must also have heard that dairy and animal flesh are poison. In fact excessive soy consumption is indeed the cause of hypothyroidism, the destruction of the thyroid. Fermented soys (like tempeh) used in the Japanese diet, are said to not cause this thyroid problem. The science is in: we just do not know the precise portions and what demographics are most at risk. A common sense rule right now is to consume a maximum of five portions of soy per person per week. Dairy and animal meats: no portions are safe. They are linked to all of our 'modern' diseases. But don't despair there are healthy and tasty substitutes, especially when you prepare them in your own kitchen. Just saying...
I'm glad you posted Paul. Bill Maher goes on that self-righteous health nut riff a lot of the time also, basically insulting Americans for their food choices. He sounds like a heel pro wrestler half the time, ranting about fat, lazy, oily Middle Americans.
To me this article would have been more appropriate for WebMD. Not that people shouldn't try to eat healthier, but it's a lot harder for the poor to eat healthier than it is for affluent folks. There's a reason why people on welfare often choose to dine at fast food joints than vegan restaurants. A bag of chips is cheaper than a bag of apples.
What about the garbage being served in many public schools? You have kids that may be getting their only 1-2 meals a day at their school, and half the time they're fed crap that is a step above pet food.
As far as public health goes, what about injuries, genetics, the fricking environment? Do those people who have no health insurance deserve to go without care or go broke because they slipped on an icy sidewalk or have a disorder than runs through their family or have asthma because someone dumped a toxic waste plant in their neighborhood?
Will eating nothing but plants make my allergies go away? This sounds like one of those stupid "Bottom Line" books I get junk mail for.
"CURE CANCER WITH CARROT JUICE!"
"WARD OFF ALZHEIMER'S WITH VITAMINS!"
Gotta have that "edge" over others. My mother bought a couple of those for some reason a number of years ago. I call them "Practical Satanism" books as they're all about capitalism and how to get over on others, like Neo-tech or some shit.
Let's have Universal Single Payer first and then worry about teaching people to eat better, and when we do, give them better more affordable choices as opposed to lectures.
Agreed on many of your points, like the 'worse than pet food' school lunches. But I challenge your chicken and egg logic regarding health care and education. In my opinion learning comes first: health, health care, and health insurance are derivative issues. In other words the better we learn (books, recipes, web-md, food labels) the healthier we become and the less 'care' and insurance we will need. Personally I rather pay my insurance premiums up front for healthy food and drink than for 'care' and medicine after it's too late. That makes moot the argument that poor people cannot afford healthy food. Also 'socialized' universal health care in most industrialized countries includes a (free) health & lifestyle education component, like wholesome nutrition, alcohol risks, pre/natal care, nicotine addiction. etc.
The usda/fda law for country of origin labeling (COOL) just went into effect. It is another piece of information that we as consumers may want to know before we ingest any product.
Btw, I am no father or mother, just trying to keep the health debate logical and maybe helpful.
Wonderful article - Pollan's observations and info has nothing to do with replacing medical care or blaming.
Another alternative is to learn to listen to your body and eat/medicate with wholesome foods, herbs, activity, and way of life.
Maintenance, no less than a car, leads to longevity and minimizing wear.
Every day can be a tune-up day. Inner space - one of the final frontiers
"Wonderful article - Pollan's observations and info has nothing to do with replacing medical care or blaming."
The title purports that this is a "Completely Different Way To Fix The Health Care Crisis."
The only way to fix it is with universal single payer. A DARE-like program for food won't work. It didn't work for drugs.
When it comes to the benefits of eating better food, I happen to agree with most of the posts here. Getting away from processed food and industrial agriculture is a great idea.
What I disagree with is the promise contained in the title that eating different foods yourself will somehow help someone else who is sick and needs medical care right now.
Well gosh, chaokoh, you almost fooled us all with that ridiculous strawperson argument. Let's actually read the article and see if he said that anywhere.... I'll wait and you go read and I'll be here.....
OK find it? Suprize suprize. I guess he didn't actually say that. Do you claim that if we all ate healthy food that we wouldn't have far fewer sick people and premature deaths?
I don't know anybody who reads CD who's stupid enough to think he's saying we don't have to do anything else. (Well, OK I take that back. But let's address ourselves to the other people.) Exercise, reducing our other exposure to carcinogens, and gosh and golly yes, electing people who actually have our interests at heart and not corporate profits, would all be good for the health care crisis. Getting corporate influence out of politics, with publicly-financed elections, for example; by taking back control of the public airwaves and other media, by insisting on divestiture and limits on media ownership... all good things. But you didn't say of that positive and helpful stuff. Please stop with the nonsense and talk about something meaningful. Or at least put your points in a less inflammatory and absurd way.
J4:
That's a track, and I'm going it one it further:
No one that hasn't cleaned up their food/personal environment first, is going to be
able to change politics in any meaningful way.
Still there?
Not there. Lots of people have made enormous changes without "clean[ing] up their food/personal environment first". Rachel Carson, as far as as I know, did not eat all organic food or get her health care from alternative practitioners or carpet her house with low VOC materials. (I could be wrong, but i think I would have read that.)
I think the 2 are linked; that we do far better at each and absorb the benefits of each when we do them together. I eat organically, produce as much of my own food as possible, (organic permaculture homestead) but waiting to change politics while you eliminate every last impure molecule is not only impossible it is, well, it is impossible. Enough said. The reason it's better to do both at once, or that is, the reason we WOULD do both at once, is because the root problem is our psychology. Our lack of awareness is what causes all of our problematic emotions, ideas and actions, and increasing our awareness lets us know that we need to solve both problems, and that the real ways to do that are often multifunctional solutions--good for both problems at the same time. Each reinforces and energizes the other.
There.
No, but even closer ... :-)
first, i applaud your use of permaculture, and homesteading, how excellent for you.
personally, as a city dweller, i can only support you/me through purchasing organic food from farmers whom share their goods. oh, and hosting folks like you when the need is for a city experience. i am my own doctor, just to cover that as well.
second, so rachel carson has changed the world, HOW exactly now? i understand she is dead ... and before you say it, so is Gandhi. And his dear India, under his childrens' rule, is adhering to his popularly disseminated philosophy exactly HOW at this point? should we lay blame on the food, the environmental toxins, or the politics? or is it lack of awareness? perhaps all together now? remember not only were Guns unavailable in the past, nutrition seriously remains a huge problem there today. and their Government, ugg.
I am choosing to beg a small difference only for this unsolicited point that you appear to have remnant of issue with sanctimoniousness. And additionally seem perhaps trapped by the food/lifestyle issue to the point of a subtle and ironic dualist error. In checking closely, I merely point at both of our statements simultaneously, as you have not done yourself other than as a teetering conceptual ideal.
"Rachel Carson ... enormous changes ... did not eat all ..." then:
"and increasing our awareness lets us know that we need to solve both problems ...at once"
you disagree, then modify, then jump ahead. you can 'see' what i point at, yes? if not for food/self first, how exactly have you jumped to changing politics, or even personal awareness? this is a zen balance, as you said as much yourself. but 'personal' is 'source'. any fool can roll under a caterpillar. doesn't change much, when dead, whether organically or genetically modified. despite what the masses emote upon.
but I perceive you can handle this inquiry, for beyond that, you are quite right and ...
there.
congratulations. peace. and most importantly for all - harmony.
Inner Space – is a Progressive Place.
Michael Pollan does us all a great service by pointing out the dangers lurking in the grocery store. Still, it takes a good deal of knowhow to be a successful food hunter. When is it important to buy organic? As pointed out above, failure to do so can lead to eating toxins. Buying real food as opposed to manufactured food should always be cheaper - what fools us is that the manufactured stuff fills us up - sometimes faster - it just does not truly feed us. Stick to real food, read labels and don't eat stuff that can be toxic, and don't overeat. A huge bunch of broccoli or a huge package of organic frozen peas or string beans are not expensive and will go a long way. Switching over gets some getting used to - take it slowly. Allow yourself those two cookies to help you get over it. And remember, you cannot expect to be truly healthy without engaging in some exercise. And, I would add, at the risk of pronouncing a sacrilege, that taking high quality vitamins and minerals and a proven detox can provide an excellent guarantee. I am old (even elderly), and I have learned over time. And I do not get sick.
After seven decades I have learned a thing or two about eating: there is a LOT more to health than Pollan's rules (still I love your public awareness campaign Michael). Do just two things for yourself: avoid ALL dairy and avoid ALL softdrinks, (and ALL water in plastic). The science is in: dairy is the cause of rheumatoid arthritis and a whole bunch of other physical ailments. Sodas and softdrinks ('pop' to some) are full of unhealthy substances starting with the sugars. Drink healthy un-iced tap-water instead. It takes some discipline at first but take your time. There are good alternatives for milk, like flavorless hempmilk (even works for baking). But don't overeat soy (edamame bean) products and buy organic celery, strawberries, grapes, peaches and apples, spinach, lettuce, bell peppers and potatoes. Avocados, bananas, cabbage, broccoli, kiwi, pineapple and onions don't matter if they are organic, so don't waste your money buying them organic. The saying goes 'garbage in garbage out' i.e. you cannot BE healthy without eating healthy.
A better title for this article is:
"Food Rules: A Completely Normal Way To Eat Healthier Food".
This nanny-nurture article does nothing to fix any sort of crisis. Got cancer? Insurance company won't cover it? Try eating more organically grown fava beans!
Give us a break.
at McDonalds?
after all, you deserve a break today!
amazing that you can fix the system,
or worse, perceive that the system can be fixed.
Your diet seems to affect your understanding and
eyesight. in your case, new glasses won't help.
but fava beans ... :-)