Food Rules

 

"Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much."

Excerpt:

#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.

#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.