Category — Dining

This is downright unamerican anti-consumerism.

I’m delighted to have this opportunity to engage with you about my new book, In Defense of Food. Anyone who’s had a chance to read it–or even just glance at the cover–knows that the book is my attempt to help readers navigate what has become a treacherous food landscape, made especially confusing by the rise of something I call “nutritionism.” [snip]

[]…and because the food industry uses this sketchy science to make health claims for distinctly unhealthy foods. Heart-healthy whole-grain Cocoa Puffs?!?! You get the idea. [snip]

I try to distill this cultural wisdom into a series of eating algorithms–mental tools for navigating the food landscape and eating well. Instead of talking about how to get your antioxidants or probiotics, my rules of thumb go more like this:

1. Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2. Avoid food products with more than five ingredients; with ingredients you can’t pronounce.
3. Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot.
4. Shop the perimeter of the supermarket, where the food is least processed.
5. Avoid food products that make health claims.
6. Eat meals and eat them only at tables. (And no, a desk is not a table.)
7. Eat only until you’re 4/5 full. (An ancient Japanese injunction.)
8. Pay more, eat less.
9. Diversify your diet and eat wild foods when you can.
10. Eat slowly, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure.

There are more, but this should give you some idea of how I approach the question of what and how to eat. [snip]
A couple of others I’ve collected:

“If it arrives through the car window, it isn’t food.”
“Eat all the junk food you want–as long as you cook it yourself.”

Actually some pretty good stuff!