I consider myself to be a reasonably healthy person. I'm not going to lie, I enjoy beautifully made cuisine (not just the leafy stuff) and I have a killer sweet tooth that I undoubtedly inherited from my mother. I've always admired people like Alice Waters who pioneered california cuisine and made the importance of local and organic produce chic. Truth be told I've always toyed with the idea of vegetarianism and pescatarianism as I could never quite justify the difference between the love I feel for my dog and some of the other cute animals I was consuming (I know, I know but it's true!) Nonetheless, I have always been aware of what it is that I'm putting into my body and how my body reacts to what I'm fueling it with. So when Michael Pollen collaborated on the recent documentary Food Inc., I was both chomping at the bit to acquire that information, yet terrified at what this would do to my relationship with the food that I know and love. 
One evening I lured my boyfriend into sharing this terrifying experience with me with a bottle of red and a 'healthy' dinner. Needless to say the wine was consumed while we pushed around our now seemingly toxic cuisine. There's no doubt in my mind that Michael Pollan plays a highly important role in shaking us up by unveiling the jaw dropping truth to what we're condoning as consumers and ultimately risking in the name of a cheap and cheerful bite. It's easy to feel overwhelmed once obtaining these startling facts, so when I found Michael Pollan's book Food Rules, I breathed a sigh of relief! Thank goodness! An easy way to break it down and apply as little or as much as we can. There are 64 rules in total and here are the top 15 that I pulled from the book.
1. Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.
2. Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
3. Eat only foods that will eventually rot.
4. It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
5. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
6. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.
7. The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead....blunt but true.
8. Have a glass of wine with dinner.
9. Stop eating at 80% capacity.
10. Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored. If you’re not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you’re not hungry.
11. Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.
12. Do all your eating at a table.
13. Leave something on your plate.
14. Break the rules once in a while. “All things in moderation. Including moderation.”
15. Buy fresh local produce when you can.
Hope this helps you as much as it helped me! Remember to treat your body with the respect that it deserves and more importantly get informed so that you too can make informed choices!
Power to the people!....now pass me that ice cream sandwich.
