Good Reads: Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, by Michael Pollan

There are quite a few good books about Real/Whole/Traditional Foods out there:

• the aptly titled Real Food: What to Eat and Why
• What to Eat (see my review here)
• Nourishing Traditions
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (see my review here)
• Michael Pollan’s other book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.

I’ve read all of those (okay, I’m still working my way through Nourishing Traditions), and as enjoyable and informative as all those were, Food Rules appealed to me because of its brevity.

If you’re interested in the Real Foods movement, but are feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin, or if you’d just like a quick overview, then Food Rules is the perfect starting place for you.

The book consists of a short introduction and 64 Food Rules, each less than a page long.  These 64 rules are divided into 3 sections, which easily sum up the main philosophy of the book: (1) Eat Food, (2) Mostly Plants, (3) Not too much.  All of the rules, many of them repetitive in nature, expound on those 3 main rules.

Some of my favorite rules from the book:

#2: Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

#6: Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.

#7: Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

#25: Eat your colors

#27: Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.

#47: Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.

#56: Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods.

#60: Treat treats as treats.

These concise rules make eating sound so simple.  When did it all get so complicated?  Getting back to eating simply should be, well, simple, don’t you think?  Easier said than done, but this book will certainly give you some guidelines on how to get started and stay on track.

Disclosure: I have not been asked to review this book.  This was just a Good Read I wanted to share! Some of the links above are Amazon affiliate links.