I’ve recently bought a copy of Food Rules by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It’s a collection of straightforward steps which expand on his basic seven word principle: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. When you first look at that it seems almost too simple for words, but in Food Rules he expands on each one to come up with some rules which I think are really relevant to the 12wbt (or any weight-loss and health-gain journey). I though I’d share a few which really jumped out at me:
EAT FOOD:
Rule 2: “Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food.”
Next time you’re doing your grocery shop have a look at how much is on our shelves and in our frozen and dairy section that your grandmother or great-grandmother would be scratching her head at – yoghurt and cheese in tubes, soup in powder form, chicken in a tin to mention only a few.
Rule 5: – Avoid foods that have some form of sugar ( or sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients.
Pollan includes a long list of the sugars that slip by under other names, and as he says “sugar is sugar. And organic sugar is still sugar” And he includes artificial sweeteners in that.
Rule 6: Avoid food products that have more than 5 ingredients.
The more ingredients a packaged food has, the more highly processed it will be. (Note he doesn’t include a recipe that you make yourself)
Rule 13. Eat only foods that will eventually rot.
“Real food is alive and will eventually go off. The more processed a food is, the longer it’s shelf life, and the less nutrition it will hav ebecause a lot of what is nutritious is also what causes food to go off.
Rule 19. If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t
Rule 20. It’s not food if it arrives through the window of your car
NOT TOO MUCH
Rule 46. Stop eating before you’re full
Pollan uses the French expressions “J’ai faim” (I have hunger) when you are hungry and “Je n’ai plus faim” (I have no more hunger) to emphasise the point that there is a difference between eating to satisfy hunger and eating until you are full. All ancient cultures have an expression that suggests eating only until you are 60-80% full. I have so often been guilty of this in the past. (often because of Rule 53 below!)
Rule 53. Serve a proper portion and don’t go back for seconds
This is the one that I struggle most with, and has been the biggest change in my behaviour. We have always eaten good ‘clean’ food, but just too much of it. I have always cooked meals with the capacity for everyone to have seconds and it has taken a lot of self-discipline to create a meal that will only serve the number of people sitting down for dinner. For some reason it makes me feel like an inadequate wife,mother or hostess if I cannot offer seconds. And of course if there are leftovers who’s the person most likely to eat them (in the past) yes that’s right – me. So now while I do still buy a bigger portion of, say fish, for my husband than for me, I never buy any more than will just serve us. It means that our grocery bills have actually gone down on the 12wbt!
Rule 60. Treat treats as treats.
As Pollan says, in the past things like fried chicken and pastries and icecream were expensive and took so much time to prepare, that they were special occasion foods only, made when company was coming or perhaps as a once a week thing when there was the time.But because we have outsourced so much of our food preparation, what was Special Occasion has now become everyday. One way we can overcome this he says is by returning to preparing them ourselves so it will go back to being an occasional treat, or following the S policy “No Sweets Snacks or Seconds except on days that begin with S”.
MOSTLY PLANTS
Rule 22. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
By eating a diet that is primarily plant based you’ll automatically be eating less calories, as they are less energy dense.
Rule 23. Treat meat as a flavouring or special occasion food.
Apparently us ‘flexitarians’ who eat meat only a cuople of times a week are just as healthy as vegetarians!
Rule 36. Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of milk.
Rule 39. Eat all the junk food you like, as long as you cook it yourself
Enjoy these treats as often as you’re prepared to prepare them – with our busy lifestyles, chances are that won’t be every day!
RULE 64: BREAK THE RULES ONCE IN A WHILE.
Bear in mind the addage ” All things in moderation” but also what Oscar Wilde added: “Including moderation itself!!”
