Food Rules

Don't know what to eat?Here's your first clue...It's green!Author Pollan should receive all due credit for enlightening the enlightened when it comes to his 'rules' about food. A day has hardly passed since its release that someone, somewhere, is not quoting them whenever food or obesity or climate change or antyhing else is mentioned even remotely food related. It does seem to be a 'preaching to the choir' type sermon however.

His 'rules' (and not to take anything away from their validity or importance) have not made their way any farther into the eating audience of the U.S. than to the already converted. The enticing morsel of his "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." seven-word answer to the burning question of what 'should' we eat (if we are a concerned, ethical, environmental eater) left as many questions for us as it apparently answered for him.

And so -- page after page of rules ensues, some he expects to be so obvious that they deserve no explanation or supporting evidence. As a personal discourse I gather it's acceptable to do this. I hardly ever explain my love of baseball to people (they either get it or I don't try to explain). And so it is for Pollan apparently with his rules.

Pollan's rules aren't for everybody -- not even for those of us firmly in the choir, and they take on the issues often with overly simplistic, frumpy reasoning. "Rule 11: Avoid foods you see advertised on television" because he feels the only foods advertised on television are highly processed. No mention of the Internet however. Look around sometime when you browse at the ads and how many are about processed foods. And on the internet the ads aren't limited to just the commercial breaks, even worse than TV.

Pollan asks us early on to use his rules as 'little algorithms' designed to make our food decisions simpler and easier when we are apparently befuddled by the cereal aisle. Really?

Pollan, like so many others, also slips in the 'don't eat so much' as a way to moderate our eating and as a way to enjoy what we do eat more. Depriving oneself of the pleasures of food in any sensible manner is one rule I can do without.

As an effort to please a publisher or to show some payoff from his New York Times blog about food rules, I guess "Food Rules" will satisfy. As a meaningful addition to the ethical eater's book shelf it ends up leaving us still hungry -- and with a preachy "I know what's good for you, just follow my rules" aftertaste.