Book Review: Food Rules by Michael Pollan

First off, this is not a nutrition manual or a diet book. Food Rules is a collection of guidelines for how we can both enjoy our food and eat well without making drastic lifestyle changes. It is a celebration of food, real food, and makes the reader think harder about our relationship to food and where it comes from. Michael Pollan sums up his food philosophy in seven words:  

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

The beauty of this little book is in its simplicity. Aside from the introduction and acknowledgments, the book consists of 64 food rules, which are a witty and memorable combination of scientific advice and the kinds of common sense adages repeated by your grandmother.

Pollan's goal is to make choosing what to eat uncomplicated again, in an age where we don't see "foods anymore but instead look right through them to the nutrients (good and bad) they contain." The rules (which he prefers to call "personal policies") help guide the reader in a broad sense to follow his food philosophy.

Rule #1 is "Eat food," and all other rules stem from it. By "food" Pollan means real food, not the highly-processed "edible food-like substances" found in the middle of the supermarket. Rule #3 refines this: "Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry."

Other memorable rules include #11, "Avoid foods you see advertised on television," #20, "It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car," and #51, "Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare."

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual. 112 pages, Penguin 2009