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

Theo chocolate factory

Today Dom and I went for a walk on the Burke-Gillman trail from the Cold Stone in Fremont well into Ballard and back. On our walk we stumbled upon the most awesome thing that I've experienced in awhile: a chocolate factory. At first we just saw the sign for a chocolate shop, and of course we had to go in. What we didn't expect was that they would offer free samples of every kind of chocolate bar.

Theo Chocolate is also the only certified fair trade and organic chocolate factory in the United States. This means their chocolate is more expensive ($3-$5 per bar), but it's definitely worth it. My favorite flavor was chai milk chocolate, but the dark chocolate chili was also delicious. There had been some cancellations on the factory tour, so we got to tour the factory for $6 each, which also meant more free chocolate, including a free confection.

By the time we left, we probably ate enough chocolate to cancel out anything we might have gained from our three-mile walk. But oh, it was worth it. We came home with chocolate bars for ourselves and Dom's family, as well as a box of confections:

On the left is a chili pepper-caramel, then peanut butter and jelly (which really did taste like a bite of pb&j - you almost couldn't taste the chocolate!), then Earl Grey (yummmm) and Scotch. We are definitely looking forward to going back enough times to sample all of the confections... but we're going to try to limit ourselves to once a month.