Didn’t know what I expected from ‘Food Rules’, but more of a ‘real’ book most likely. This is little! It has (only) 140 pages, and the size is kind of small. But its content caught me from the first word. Find out why…
The book by Michael Pollan has a brief introduction and then 64 ‘rules’ regarding what we consume. Each rule is at most one page, and some consist only of the rule with no further explanation. It’s boiled down to the bare minimum, making it very easy to read and remember. I’m loving it!
The rules are nothing we don’t already know. I mean, we all know that eating plants is better than eating meat, that we should avoid products full of sugar, and junk food isn’t good for us, don’t we?
But we eat that crap anyway. We need to repeatedly read and hear this stuff over and over again until our subconscious mind finally accepts it as truth.
This book presents those rules in such a nice way that they are easily memorable. Examples?
“The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”
I had to laugh when I read that for the first time, and I guess I will never forget that quote ever. How much more could you boil down this simple truth? After that rule, it’s explained a little bit why white flour is bad for you. You don’t need to read a 300-page book about all the latest research and the chemical processes in your body to understand that white flour is bad for you.
Another example?
“It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.”
No further explanation. So good. It’s so on point. I had to laugh as well.
But it’s not only about what not to eat but also what to eat.
“Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods.”
“Don’t overlook the oily little fishes.”
This little book is the perfect example of how you can become an expert in a topic and then sum up all the information in an easy-to-understand way for the average person. Just like when I call the plumber, I don’t want to understand how he repairs the pipes. I don’t want to know all the science of food and eating; I just want to eat healthy. I guess Michael Pollan does a great job pointing me in the right direction.
Highly recommended.