How to eat for pleasure & still be healthy – Michael Pollen

Cooking is the best way to escape the entire culture of fast food and quick eating. Just making a meal from scratch is inherently better than any convenience. It will also enrich your life and your palate, giving you a better chance to be healthy and happy.

Eating has become easier yet more complicated. In recent decades, we’ve managed to lose touch with the simplicity of our ancestors – partly due to myths propagated by the food industry. This is the thrust of Michael Pollen's book, In Defense of Food. Here are the key points...

There’s a key difference between the science of nutrition and ‘nutritionism’: an ideology popular among scientists, food marketers, even governments. Nutritionism dictates that food itself is not what matters, but the individual nutrients it contains.

This is how traditional sources of wisdom about what to eat became replaced by official advice and guidelines – information often influenced by food manufacturers whose priorities are not our good health.

During the 1980s and ’90s, any perceived nutritional deficiencies could be compensated for by additives. Processed foods with alluring health claims proliferated, and nutritionism became a boon for the industry. But its emphasis on low-fat foods increased sugar consumption.

The problem with focusing on nutrients is that it creates a stigma around eating for pleasure. It also robs food of its cultural background and history. What we eat is who we are… and studies consistently show that eating more vegetables and whole grains makes us healthier.

We should avoid food products with ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than 5 in number, or include high-fructose corn syrup. A good rule of thumb: don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t consider food. If it’s packaged, it’s probably processed.

Shop around the edges of a supermarket, where whole produce is usually displayed. Better yet, avoid supermarkets altogether. Shop locally, join veg-box schemes or grow your own instead. The shorter the food chain, the better.

Eat more like the French, Italians, Japanese, Indians or Greeks, i.e. follow any traditional diet, even if it includes foods considered unhealthy. These styles of eating are built from a well of inherited wisdom about diet, health, and place.

Pay extra, eat less. You’ll take your time and enjoy it more. Avoid snacking and try to share meals with other people. But do it at a *table* (not a desk). It’s better for you physically and mentally.