Food Rules.

Hopefully most of you have read Food Rules by Michael Pollan. In case you haven't, this is a great summary.

Everyone always asks me what I have been doing to stay healthy... the answer is simple. I EAT WELL. I don't eat things out of a box or have food handed to me in a paper bag.

Pollan says everything he's learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." "Eat food" means to eat real food -- vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and, yes, fish and meat -- and to avoid what Pollan calls "edible food-like substances."

Here's how:

1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" 
2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
4.  Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"
6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love.
7. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.

Next time you grocery shop, take a good look at the items in your cart. Think twice before pulling into a drive through... if it's important to you, you'll find a way to eat healthier.   :)