Rules for Eating

Because I am something of a nerd, I listen to NPR whenever I'm in my car. I love hearing all the stories and different points of view they broadcast--it gets me through my daily commute.

On today's drive home, there was a story called Rules for Eating, and if you have 5 minutes to spare, I suggest you click over to the story and take a listen for yourself. Anyway, to sum up the story, we all have weird rules when it comes to eating. Or more specifically, we have weird rules when it comes to eating "healthy." We tend to think of food as being in two extreme camps: it will either kill us or make us healthy. There's very little gray area involved.

The story goes on to introduce us to Michael Pollan's book, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual." Pollan argues that the rules of healthful eating are simple: eat food...not too much...mostly plants. His book includes 64 easy sounding rules for eating, like if it's advertised on TV, don't eat it; don't eat anything that won't eventually rot (with the exception of honey); don't buy food where you buy gasoline.

Now, what Pollan is saying here is that it's best to eat real foods--foods that come from a plant rather than being made in a plant. It's OK to eat and to enjoy eating, but we should also be giving more thought into what and how we eat.

The NPR story is a good one--it's thought provoking and entertaining, basically everything I love in a good NPR story. Take a listen and then let us know if you have any weird rules for eating.