EAT HEALTHY WITHOUT DIETING
August 2007

This month, I would like to try to persuade everyone to read a wonderful article which appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine on January 28, 2007.  The article is titled Unhappy Meals, and it was written by Michael Pollan.  It is full of wisdom and information about healthy eating, and it is also funny and entertaining.

You can get this article online at NYTIMES.COM.  Pollan has also written a book called The Omnivore's Dilemma which was considered one of the best books of 2006.

Pollan advocates three simple rules:

1. Eat only stuff that your great, great grandmother would recognize as food - namely whole, fresh food.  Much of what you find in the supermarket is not food in this sense but rather processed, highly industrial, multiple ingredient food-like products.  Pollan explains how this industrial processing of what we eat has been very bad for our health.

2. Once you have identified what food really is, don't eat too much of it.  Nothing new here.  No dieting, just small portions.  (Over the last 20 years, the size of the average dinner plate in the United States has increased by approximately 2 inches).

3. Eat mostly plants -- not just vegetables, but leafy plants.  Not only do we eat too much meat, but our vegetable intake has gone from largely leaf based to largely grain based.  Grains (corns specially) have high levels of Omega-6 fatty acids which (unlike Omega-3 fatty acids) are very bad for you.

Even when trying to follow nutritional guidelines, we have become fatter and less healthy.  The focus on nutrients (fats, protein, carbohydrates, etc.) -- as opposed to natural foods -- has been good for the food industry and bad for us.  "A little meat won't kill you, though it is better approached as a side dish than as a main".

Other pointers:

• Avoid food products that make health claims.  They are likely to be heavily processed.
• Avoid anything artificial, like pseudo-sugar or pseudo-butter.
• Avoid food products containing ingredients that
                       
• a) are unfamiliar
                       
• b) are unpronouncable
                       
• c) are more than five in number
                       
• d) or that contain high fructose corn syrup


• Shop in a farmer's market rather than a supermarket if you can.
• Eat lots of different foods (different types of plants, different types of fish, etc).  That's what being an omnivore means.
• Treat a meal as a social ceremony rather than as a means of consuming nutrients.  Sit down and eat slowly.
• Spend money on quality rather than quantity.  Good food that you enjoy is more satisfying even in small portions.
• Worrying about nutrients is bad for your health and creates stress. Think of eating as a healthy pleasure.
• Read the article!