Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

by Kelly Pickerill

You might remember the first version of this little book, Food Rules by Michael Pollan, from a couple years ago — an unassuming, small white paperback with a pea pod on the cover. Just in time for Christmas this year comes a new edition, in hardback, with a few more rules and illustrations by Maira Kalman, and Lemuria has signed copies! I read through the new edition in an afternoon; it’s full of straightforward, sometimes humorous advice meant to guide the way we eat, without (though supported by) all the complicated science of healthy eating.

In the introduction, Pollan explains the reason for the condensed (some of his rules are simply a sentence) nature of the book — food science is yet a very young science, and though there is much discussion about the benefits of this or that nutrient, “foods are more than the sum of their nutrient parts, and those nutrients work together in ways that are still only dimly understood.” So some of the best advice on how to eat can be found simply by looking to other, healthier cultures, such as with rule 48; French people “seldom snack, eat small portions from small plates, don’t go back for second helpings, and eat most of their food at long, leisurely meals shared with other people,” or by following the advice of your grandmother — rule 42: “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”

While researching his book, In Defense of Food, Pollan says he realized that the best food advice could be boiled down to a phrase of only seven words. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” So Food Rules is divided into three sections based on this maxim:

One that helps us distinguish between real food and what he calls “edible foodlike substances:”
Rule 13 — Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle

One that advocates for what to eat, beyond “food:”
Rule 27 — The fewer the feet, the better the meat

And one that gives us some guidelines for the habits of a healthy eater:
Rule 76 — Place a bouquet of flowers on the table and everything will taste twice as good

Sounds great, right? But I haven’t told you the reason why, even if you already have Pollan’s earlier version, this book is a must. Maira Kalman’s illustrations are amazing. Pollan’s wife suggested they ask Kalman to illustrate his new version after seeing her art show, and she said two things:

He did not hold that against her.

My roommate and I made wonton dumplings, sashimi, and maki (rolled) sushi for the first time last night. The thing about that meal experience that I will always remember is the camaraderie of it. We steamed the dumplings, we sat and ate the dumplings. We stood in the kitchen and fished out of a bowl bits of tuna and sticky rice with a sprinkle of soy sauce. We rolled the sushi, each of us adding different fillings and producing rolls of different sizes and shapes. Then we sat again and ate the sushi. We ate slowly over a long period of time, listening to music, chatting, and even doing the dishes as they were used.

But the rule that sticks with me the most is rule 65: “Give some thought to where your food comes from.” Now, before I eat, I try to say or think this Zen blessing: “This meal is the labor of countless beings. Let us remember their toil.”