Top Tenets (from In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by M. Pollan)

June 4, 2008 at 9:30 am (General Information)

The following was shared by Alan in a recent email:

Anyone who takes the effort to seek out a CSA probably has the following characteristics; you care about what you eat, you want better food, you are concerned about health and nutrition, you want some control over what you eat.  Pollen’s book is a powerful story that can help you achieve these goals.  I was moved by his book and think you might be also.

Here is an except from page 159.

 To shop at a farmer’s market or sign up with a CSA is to join a short food chain and that    has several implications for your health.  Local produce is typically picked ripe and is    fresher than supermarket produce, and for those reasons it should be tastier and more           nutritious.  As for super market organic produce, it is too likely to have come from far             away—from the industry organic farms of California or, increasingly China.  In a             footnote to this sentence, Pollen states that the average organic produce in the         supermarket traveled further than the average item of conventional produce

 Following are the central tenets of Pollen’s book:

    1. Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup.
    2. Avoid food products that make health claims.
    3. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
    4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.
    5. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
    6. You are what what you eat eats too.
    7. If you have the space, buy a freezer.
    8. Eat like an omnivore.
    9. Eat well-grown food from healthy soils.
    10. Eat wild foods when you can.
    11. Be the kind of person who takes supplements
    12. Eat more like the French.  Or the Italians. Or the Japanese.  Or the Indians.  Or the Greeks.
    13. Regard nontraditional foods with skepticism.
    14. Don’t look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet.
    15. Have a glass of wine with dinner.
    16. Eat meals.
    17. Do all your eating at a table.
    18. Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.
    19. Try not to eat alone.
    20. Consult your gut.
    21. Eat slowly.
    22. Cook and, if you can, plant a garden.

    2 Comments