In defence of real food

Food is good. I enjoy eating it and cooking it. Eating is one of our most powerful drives, after all. We need it to survive. Cooking to make food taste nice has meant that we enjoy this essential activity.

For many people who have trouble maintaining their weight, food has become the enemy, and that is sad, because it is essential and can be a non-guilty pleasure.

Michael Pollan writes some interesting rules in his book "In defence of food". He thinks we have stopped eating food, and started eating nutrients. Here are a few of his rules, and some of my own, which will help those who are struggling with their weight. The underlying rule is this.

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

If you want to control your weight, follow these simple guidelines:

• Eat at a table
• If you can't eat it with cutlery, don't eat it at all
• Eat meals
• Cook your own food
• Don’t eat anything your grandmother would not recognize as food
• Avoid food products containing ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than five in number, or that include corn syrup
• Be a guerrila shopper - make a list, locate it, buy it and get out of the shop
• Shop the periphery of the supermarket and avoid the middle
• Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does
• Try not to eat alone
• Eat slowly
• Avoid fizzy drinks

I agree with him when he says that what we are consuming today is not food, and how we're consuming it -- in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly alone -- is not really eating. Instead of food, we're consuming "edible foodlike substances" no longer the products of nature but of food science.



www.carolinebrowntherapy.com