Within 30 minutes, the paperback was lying on my coffee table. That’s how long it took to read it; or rather, browse through it.

This is not a book you read while sitting in the shade on a sunny July day. In fact, it barely qualifies as a book. Food Rules is a glorified pamphlet (not meant as a criticism of the content).

It includes 64 rules, with brief descriptions of each rule, broken up into three parts: (1) What should I eat? (2) What kind of food should I eat? (3) How should I eat?

Fans of Pollan will not learn anything new, but it does serve as a nice refresher of his food philosophy.

Some of my favorite rules:

Rule #11: Avoid foods you see advertised on television.

Rule #20: It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.

Rule #27: Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.

Rule #43: Have a glass of wine with dinner.

Rule #51: Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.

Food Rules is currently selling for $6.60 on Amazon.com (that’s 78 cents less than I paid).

It’s called Food Rules ($7.42 on Amazon), and quite literally it is a set of rules to help people re-learn eating.

To promote his book, Pollan asked his New York Times readers to submit their own food rules. Here are a few of my favorites:

“It’s better to pay the grocer than the doctor.”

“If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you are not hungry.”

“Don’g eat egg salad from a vending machine.”

While Pollan may throw in a few of these simple crowd-sourced gems, he will also put his food rules in the context of every food scenario, from shopping to eating out.

Unfortunately, I did not request an advance copy so I won’t be reading Food Rules until after its December 29th release. Expect a review shortly after.

Book description (from publisher)

Michael Pollan, our nation’s most trusted resource for food-related issues, offers this indispensible guide for anyone concerned about health and food. Simple, sensible, and easy to use, Food Rules is a set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat-buffet, this handy, pocket-size resource is the perfect guide for anyone who would like to become more mindful of the food we eat.

Eat natural. Mostly organic. As local as possible.

Eat natural: Artificial and overly-processed foods are something I work hard to avoid. Food coloring? Blech. Sugar-free sweetener? Ugh. High fructose corn syrup? Vomit (the very thought of HFCS really does nauseate me). If you want to eat naturally, just take a look through ingredient listings. Anything with chemical-sounding names belongs in the trash or back on the grocery store shelf.

Mostly organic: Organic more or less implies natural, though the term is now under heavy government regulation. That regulation allows some oddities (like “organic” microwaveable dinners) to slip through the cracks. More importantly, organic means that the plant or animal was raised free of pesticides and fertilizer. Even if the organic salad you buy at the grocery store was packed and shipped from California, it’s still a step in the right direction.

(Side note: There is an ethical debate about faraway organic vs.  local non-organic, but I will save that for another time).

As local as possible: Eating locally means you’re eating what’s in-season. You’re also supporting a sustainable, regional food production system and keeping some of your food dollar within your community. That’s a really cool thing to do. Unfortunately, eating locally can be very difficult to do. An easy place to start is the farmer’s market, when it’s open. Nearby food cooperatives should also have a handful of locally-produced foods.

Is that all there is too it? No, not really. But like Pollan’s philosophy, it’s a starting point to help comprehend eating decisions made at every meal.

At this point I could leave my readers with a link to Pollan’s article and be done with it. Why would I want to do that, however, when I spent so much time researching for my article in the first place? Let’s touch on the key points of Pollan’s work.

Western diseases, American food production,  and Medicare

Obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are also known as Western diseases because they are primarily present in the United States. The American industrial food production system, with subsidization from taxpayers, produces cheap processed food. In short, our food economy has made us fat and sick. Then we go see a doctor, who prescribes drugs and treatment that doesn’t cure us but instead treats a chronic illness. Because good nutrition is more expensive, America’s poor are stuck with the discriminating glut of Western diseases. Another taxpayer-funded program, Medicare, then subsidizes the treatment of these people. It’s an unfortunate cycle; the hidden cost of cheap food lies in social fees like Medicare (not to mention environmental destruction). Big business, profiting from the production of cheap processed food and the treatment of nutrition-related chronic illness, has no interest in changing the system.

Leveling the playing field

A new government-backed health care plan can change the market dynamics. Presently, insurance companies make their money by insuring healthy people and denying coverage to those who are unhealthy, or have the potential to be a serious drain on revenue in the future. When the new plan takes effect, these insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage like they have; they will be required to accept customers regardless of their background. Rather than avoid people at risk for chronic Western diseases, it will be in their interest to ensure the health of the entire population. And in that moment, the movement for a change in our food production system will gain a major ally.

We can only hope that insurance companies see this as the best road to their own profitability. If they do not, then it’s unlikely they will aggressively pursue policy changes that seek a re-connection between consumers, producers, and food. And it’s unlikely they will take agribusiness head-on in a large, political battle. Insurance companies are an ally that this movement needs to gain serious legislative traction in the next decade. While this country’s president can support a farmers’ market on the White House lawn, he probably can’t make the industrial food economy change its ways with the snap of a finger.

In January, some time after stepping on a scale and seeing it hit 260 pounds, I made a firm decision to change my life. While always an active person, I simply overate during every meal (big lunches, big dinners, snacks in between) to the tune of 3500-4000 calories per day. My body was used to this, and my metabolism has operated at high efficiency to compensate. All I had to do to lose weight was retain my activeness and substantially reduce my caloric intake. So I did, by having small meals, abstaining from snacks and eating “light” everything. The weight came off fast and three months later was sitting at 215 pounds.

It was around the same time, in mid-April, that I began to question whether the “healthy” food I was eating really was just that—healthy. Americans are nuts about food fads (and have been for sometime), riding the latest wave of recommendations from “nutrition scientists” and finding a new one to jump on after it crests. The latest change in wind direction is the backlash against trans fats, which were created not too long ago and hailed as a health miracle at the time (research has shown that it is nothing of the sort). Our next fad, which you already see evidence of in the supermarket, is Omega 3 fatty acid. Omega 3s are valuable because our industrial food production system has provided food rich in Omega 6, throwing off the ratio between the two.

So I wondered if the low-fat and fat-free products I consumed were in my long-term interest. A friend of mine told me an anecdotal story about an aunt of her, a nurse, who has eaten fat-free and sugar-free products for years yet has had to battle some serious health issues. The more I looked into the supposed health benefits of these kinds of foods, the more I heard stories like these. We eat these processed, artificial, and unnatural “foods” to avoid problems like heart disease, obesity, and diabetes—yet, we soon discover that consumption of these products does not necessarily make us healthier or leave us in better shape.

The same friend introduced me to some of the concepts behind natural and unprocessed eating. I followed up by reading several books on the topic, notably In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma (both written by Michael Pollan).

My philosophy on eating draws heavily from the thinking of Pollan, and as such I highly recommend both (plus, they are only $10 each). Without giving away too much, I can say that his idea to better masticating is, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” These words have been crucial in my personal lifestyle change.

Since starting down this road, I’ve been going to farmer’s markets and shopping at food cooperatives which have a variety of organic (and delicious!) products. I’ve tried to avoid heavily-processed foods and anything artificial, taking my time while evaluating ingredients lists. My weight has continued to decrease and now hovers around 195 pounds (a drop of about 65 since January 2009). Although living in an apartment right now, I have dreams of purchasing a small farm and growing my own solar-powered food. I still make regular visits to the supermarket; however, most of those visits are spent in the produce section.

I’ve also found it difficult not to feel a twinge of contempt anytime I see a line of cars waiting in the drive-thru at fast food joints, or someone tossing a box of Pop Tarts into their grocery cart. My pained expression is an unavoidable byproduct of changing my own life for the better and wishing that other people would do the same. Consequently, my contributions to this blog may be a subconscious attempt to change the world (at least the American part of it).