As an attempt to lose weight through a rather intensive workout regimen and counting calories has not gone as well as hoped, I decided it was time to start looking more at what I am eating, as opposed to monitoring how much. A couple I know recently lost a lot of weight (him 80+ lbs., her 25+) by eating clean. They cut out processed foods and meat. Because of their great success, I just had to ask questions. The number one question for me was whether they had to count their calories while eating clean. Nope! I wanted to learn more, but I didn't want to cut out meat. So I began doing research and stumbled across this book of quick and easy rules for better eating. It was a very quick read because most of the 64 rules have a paragraph or less of explanation (they're that common sense and/or self-explanatory). This book is a distillation of the science Pollan learned about in In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, which I probably should have read first. As I went through the book, I wrote down some of the rules that jumped out at me more. In theory, they should be easy to follow. The message boils down to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." And Pollan goes into more detail on how to accomplish this.I'd go with 3.5 stars.

What a delightful read! The art was absolutely charming and was completely in keeping with the light, upbeat, positive approach that the author followed. Some of the rules were fairly obvious, but who doesn't need a little reminder now and then! Other rules were more introspective such as #65 Give Some Thought to Where Your Food Comes From. The corollary of this notion is to be grateful for your food. The author notes a Zen blessing: "This meal is the labor of countless beings. Let us remember their toil." Wise words to live by. This was a highly enjoyable read and one that I'll return to again and again.

The huge number of books and articles written on nutrition, diets and health would suggest achieving a healthy lifestyle is difficult and complex. Its not. Indeed Michael Pollan has simplified it into seven wordsEat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.What could be simpler?You still want more information and insight? Then get Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, a book which can be read in under an hour and expands upon the wisdom of the three simple statements above through 64 rules sorted into these three sections:1. Eat food2. Mostly plants3. Not too muchHere are some examples:"Dont eat anything your great grandmother wouldnt recognise as food""Avoid food products that make health claims"Eat all the junk food you want so long as you cook it yourself"Leave something on your plate""Break the rules once in a whileUltimately whilst we all instinctively know this stuff its good to be reminded of it from time to time. I have been periodically restricting my calories for over a year now and I have learnt that, whilst this requires will power, its easier than I ever imagined and the biggest insight I have gained is that hunger pangs do not signal an urgent need to eat. Far from it. Books like Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, which avoid jargon and are simple to read, are a helpful way of remembering the simple rules" of a healthy lifestyle. Knowledge is power, particularly as for food manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies confusion is good for business. 5/5

I remember when I got to the end of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma thinking, "Well, what the hell CAN I eat, then?" Although the mental image of that potato farmer covered in fertilizer did stick, to the point that I started growing my own potatoes, I was pretty much done with Pollan lecturing me on how everything I buy in a supermarket contributes to the destruction of Planet Earth, and will probably give me cancer besides. I can handle bad news, but not with every mouthful.So I skipped Food Rules when it first came out in 2009. Then came this edition two years later, which is illustrated by Maira Kalman, whose work I know from her marvelous illustrated blogs in the New York Times. I, too, am in love with A. Lincoln. How could I not at least look at a book she illustrated?I didn't just look, I bought, and I'm glad I did, although, I must say, Pollan almost lost me on page 20:Food Rules distills this body of wisdom into eighty-three simple rules for eating healthily and happily.Eighty-three rules? Eighty-THREE? Are you KIDDING me? I have to memorize eighty-three rules to eat well? What, I'm supposed to take an 83-item checklist with me every time I go to the store? I don't care how simple the rules are, there is no way I'm going to be able to remember, let alone follow eighty-three of them.Maira's illustration of mom-and-daughter cooks standing on a porch kept the book in my hand instead of flying across the room into a corner, there to lay until it was ready to put in the library donation box in the garage. I turned the page. Pollan writesI've collected these adages about eating from a wide variety of sources.which is a vast understatement. Evidently many people took the first edition of Food Rules seriously to heart. The adages contained therein had propagated themselves spontaneously into the wild. Nutritionists, dieticians, mothers, grandmothers wrote in with more sayings promoting eating well. The result is an updated version with the aforesaid, and brilliant, illustrations of Maira Kalman, which make the whole endeavor much more, uh, palatable, at least to me.Still. Eighty-three rules. Come on. Although he does redeem himself a little by sayingThere is no need to learn or memorize them all...Adopt whichever ones stick and work best for you.Okay.The book is divided into three chapters, with subheadings from his now-famous saying. I extract the ones that mean most to me below.I. Eat Food2. Don't Eat Anything Your Great Grandmother Wouldn't Recognize as FoodI think my great-great grandmother was the one who traveled the Oregon Trail. Pretty sure she wouldn't know a bag of Cheetos if she saw one.7. Avoid Food Products Containing Ingredients That a Third-Grader Cannot PronounceI went immediately to the cupboard and pulled out my box of Triscuits, my favorite cracker. "WHOLE GRAIN SOFT WHITE WINTER WHEAT, SOYBEAN OIL, SALT." No more than two syllables per word. Whew.11. Eat Only Foods That Will Eventually RotThe vegetable drawer in my refrigerator is filled with plants that can rot. Too many do. Not only should you buy foods that will eventually rot, you should also eat them. Preferably before that happens.22. It's Not Food if It Arrived Through the Window of Your CarI haven't been to a McDonald's since my niece Esther graduated from high school. I'm covered here.II. Mostly Plants30. Eat Animals That Have Themselves Eaten WellMy freezer is filled with moose and deer liver, salmon, halibut and shrimp, all of it hunted or fished in Alaska. Covered.37. Sweeten and Salt Your Food YourselfHave you ever eaten a Hot Pocket? I tried one once and it was so salty I literally couldn't swallow it. Sweetened yogurt makes me gag, you might as well be eating cotton candy. Processed foods are so heavily saturated with salt and sugar that I find them inedible. If you don't notice this, it's because you've dulled your taste buds eating them. I'm a hundred percent with Pollan on this.40. Make Water Your Beverage of ChoiceAlways has been. Covered.III. Not Too Much53. Pay More, Eat LessSupport your local farmer's market. My only problem here is, well, winter.54. ...Eat LessSigh.57. If You're Not Hungry Enough to Eat an Apple, Then You're Probably Not HungryOne of the seminal memories from my childhood is of my mother eating an apple a day. She had dentures, so she'd quarter and core it, but not peel it, and eat it before she went to work in the morning. Mind you, these were horrible apples, one of only two or three fruits that made it all the way to the grocery store in Seldovia, arriving mealy and dry and tasteless. But she ate one every day. I try to.82. CookI didn't start cooking until I was in my thirties. It's not only good for your body and for the environment, it's good for your soul, a creative endeavor that pays off the very same day. Or not. I regard anything that comes out well from my oven as a minor miracle. I do better on top of the stove.83. Break the Rules Once in a WhileSalvation.

So I get the feeling everyone in the world that still reads newspapers in some form knows Michael Pollan's work in some form. He's a journalist who started to make food his thing, wrote the heady Omnivore's Dilemma (that I got for last birthday but since I had not read it and the wife had, she gave it to the used book store and that was okay then, but now I wish I had it to begin reading) and plenty of articles and versions of this book, the first of which came out in maybe 2009? Anyway, I was at the library picking up some holds there and saw this on some table and I took it home, because this version is illustrated by Maira Kalman, whose work I love. Very inviting illustrations, that make a topic no one really wants to face directly really fun and lively.Pollan is good in that he tries different registers for talking to mainly U.S. Americans that eat so infamously--processed food, meat, soda, fast food--and are now infamously the most obese country in history. I was a vegetarian for twenty years (and a vegan for about a year or so) and still eat pretty well so literally none of this book was news to me, but it and really all of his research can be summarized into these pithy Golden Rules:Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.That's it! But almost no one in this country seems to do it, amazingly, except. . . people like me who read books by Michael Pollan, I suspect! Though maybe Maira Kalman will draw a few people in, who knows. She got me to pick it up, anyway. And even though I knew most of it, I decided to review it just to join him as an annoying food/health activist. :)Some of my favorite rules:Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.Avoid foods you see advertised on television.Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans.Its not food if it arrived through the window of your car.Its not food if its called the same thing in every language. (Think Big Mac, Cheetos or Pringles.)Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.The whiter the bread, the sooner you will be dead.Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.Have a glass of wine with dinner.If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, you are not hungry.Drink your food and chew your drink.Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper.Cook. But the best thing about this edition is that it is illustrated by the wonderful Maira Kalman. Who says her family tradition is Cheetos, so deal with it. :) It's worth checking out of the old lib just for the art, and then, well, there's that advice. . . Shut up, Dave, and bring me another beer from the fridge! And that bag of chips with the dip!