Not Too Much

This is the final post in my series summarizing Michael Pollan's quick-read, Food Rules, in which he emphasizes basic ideas for healthy eating, without totally restricting your diet to one thing or the other. The first post I wrote reviewed this book, as well as one of it's pre-cursors, Omnivore's Dilemma. Following that, I wrote one post for each of Pollan's three main rules in Food Rules. The first rule is Eat Food, as in real food, not "food products" composed of unpronounceable synthetic chemicals and dyes. The second rule, Mostly Plants, emphasizes eating mostly plant-based food (and not just things based on corn and high-fructose corn syrup). The third rule, and subject of this post is Not Too Much. In other words, whatever you're eating, eat within reason, not unthinkingly.  These are some of the specific rules that stuck with me:

44-Pay more, eat less. 
     In his explanation of this one, he also listed this old maxim: Better to pay the grocer than the doctor. This one got me, because I am definitely the one who doesn't buy organic entirely because of the cost. Based on the small portion of our budget that is food, it really wouldn't hurt me to spend a tiny bit more on more natural, local foods. When it comes down to it, I would MUCH rather pay more for food than for doctor bills.

46-Stop eating before you're full. 
     This rule, and several following ones, emphasize the importance of being aware of the food you put in your mouth. How often do we eat unthinkingly, out of a bag, only to realize after you dump a handful of popcorn down the front of your shirt that you haven't even been looking at the food? (Ok, maybe that's just me. My hand-eye coordination is atrocious.) My favorite thing he said about this rule was the words for saying, "I'm hungry" and "I'm full" in French. Before a meal, the literal translation of the French phrases is, "I have hunger." More strikingly after a meal, in France the phrase is, "I have no more hunger." The implication of this is that you do not have to be full to not be hungry anymore. I think this is a critical difference that explains a lot of the obesity problem here. Just that one little thing could help us be much more aware of the actual impact of food on our feelings of being sated.

49-Eat slowly. 
     Or another more practical way Pollan puts this is, Put down your fork in between bites. Even before the days of 25 minute lunches as a teacher, I have always been the one that is waiting for everyone else to finish their meal. I routinely look up (often for the first time) with three bites left, and realize everyone else is maybe half done. Hence, this rule hits home for me. Another way I've heard of explaining the same thing is to swallow each bite before you take the next one. As silly as these things sound, they serve two purposes: 1) You actually enjoy each bite of your food. 2) Since it takes 20 minutes for the message that you are full (or not hungry) to go from your stomach to your brain, the slower you eat, the more time your brain has to get the message that you should stop eating, thereby avoiding being stuffed.

58-Do all your eating at a table. 
     When you eat at a table, you're eating feels contained to the table, and tends to feel like the eating has a beginning and ending. On the other hand, if you don't eat at the table (for meals or snacks), you're far more prone to be doing something else at the same time, like watching TV, which means you're eating unthinkingly, and often, unendingly. Also, in terms of snacks, many times it seems silly to get a portion of a given snack and sit down at the table and eat it. However, if we did this, I suspect we'd be much more likely to eat less, because once you get up from the table, there is a much stronger feeling of the eating being finished. My husband is a good example of this, since he often sits down at the table with chips and a dish of salsa after work, and when the salsa is gone, he's done eating until supper. I, on the other hand, tend to snack while I do other things all afternoon (all in the name of multi-tasking of course), and I probably end up eating more in the process.

59-Try not to eat alone. 
     This is a fantastic rule on all sides. Obviously there are many situations where you can't avoid eating alone, but there are also many times when there is someone in the house to eat with, but you choose not to. One of the many points of eating with someone is that you spend time talking, and not just wolfing down your food, without thinking. Talking slows you down, which again, gives your brain more time to get the signal that your not hungry anymore. On top of that, it's just more enjoyable eating with someone else. :-)

60-Treat treats as treats. 
     Enough said.

63-Cook. 
     Again, this guarantees that you're eating real food, and it is significantly more likely to be much healthier.

And finally, 64-Break the rules, once in a while. 
     Like I said previously, one of my favorite things about this book is the way that Pollan rarely says Never. By emphasizing making good lifestyle choices on a regular basis, there is room in your diet to occasionally break the rules.

So, all these posts to say, Eat well on a regular basis. (And then break the rules every once in a while :-)