Book Review: Michael Pollen "Food Rules" An Eaters Manual

Over the holidays I went to a number of social events (well you have to really) and at most of them at least one person came up and told me they had just read this book or watched that DVD about the problems with our food culture. The story I got was a familiar one, familiar because the same thing had happened to me. There are a lot books out there which tell you the many ways your industrial food system defined diet is going to kill you and there is nothing you can do about it. There are many DVD's which graphically portray the cruelty that many of the creatures that end up on your plate have endured getting there, and there is nothing you can do about it. It's the feeling of helplessness which you are left with which is the problem and was the main issue of the conversations I was having at these social gatherings (yes alcohol was served at many of them).

Luckily I had read Michael Pollan's excellent book In Defense of Food and If you have not I encourage you to pick up a copy before you open his other book Omnivores Dilemma (and others like it) or slot that Food Inc. DVD into the player. I recommend In Defense of Food because it at least gives you some support as a confused or worried eater. The three simple guidelines he outlines at the beginning of the book are really the conclusions drawn from the contents but more than that, they form a mantra which guides the educated eater, and have guided myself, they are:

Eat Food

Not Too Much

Mostly Leaves.

However this review is not about In Defense of Food, it is about Food Rules, An Eaters Guide which is Micheal's new offering. Micheal freely admits that simple as the above guidelines are they were still quite vague and clearly needed more expansion to further aid the confused eater. And so he has released this new book.

The first thing you notice about the Food Rules is that it is small, compact in size. The idea was to provide a handy reference in rule form rather than a lot of details or background. Inside the book is basically organized in chapters around the three guidelines above and presents 64 rules (although that might be too strong) which add further definition around how to detect food, how much of it is appropriate, and why you don't need to turn Vegetarian or Vegan (unless you want to) in order to satisfy the last guideline.

In short this is a handy book for the confused eater, read out of the context of other works such as In defense of food or some other resource on industrialized food it might not make much sense. In context or when, like the people I encountered, you just have questions, it makes a lot of sense, and I recommend it for your bookshelf.

I am especially pleased about rule 64: "break the rules once in a while". Mainly because while writing this review I did snack on a packet of Smoky Bacon Crisps (Chips) I had brought back from the UK and just found in the cupboard.

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• Michael Pollan Talks to Jon Stewart - Cheap Food Makes for Bad Health (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)
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• 64 Food Rules (fooducate.com)
• Michael Pollan On The Daily Show (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Michael Pollan's NY Times Food Rules (gatheringinlight.com)