Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Michael Pollan wrote these seven words in a brilliant and concise motto that simultaneously tells people what they're doing wrong, and how they can fix it. I'd like to expand on these seven words in my own.
Eat food.
This is by far the most influential sentence I have ever read. What Pollan is saying is that a majority of what we eat today is, in fact, not food. Here's a definition of food; food is any substance or materials eaten or drunk to provide nutritional support for the body.
So pop quiz to show what you've learned: Is yogurt a food? I hope you answered yes, and I think it's obvious why it would be considered food. But let me ask another question:
Is Go-Gurt a food? Can you really say that Go-Gurt provides "nutritional support for the body"? The answer is less clear; it's loaded with sugar, artificial colors and flavors, preservatives, and a host of other chemicals that help it move off the shelves.
Not too much.
Probably the easiest thing to understand and the hardest thing to practice. What is too much? We've all got our calorie counters out, and that's great, but I think that we should really look at Pollan's approach more literally. What if all you knew about how much to eat was, Don't eat too much. Then how much would you eat? It would certainly be less stressful, less time-consuming, and less mind-consuming to think this way.
Mostly plants.
These last words need little definition. We all know we could eat more veggies, and we all try to sneak them in here and there. But pay attention to the first word, Mostly. That means 51% or more. And how many of us really do that?
So there it is, something to think about. I adopted those seven words as a motto about a year ago. Since then I've been happier, I've lost weight, and I haven't counted calories, or logged food.
I haven't been on this forum long, but I see an overwhelming amount of calorie counting and food logging going on.
Let's be honest, when you're worried about the amount of calories in an apple, something is seriously wrong.
I think that everyone should start paying less attention to the numbers on the labels, and start paying more attention to things like, "Is this food?"
Michael Pollan wrote these seven words in a brilliant and concise motto that simultaneously tells people what they're doing wrong, and how they can fix it. I'd like to expand on these seven words in my own.
Eat food.
This is by far the most influential sentence I have ever read. What Pollan is saying is that a majority of what we eat today is, in fact, not food. Here's a definition of food; food is any substance or materials eaten or drunk to provide nutritional support for the body.
So pop quiz to show what you've learned: Is yogurt a food? I hope you answered yes, and I think it's obvious why it would be considered food. But let me ask another question:
Is Go-Gurt a food? Can you really say that Go-Gurt provides "nutritional support for the body"? The answer is less clear; it's loaded with sugar, artificial colors and flavors, preservatives, and a host of other chemicals that help it move off the shelves.
Not too much.
Probably the easiest thing to understand and the hardest thing to practice. What is too much? We've all got our calorie counters out, and that's great, but I think that we should really look at Pollan's approach more literally. What if all you knew about how much to eat was, Don't eat too much. Then how much would you eat? It would certainly be less stressful, less time-consuming, and less mind-consuming to think this way.
Mostly plants.
These last words need little definition. We all know we could eat more veggies, and we all try to sneak them in here and there. But pay attention to the first word, Mostly. That means 51% or more. And how many of us really do that?
So there it is, something to think about. I adopted those seven words as a motto about a year ago. Since then I've been happier, I've lost weight, and I haven't counted calories, or logged food.
I haven't been on this forum long, but I see an overwhelming amount of calorie counting and food logging going on.
Let's be honest, when you're worried about the amount of calories in an apple, something is seriously wrong.
I think that everyone should start paying less attention to the numbers on the labels, and start paying more attention to things like, "Is this food?"