Food Rules, an eater's manual by Michael Pollan

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Part I: Bibliographic information

Type: Nonfiction

Title: Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual

Writer: Michael Pollan

Copyright Date: 2009

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 978-0-14-311638-7

Genre/subgenre: Health/nutrition

Interest Age: 13+

Reading Level: Upper Grades (UG 9-12)

Pages: 140

Awards:  New York Times bestseller

Part I: Reader’s Annotation, Plot Summary, Critical Evaluation

Reader’s Annotation --  A pocket-sized paperback book offering up the abridged version of Pollan’s ideas about food, which are presented as 64 rules to eat by.

Plot Summary --  This book has been called a rehashing of the ideas presented in Pollan’s earlier bestsellers, The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006) and In Defense of Food (2008).  Yet that is precisely what makes it such a good read for people on the go and, in particular, for young readers. You get the concepts that have made Pollan a multi-book New York Times best-selling author but it’s accomplished in a brief but inspiring introduction followed by 64 rules with brief explanations.  He also qualifies these rules a s “policies” (Pollan, 2009, p. xx) to guide us rather than hard-and-fast rules not to ever break.  The rules are presented in three sections, and he suggests that if we adopt one policy from each of the sections it will go a long way to improving our eating and health.  Each section corresponds to his three-fold philosophy about food, which is, “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much,” according to Pollan.

The first section is titled, “What should I eat?”  The answer is simply to ‘eat food’.  But that’s not easy to define these days, according to Pollan.  “The highly processed food products of modern food science” (Pollan, 2009, p.3) may look like food but they are not in Pollan’s view.  These initial rules are designed to help the shopper/eater recognize the “edible food like substance” mostly made of corn and soy -- that’s been highly processed and genetically modified -- and not really food.  We are to avoid products that our grandmother would not recognize, that contain products that ordinary folks would not keep in the pantry, that a third grader cannot pronounce, that contain high fructose corn syrup or sugar as a top five ingredient, that make health claims, that will not rot.  By rule 19 we hardly need explanation so he drops it -- and simply states, “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t (p.41).

The next section helps us decide what to eat as opposed to what not to eat.  “Mostly plants” is something that Pollan drives home in all his work.  This section pulls from his ideas about traditional diets being superior to the Western diet based on mortality and disease rates.  He does not advocate any particular diet pr ingredient but rather that we eat whole foods.  He also adds his take on meat -- we are to eat less of it and from sources with as few legs as possible. Diversity -- or eating like an omnivore -- is also a recommendation.  This includes lots of different vegetables of varying color since we know chemically speaking the color is typically an indicator of antioxidant content.  Finally, he suggests we consider what soil and food source is behind the food we eat as well.

The final section titled “How should I eat?” addresses quantity.  The answer is “Not too much.”  He points to the French pattern of eating -- seldom snacking, small plates, no seconds -- as a key to weight control.  Obesity is linked to disease and Americans have higher and higher rates of both.  The almost obvious rule here is to eat when you are hungry not when you are bored, according to Pollan.  Again, he suggest we slow down our eating like the French because it can take 20 minutes for the brain to register that it is satisfied biochemically.  Simply eating slower allows us to recognize that we are full.  He also suggest that we eat at a table -- a habit that surprisingly few Americans still abide by and particularly teenagers.  We eat alone, in our car, at the gas station, from drive thrus -- all of which Pollan says tends to promote too much eating and, consequently, obesity and disease.

Critical Evaluation --  This books has been criticized as duplicative of Pollan’s other works.  So be it!  Not everyone has the desire to read a treatise on food -- and that is what The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006) is really so the reader can graduate to that if desired.  The introduction to Food Rules (2009) in and of itself is a worthwhile read -- and, yes, it contains a lot of Pollan’s core ideas about food.  First, he argues nutrition science is in its infancy.  Second, he presents the two “Facts” that he came back to about food: first, the Western diet is linked to disease and, second, more traditional diets are less connected with disease.  So he sets up to want to listen. This is why I think this short read is particularly good for teens.  Pollan is convincing and to the point.  

If I had to offer a criticism, I’d suggest it is in this occasionally in his brevity that we lose the thread of logic that connects the rules. The introduction is so powerful and fluid that the rules feel a staccato -- and some offer no explanation and would maybe be better off left out?  But he helps the reader out by breaking these into three components -- what should I eat, why kind of food should I eat and how should I eat.  Those categories are not entirely mutually exclusive and so the list feels a bit lengthy even if the book is not.  Note: there is also an illustrated version of this book featuring the drawings of Maira Kalman.  I highly recommend that version for young adult collections though I was not able to find it for the purposes of this review.

Part III: Author Info

Michael Pollan is an author and journalist who has focused much of his writing career on and around the subject of food.  His latest work is titled Cooked (2012) and focuses on   In The Botany of Desire (2001), he also written about the idea of co-evolution in which human’s impact and direct the development of other living things to meet our needs.  

His personal history is summarized on his webpage as follows: “Michael Pollan, who was born in 1955, grew up on Long Island, and was educated at Bennington College, Oxford University, and Columbia University, from which he received a Master’s in English. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife, the painter Judith Belzer, and their son, Isaac” (Pollan, 2013).

Part IV: Curriculum Ties, Diversity, Booktalk Ideas, Challenge Issues

Curriculum Ties, if any --  Nutrition takes a backseat to hard sciences in schools by and large.  However, a good science teacher might see the wisdom of combining Pollan’s work with either a biology or chemistry course.  Additionally, this read would fit well in a health/nutrition course as an alternative to the textbook approach.

Diversity of Cultures -- There is some discussion of the idea that other more traditional cultures seem to have it better health on the whole than the Westerner.

Booktalking Ideas --  Almost universally, teens consume fast food and a lot of them enjoy it more than traditional meals.  But if you buy Pollan’s argument, our food choice are literally killing us. So our eating habits catch up with us eventually.  Without giving up on eating, what changes might we make based on Pollan’s rules that would point our bodies in a healthier direction.

Challenge Issues -- None unless you love fast or processed food.  He does suggest in Rule 43 that wine is good for you.

Part V: Reasons chosen

Food is fundamental.  We consume it multiple times a day for our entire life.  Yet the discussion of food as a means of maintaining health seems to start when we are halfway through our lives and we are either overweight or sick -- or both.  Health classes simple reiterate that with FDA has decided to put it’s rubber stamp to.  But people for generations have known what foods are good and not good for us.  Pollan has tapped into the shared wisdom and presented it to us in a easy to digest format that even a child could comprehend.  The figures are indisputable that we as a nation are overweight and undernourished.  I think this book sends a powerful message about why that is and what we can as individuals do about it.  I’d put it in the hands of every teen if possible.  It’s important stuff that can save them a lot of time and effort on fad diets and in the end promote a healthy long-term relationship to food.

Part VI: Citations

Pollan, M. (2013). About Michael Pollan [webpage]. Retrieved from http://michaelpollan.com/press-kit/

Pollan, M. (2009). Food Rules. New York, NY: Penguin.