 Simple, common sense advice. |
| Review Date: September 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: OrganizerPro, Tampa Bay Area, FL |
Mr. Pollan dishes up great advice in this tiny, but very useful "handbook for eating".
Who would think we'd need such a thing? It's 2010! We know how to eat, right? Wrong.
If you've gotten off-track with the basics, or need to learn the basics, this will take you right there, and more importantly, it'll explain WHY.
I had this on my list here when I saw it at my local members-only club & picked it up there instead, because I wanted it "now", but can't say enough good things about the power of this book.
Why?
My mother, who has been on every diet known to man, to lose substantially & then gain it all back, who eventually had gastric bypass surgery and STILL struggled with food addiction, got quite a bit out of this book. I actually, for the first time in my 42 years, felt she "got it". If you know someone struggling, or if it's you, it's the best few dollars you may ever spend.
I had bought the book for myself, but when she picked it up & began actually reading me parts of it, I told her it was hers, and she STILL reads it to me. Go mom!! :) |
Spare but Useful Book
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| Review Date: September 1, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Joseph C. Sweeney, Portland, Maine |
| Thanks to author Pollan many folks, like myself, are becoming interested in what (and why) we eat what we eat. His other books are certainly more informative but this is a terrific basic primer in what one should eat. Good stuff and well worth the seven bucks. |
How about some publishing rules?
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| Review Date: August 30, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Country Boy, Appalachian Ridge and Valley |
| Whether it was the publisher or author responsible, someone ought to come up with rules on what to write and how to publish. This volume does not speak well of either party. The worth of content is questionable at best. It certainly does not complement Pollan's other laudatory works. OK...so it's a pocket guide. Cute. I'm not going to carry it in my "man purse", though. The book itself is very cheaply manufactured...if it's meant to be a carry-along guide, it should have a stiffened and supple cover; instead it is flimsy paperback material. The page paper is something less than newsprint....it will wear, tear and tan quickly. The pricetag doesn't measure up with the book in any respect. My copy is going back unread. |
Helpful Rules
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| Review Date: August 27, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Harrison Ray, Texas USA |
| I checked this book out after watching Food, Inc. (Pollan co-starred, which probably changed my life, no joke). These rules were helpful toward making the transition into healthier eating. It is a quick read with easy enough rules to follow. Watch Food, Inc. and you will have no problem following these rules. |
Michael Pollan
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| Review Date: August 25, 2010 |
| Reviewer: M. Davis, Sterling,VA |
| Another genius book by Michael Pollan. Simple and easy to read, a great starter "foodie" book. |
Simplest thing you can do to eat right!
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| Review Date: August 23, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Bubba Wilson, |
| Originally saw this author on "The Colbert Report" discussing the book. Gives you the absolute simplest guidelines from the eons of time to eat healthier and simpler. Forget counting calories and start following age old rules and adages. |
rules of the game
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| Review Date: August 23, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Deborah Barchi, Rhode Island, USA |
Pollan is a serious, focused writer, highly respected for his well researched books on food and the food industry. Anyone interested in the food chain and how the food industry has influenced our health and eating over the past century would be intrigued with Pollan's two seminal books on the subject: The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. But those books are hefty and time consuming (though fascinating) tomes. If like me, you don't always have the unlimited time you'd like to curl up with a book, I would suggest the pared down but no less important version of Pollan's ideas, succinctly and often humorously explained in Food Rules.
"Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food"
"Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third grader cannot pronounce."
"Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does"
These pithy, amusing caveats make up the bulk of this slender volume. The message is simple and undeniable. As consumers of the typical "Western diet", Americans eat more "foodlike products" than food. That is, we eat food or food like substances that have been processed and prepped and presented to us in ways that make us crave them, crash after eating them, and then hurry to cram more of them into our gaping mouths. The result is an epidemic of obesity in the United States and other parts of the Western world, along with all of the accompanying problems such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
High fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil, Xantham gum. . . who the heck really wants to eat them? Certainly not my great grandmother! Yet processed foods containing these products and countless others now make up the lion's share of the Western diet, with predictable yet deplorable results.
Does this mean that Pollan would have us eat rabbit food, consisting of a few pieces of lettuce and a scrap of carrot? Not at all! Instead, everything, Pollan says, about eating well is contained in the following 7 words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." By food he pretty much means all food, including meat, dairy, fish, vegetables, fruits, fats, and pretty much any combination thereof, so long as it is fresh as possible, minimally processed, not eaten to excess, and eaten mindfully.
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Simple yet PERFECT
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| Review Date: August 23, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Mackenzie Wilson, |
This book is a giveaway item I give to all my clients within the first month of us meeting. I'm a certified Health Coach and I love this book! It truly is a perfect, simple read.
Thank you! |
Common sense
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| Review Date: August 18, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Nathan and Jenni, |
| Food Rules by Michael Pollan is common sense. Rules that everyone should read and reapply to their eating habbits. It's great to have common sense rules put into one place. My favorite is taking your grandma to the grocery store. Great book! |
Rules for Living
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| Review Date: August 13, 2010 |
| Reviewer: K. Johnson, US/Asia |
I bought and read this book, because of a serious effort to ween myself away from processed foods.
There are three segments of "Food Rules." Common sense questions with common sense answers: what eat, what foods, and how much? There are sixty-four actual, rules. It's organized very well for the reader to get the information one needs. Commons sense and helpful tips such as "not eating foods that have ingredients a third grader cannot pronounce," I realize how many chemicals and toxins are on my shelf. "Enriched" can be pronounced, but "enriched" means so many vitamins and minerals have been taken out of the food by processing that these food companies have actually put synthetic vitamins back in because they've taken so many out: factory made vitamins.
Also, HFCs are in so many processed food products. It takes time to throw out the many things that have High Fructose Corn Syrup. "Partially Hydrogenated Oil" is trans-fat. "Don't buy food where you buy gasoline" is a good one. Think of how many chemicals are in the stuff at this quick-stop marks where you fill up? Also, don't eat cereal that changes the color of your milk.
With "Food Rules" not only can someone be just healthier, but he/she can live longer and lose weight just by making these changes. I think the biggest benefit of the book is getting young children to be aware of this. At a young age, once children get the junk food-processed food taste buds, it's very difficult to change. Parents should think about what their kids are eating at home and at school.
This book is most helpful to those with little or no knowledge of nutrition. However, those who do know this info that have been accustomed (lazy) to eating the processed, packaged, chemicals, can get a reminder on how to live longer and be healthier.
How many people die in the US from eating what's in processed and packaged foods? How does the Food Lobby influence not only what we eat, but what we *don't* know about the foods we eat?
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Short, common sense, interesting background info
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| Review Date: August 9, 2010 |
| Reviewer: infatuationjunkie, San Jose, Ca |
To be honest if you have any sort of simple background in nutrition, most of this Cliff Notes version of other Pollan books is not new to you. However, I don't think you are the target audience. This is a good book for a teenager who likes short bursts of information.
For the most part I did not learn any new "Rules" out of 64, but I did learn some evolutionary background. Which was interesting to me. One new to me fact is that fermented products (like kim chi) are good probiotics, which makes a lot of sense.
Otherwise - eat small portions, don't snack, if you do snack use fruits/veggies/nuts, don't eat cheap processed food, cook, make meat a flavor enhancer rather than centerpiece of the dish.
I got the book from the library. If I bought it, I would have been upset to spend money on it. |
Interesting and fun to read
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| Review Date: August 8, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Marcus Schuetz, Hong Kong SARm China |
Followed a recommendation and read Michael Pollan's "Food rules", in which the author compiles 64 general principles on food from experts like grandmas to doctors. It is funny to read. Some of the rules I liked are: "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food", or "Eat foods made of ingredients you can picture in their raw state of growing in nature", or "Avoid foods you see advertised on Television" etc. Every chapter contains a nicely written paragraph of explanation, which is pretty easy to understand. But for me it was a bit a reading that had the effect of "wow, people really eat such rubbish?". But they obviously do. I went to a Wallmart in Shanghai a few days ago and was surprised how many things they sell which are really not easy to recognize as food, even for me and not just for my grandmother. And now I completely understand what Pollan means by "edible foodlike substances". And this "stuff" is not even cheap - at least not here in China where you get very good food at every corner for a few RMB. But also the Chinese now become more and more "rubbish eaters", because the dimensions fat and sweet also pushed their buttons to make bad decisions. And in the coastal cities you can already see very clearly that this becomes a health problem for many. Specially for children who are fed with everything here - of course out of good intention.
The book is nice to read, but the real learning curve only comes for those who buy all the Supermarket rubbish and convenience food. Perhaps they are better reached by a TV programme than by a book. But who knows it might already exist - I don't have a TV. |
We Should All Memorize These Rules
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| Review Date: August 3, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Opus, Southern Illinois |
If everyone lived by these rules, the country would be a lot healthier!
Michael Pollan summarizes what & why we need to eat in a great set of rules.
I've bought several for friends. |
a manual for all eaters!
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| Review Date: August 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: maggie, |
| good advice presented in an easy to read entertaining way. Even my 10 year old enjoyed it. |
A good, easy to read, easy on time book
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| Review Date: July 27, 2010 |
| Reviewer: T.B., Herndon, VA |
| I'm a busy person but am concerned about what I eat and put into my body. Yes, much of the advice is practical once you read it but not necessarily something I would have thought of on my own. I am a very busy person so I appreciated that it is a quick read and a great book to pass to friends and family. |
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