Michael Pollan Is Now Subject To A Celebrity Diet Post

Posted on Jun 09, 2009 by Andrew in Celebrity Diets & Workouts .

For those of you die hard health and fitness fanatics out there, the name Michael Pollan is synonymous with whole food gospel, calling out the FDA left and right, and one of the most impressive understandings of the corporate influence on the nutritional climate of the United States. And now that he has entered the realm of Hollywood, albeit through the medium of the documentary FOOD INC., Michael Pollan must be subjected to an extra special edition of Celebrity Diets & Workouts!

The best way to sum up Pollan’s view of nutrition? Check out his 7 rules for eating (Web MD):

Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. ‘When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can’t pronounce, ask yourself, ‘What are those things doing there?’ Pollan says.

Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can’t pronounce.

Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.

Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot. ‘There are exceptions — honey — but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren’t food,’ Pollan says.

It is not just what you eat but how you eat. ‘Always leave the table a little hungry,’ Pollan says. ‘Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, ‘Tie off the sack before it’s full.’

Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It’s a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. ‘Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?’ Pollan asks.

Don’t buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.’”

Pollan gained popularity via his best selling books The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. And while I would love to show you meal for meal what he eats, Pollan himself has proclaimed:

There is no Michael Pollan diet. It’s an algorithm to help you make decisions rather than telling you narrowly: “Eat butter. Don’t eat margarine.” Although you could probably deduce that from what I’m saying. I don’t feel like it’s our job to tell people what to eat. I think our job is to help people think about it. I’m trying to take down the cult of expert eating. The danger is that I then offer myself as an expert. I’m trying to channel the wisdom of culture about eating. My idea here is that science so far hasn’t figured out nutrition well enough to be the arbiter of our food choices.” (NY Times)

Although I agree with most all of Michael Pollan’s thoughts on nutrition, especially his stance on vegetables as being a staple food source, I do believe that he underplays the benefits of meat in a person’s diet. Unfortunately, the very system that he so ardently fights has not provided accurate studies that may some day gauge the overall health of a vegetarian vs. an omnivore (who does not also subscribe to the over processed foods the U.S. is now sadly known for).

Above all, I enjoy Pollan’s idea of changing the way we look at the act of eating. Given obesity rates in America and everything that goes with it, it’s obvious that as a whole we’re doing something wrong in terms of our nutrition. Pollan takes the next logical step and attacks the very way we, as a culture, eat. While he may not be a Blockbuster movie star, Pollan’s non biased viewpoint on what nutrition should be will hopefully spread like wildfire amongst those Hollywood stars and starlets!

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Tags: celebrity diets, eating like Michael Pollan, fitness, health, how does Michael Pollan eat?, In Defense Of Food, Michael Pollan, Michael Pollan's nutrition, Michael Pollan's view on eating, Nutrition, The Omnivore's Dilemma

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Jun 10, 2009

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