Rachelle Katter
Health 250
28 October 2013

Reading Club Assignment: Food Rules

For the Reading Club Assignment, my selection of reading was Food Rules by Michael Pollan. Pollan opens the book with, “Eating in our time has gotten complicated”; he then proceeds by addressing the ‘science’ role food literacy seems to be taking in our everyday lives. Right off the bat Pollan states that Food Rules isn’t intended to distribute theoretical, scientifically and historical literacy of eating, but rather by providing simple rules of healthy eating to enhance the role food takes in our daily lives. These self-styled rules are jointed or framed in a cultural context. Pollan states, “In this short, radically pared-down book, I unpack those seven words of advice into a comprehensive set of rules, or personal policies, designed to help you eat real food in moderation and, by doing so, substantially get off the western diet.” While reading, I found my self flabbergasted one rule after another. Each rule gave me clarity of what no to do. I myself am guilty of many of the mistakes Pollan addresses. However, I felt more dumbfounded as to why I never made such precise and simple correlations of what I was ingesting and the framework revolving it. The rule that especially left me astonished was rule number 14, Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature. Of course I am well informed of the damage process foods have on my body, however this simple statement gave me a sense of perception. Never in a million years would I have thought about food in terms of their ‘natural state’, but this one rule struck me like a massive newsflash. I undoubtedly will keep this useful tool in mind before having any need of consuming food that is solely processed. Certainly my thinking of this issue has been questioned, but more so reevaluated. I can substantially agree with Pollan’s perspective of literacy of healthy food, I myself have persuaded plenty of times by marketing companies who slap on some biochemistry-like vocabulary word that I suppose is a healthy choice. I was intrigued, yet enlightened by the easy to understand philosophies, more so motivated to make use of these rules by reconsidering my daily intake. Like I stated above, this reading really made me reconsider what, especially how I eat daily. But there are definitely key rules that seem simply attainable just by a change of mind. One rule is