Food Rules ....for health, wellness and weight management

You can listen to “experts” and make nutrition as complicated as you like but for wise, sensible and simple advice you should read some of Michael Pollan’s books. He gives you a scientifically based and very practical insight into how and what to eat to optimise health. In fact he sums it up in seven words.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”

(Real unprocessed food, watch portion size and volume up your plate with vegetables and fruit)

I wanted to share with you my favorite "food rules" from his book, “Food Rules” An Eater’s Manual. Michael translates his seven words for optimum nutrition into a set of 64 “rules” for improved health. Here's some my favourites and ones I try to stick to!

1. Eat Food (real food - avoid processed foods)

2. Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food

3. Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients

4. Avoid products that contain more than five ingredients

5. Avoid products that promote health claims

6. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle

7. Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in the their raw state or growing in nature

8. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves

9. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well

10. Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacteria or fungi

11. Pay more eat less

12. Stop eating before you’re full