Food Rules to Live by

As a Holistic Health Counselor I tend to get lots of questions about food! So today I want to share with you some really great, simple food rules that are easy enough for anyone to incorporate and make a long-term part of their lives.

These rules happen to come from a book called “Food Rules, an eater’s manual” by Michael Pollan. Michael Pollan has written several books on food but this is by far the easiest read. It is simply a list of easy to follow ‘rules’. Here are some of my top picks and why I think they’re so important.

Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in their pantry.

This means you should read labels closely! Gluten free packaged foods are especially culprits of containing things like cellulose, xantham gum and other additives that you wouldn’t find outside of a food lab.

Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they’re not.

 Products like ‘meats’ made from soy, imitation butter that’s not made from butter or creamer that doesn’t contain any cream go through extreme amounts of processing to morph into the final products. They are not real foods- they’re science experiments so keep them out of your kitchen and body.

Eat your colors.

Foods found in nature come in a wide variety of colors and with each color comes different vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. To make sure you’re getting a wide range of nutrition, eat as many colors as you can!

Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.

 An animals diet directly impacts its nutritional quality. Most animals are healthier when they have access to green grass and beware of animals that have evolved to eat greens but are fed grains to fatten them up. Meat from healthy animals eating what nature intended them to eat will contain higher levels of vitamins and omega-3 fats.

Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.

 This is pretty self explanatory- food is fuel not a recreational activity but so many of us use food as comfort or as a reward. Instead check in with your body to make sure you’re really hungry and keep handy a list of other things you can do to pick you up out of a slump other than searching for momentary pleasure in a pint of ice cream.