Food Rules – An Eaters Manual
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010We love Micheal Pollan! His philosophy around food, outlined in his books ‘The Omnivores Dilema’ and ‘In Defense of Food’, are directly in line with ours and the reasons we opened Help Yourself. In fact I can’t think of any better words to sum it up than his phrase on the front of ‘In Defense of Food’; Eat Food. Not Much. Mostly Plants.
This morning I had some time to myself and I went down to Voltaire Books and picked up his latest book ‘Food Rules’. This is a simple pocket guide he calls ‘An Eaters Manual’ that contains 64 rules on how to eat.
Forget Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Medi Fast or any of the other fad diets out there, if everyone followed these simple guidelines we would have a much healthier and thinner nation. Guaranteed.
Take Rule number 37 for instance:
“The whiter the bread the sooner you’ll be dead”
How true this is! In fact here’s a little whole grain trivia we have posted at the restaurant that helps you understand why this rule is so true:
Whole Grain Trivia
What is a whole grain? A grain with all its edible parts in tact – Bran, germ, endosperm.
Huh..? When a grain is refined, like white rice and white pasta, the germ and bran are removed so it is no longer a ‘whole food’. Most of the fiber and nutrients like vitamin E, the B vitamins and the phytonutrients are found in the germ and the bran.
So? Well, grains are carbohydrates and when refined, the sugar is released directly into the blood stream raising your blood sugar levels. Because of the excess sugar the body ends up turning it into fat. Whole grains release the sugars slowly providing sustained energy without spiking the blood sugar levels or turning it into fat.
Moral of the story – Eat whole grains like brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread and quinoa and you’ll have more energy and won’t get fat!
