Simple rules

Cant’ wait to have new crops. I want to buy proper corns wrapped in husks.

We always try to eat healthy. We have been doing even better since I came across Micheal Pollan’s lectures.

Michael Pollan is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.(From Wikipedia)

He seems to be very well known in the States, but I had no idea who he was until the beginning of this year. I feel ignorant, but I am glad that I found him.

I found his lectures on YouTube. He talks about how we can improve our health by changing eating habit. I always thought cooking for my family is the most important task I have on my hands and have been cooking all meals. I never buy microwavable meals or takeaways. We don’t eat at fast food restaurants. However, I am guilty of buying ready-made savory snacks as sausage rolls, pies and scotch eggs occasionally. I have also bought cakes and muffins in plastic packaging.

I haven’t gone to these isles at supermarkets for months now, thanks to his informative talks.

He has 7 Rules for Eating.

Pollan says everything he’s learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

“Eat food” means to eat real food — vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and, yes, fish and meat — and to avoid what Pollan calls “edible food-like substances.”

These are from his lectures. Here’s how:

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?”

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. Oh, yes, in Japan, we say eat until you are four-fifths 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.

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

I am aware of criticism against him. It is not possible to please everyone of course. But a lot of things he says make sense to me. He also says that truly healthy food do not scream that they are good for you. That is so true.

He hasn’t come up to a miraculous diet, but he has reminded us simple yet very important rules.

I have changed my shopping habit and my son has been cooking his lunch every day.

His favorite seems to be fried rice. We are not completely processed food free and use ham and crab sticks, but I have decided that is OK. He likes flavouring with Korean red chilli paste.

Many of his dishes are his inventions and this is one of them.

I don’t quite know how we should call it. You make Keema curry-like topping with chopped onion, carrot, bell pepper and soya mince. This can be the leftover from the previous night. Heat pan with a bit of oil, spread hot steamed sushi rice. You place topping and make a hole in the centre for egg.

Cover and cook until the egg is done. We like egg yolk runny. He as added a bit of cheese at the end.

Rice has crispy bottom and it is tasty. The topping doesn’t have to be Keema curry. It can be Chilli con carne or any mince cooked in your favorite sauce.

My son has been a very fussy eater. He still is but he started tolerate more vegetables. He now knows the trouble involved in cooking.

We will be enjoying more of these from now on.

Mickeal Pollan is an author of five books: In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008), The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001), A Place of My Own (1997), and Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education (1991). In 2016, Netflix released a four-part documentary series, which was based on Pollan’s book, Cooked (2013) I have watched them all.

Oh, He is very funny and his lectures are entertaining, too!

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