Food Policy - The Rules

I.        Eat Food
a.       Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
One:         Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting.
b.      Avoid foods products that contain ingredients which
One:          are unfamiliar;
Two:         are unpronounceable;
Three:    are more than five in number;
Four:        or include high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
c.       Avoid food products that make health claims.
d.      Shop the peripheries of the super market, rather than the middle.
e.      Actually, just get out of the supermarket whenever possible.
One:         Shop farmers’ markets and find community-supported agriculture (CSA) box service.

II.      Mostly Plants
a.       Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
b.      Meat should be a side-dish or a flavoring for a plant meal.
c.       You are what you eat eats too.
One:         Buy good meat in bulk and keep it in a separate freezer
Two:         Good meat means chickens were “pastured” and beef was “grass-finished”
d.      Eat like an omnivore (vary the species in your food)
e.      Eat well grown food from healthy soils
One:         Organic or its un-USDA approved equivalents from local farms
f.        Eat wild foods when you can
g.       Be the kind of person who takes supplements (except you don’t have to take supplements)
h.      Eat more like the French. Or the Italians. Or the Japanese. Or the Indians. Or the Greeks.
One:         That is, subscribe to culinary practices based on culture and tradition
i.         Regard nontraditional foods with skepticism
j.        Don’t look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet
One:         The diet is greater than the sum of its parts
k.       Have a glass (about 1) of wine with dinner

III.    Not too much
a.       Pay more, eat less
One:         Don’t go back for seconds. Hara hachi bu: Eat until you are 80% full.
b.      Eat meals. Don’t snack.
c.       Do all your eating at a table.
d.      Don’t get your fuel from the same place a car does.
e.      Try not to eat alone.
f.        Consciously consult your gut.
g.       Eat slowly
One:         As in literally, and as in Slow Food, rather than Fast Food.
Two:         Say a blessing before and after every single meal or snack.
h.      Cook, and if you can, plant a garden

April 16th Update: If you think you still don't know what "real food" is, see here.