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5 Simple Eating Rules from The Eater's Manifesto Author Michael Pollan
5 Simple Eating Rules from The Eater's Manifesto Author Michael Pollan
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Healthy eating advocate and writer Michael Pollan has five tips to help you be more mindful of what you eat and how you eat.

5 Simple Eating Rules from The Eater's Manifesto Author Michael Pollan
5 Simple Eating Rules from The Eater's Manifesto Author Michael Pollan

During his research, Pollan discovered that modern science doesn't know much about nutrition. There are many different opinions and pseudoscientific theories that have spread through television and the media. One fact seems certain, however, that Westerners tend to be less healthy than those who eat more traditional diets. What does Pollan mean by traditional food?

Michael Pollan

Such a diet covers the entire spectrum of diets: high in fat (for example, the Inuit in Greenland live mainly on seal fat), carbohydrates (the Central American Indians eat mostly corn and legumes), proteins (the African indigenous Maasai people eat mainly image of animal blood, meat and milk). Of course, these are the three most contrasting examples, most often a mixed diet is common. But the conclusion we come to is the following: there is no one ideal type of nutrition. Man is an omnivore, he has adapted to various diets. Except for one - the western one, which most of us now adhere to.

Pollan believes that avoiding such a diet will help reduce the risk of many chronic diseases. He even wrote a separate one. Here is some of them.

1. Do not eat what your great-grandmother would not consider edible

Agriculture has progressed significantly since your great-grandmother was born. Many chemical additives have emerged that enhance flavor and prolong the shelf life of foods. While these additives are not necessarily harmful, try to avoid them. So if you think that your great-grandmother would not understand or even could not pronounce the names of most of the ingredients on the packaging, you better not eat this.

2. Don't buy ready-made frozen food

Cook it yourself, don't buy frozen and prepackaged meals. This is one of the main rules of a healthy diet.

3. You can eat junk food if you cook it yourself

This is a very curious rule, because we usually try to completely eliminate such food when thinking about healthy eating. But it's okay to eat a slice of cake sometimes, Pollan said. The main thing is not to do this too often. It won't work if you have to spend several hours making a cake every time you crave something sweet.

4. If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you do not want to eat at all

Think about why you reach for a chocolate bar at two o'clock in the afternoon: because you are really hungry or because you are just used to doing that?

5. Stop eating until you are full

Try this experiment: wait until you are really hungry, and only then start eating. As you eat, try to observe your sensations and track the moment when you stop feeling hungry. Usually it comes before the feeling of full saturation comes.

Pollan's advice is very simple. Try to implement them in your life, and they will be an excellent base for further work on healthy eating.

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