Michael Pollan Says: Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants

Sara Lerner
05/21/2009 at 8:00 p.m.

Michael Pollan says our diet has changed more in the last 125 years than in the last 10,000, and that's because of the invention of modern industrialized food. He says the Western diet consists of refined carbohydrates, refined oils, lots of meat and lots of calories. Basically, he says, lots of everything except whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. He says this diet is making us sick. We're suffering from diabetes and obesity. He gives twelve rules to live by, like: "Eat foods that will eventually rot." Pollan wants people to see their bodies not as machines to put good or bad things into, but as a crucial part of a circle that includes people, bodies, plants, and soil.