From Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, 12 New Eating Resolutions for the New Year:
- Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
- Avoid foods containing ingredients you can’t pronounce.
- Dont’ eat anything that won’t eventually rot.
- Avoid food products that carry health claims.
- Shop the peripheries of the supermarket; stay out of the middle.
- Better yet, buy food somewhere else: the farmer’s market or CSA.
- Pay more, eat less.
- Eat a wide diversity of species.
- Eat food from animals that eat grass.
- Cook and, if you can, grow some of your own food.
- Eat meals and eat them only at tables.
- Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure.
Another great list for a more sustainable earth. All twelve items on the list, I have followed religiously, my entire life. This is how I was raised.
How about the folks for whom this way of eating is totally foreign? Can they relate to such a list? Do they care? And even if they are interested, will they just read the list, and soon forget about it?
Today, I am hitting a red wall. Questioning the value of the written words to change people’s habits. Is Michael Pollan preaching to the choir with all his books? Is blogging a waste of time? I am growing more and more impatient with myself. Wanting to make a difference. Getting closer and closer to a resolution, and still not quite there yet.
i have been beating the alternative food drum for 14 years – way before it was fashionable and trendy – way before stores like whole foods made it easy and sometimes deceptive – i don’t think it’s anything to stop doing, it’s actually the keep on keepin on that brings more credibilty – consistancy and patience take us far-
i feel people are watching me/us and hoping we’ll cave in – when i first started sharing nutrition it was like yeah, yeah, yeah – another pet project – i was so insulted and determined that noone was going to diminish what I believed in – here i am still advocating strong – what else would I or could I be doing?
it astounds me the typical american diet today and then it astounds me that there are hundreds of organics at my store today vs when i helped open the first midwest whole foods and we had 26 or that we have an awareness of local that 2 years ago didn’t even exist – it’s shifting, slowly but it’s happening
open your eyes — it’s actually there
i adore pollan’s additional layer and his larger credibilty – it reminds folks of me and then they say hey I remember when you told me that
you were right !!!!!
Mother Earth aka Karen Hanrahan
http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com
Yes, things are shifting. Slowly.
For things like nutrition and food, I can be patient.
For carbon emissions and the depletion of our natural resources, not so much. The more I read, the more I explore, the more I understand, the greater my concern becomes.
Actually, food is tied to ghgs and natural resources as well . . .
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