This slim, brightly illustrated book is easily read in a day, and depending on what kind of information you are looking for, this can be either good or bad news. If you’re searching for a detailed guide to nutritional choices, you would be better off referring to Pollan’s other works, such as In Defense of Food or The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
However, if what you’re looking for is some nutritional advice condensed into 83 pithy entries–some entries so brief that they only consist of a title (see #22 and #23)–you’ve picked up the right book. Pollan divided this book into three subtitles, “What Should I Eat?”, “What Kind of Food Should I Eat?”, and “How Should I Eat?” and the entries are divided accordingly. For example, you’ll find “Don’t let yourself get too hungry,” which is rule #59, in the last section; and “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food” (#2) in the first.
Pollan seems to operate in nutritional rules of black and white, so I’d advise taking most of his suggestions with a (proverbial!) grain of salt. Rules like, “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself,” #45, are just begging to be broken. Let’s be honest: few people are going to drop their Ben and Jerry’s guilty pleasure for the joys of homemade ice cream. But the intent behind the rule–that the difficulty of creating junk food should motivate one to limit their snacking–can help a person be more aware of what they eat. And maybe even get in touch with a Martha Stewart side they never knew they possessed!
I was also a little frustrated with the brevity of this book, as I like a lot of substance with my non-fiction reading and, hey, if you want some food advice with pretty illustrations, there’s always Self magazine. But if you just want to stick a toe into the vast waters of health and nutrition, Pollan’s rulebook is a good way to start.
2 out of 5.
