Michael Pollan is your Bubbeh
By Mr. HenryAfter explaining how certain plants have co-evolved through human cultivation (The Botany of Desire), after explaining why fakockteh factory frankenfoods are ruining our bodies and our planet (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), and after laying out an eater’s manifesto for the age (In Defense of Food), now Michael Pollan is laying down the law about exactly what to eat (Food Rules).
This we need?
Taken as a whole, the book’s 64 prescriptions confirm something more: Michael Pollan is your grandmother. In pithy Talmudic aphorisms he’s trying to nudge the world into keeping a new kosher.
Rule #8 – Avoid food products that make health claims.
Rule #11 – Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
Rule #13 – Eat only foods that will eventually rot.
Rule #21 – It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language. (Think Big Mac, Cheetos, or Pringles.)
Oy, gevalt! Listen up. Americans are potchkeying around with their natural bounty, making a mishmash of their lives and everyone else’s, too. What’s happening to them shouldn’t happen to a dog. Enough already. Keep eating this meshuggener Western diet and you’re going to plotz!
Better you should eat what grandma ate, says Michael. It can’t hurt.
February 12th, 2010 at 6:07 am
But… but… a Big Mac is a “Royale wit’ cheese” in French!
February 12th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
“…and the french fries are served with mayonnaise. Yeah, they drown ‘em in that sh*t.”
February 12th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Word.
Mr. Henry if you ever find yourself in the Boston please give me a yell and I will give you a dozen fresh eggs from my backyard chickens.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Well, considering that my grandmas lived through the Japanese annexation, world war(s), a dictatorship and grew up in one of the poorest Asian countries before it became the technology powerhouse it is now, if I ate what my grandma(s) ate, that would be a lot of … nothing. It was tough back then.
Not that I’m disparaging Pollan. I wholeheartedly agree with him.