7 Words to Eat By

Confused about what to eat to stay healthy? If you're an American, you most likely are. And who can blame you. We have too many diet books in our bookstores and too many nutrition articles all over the place. To make matters worse, all these books and articles claim to have the answer while contradicting each other. Guess what? They're all right and they're all wrong. And they're certainly all confusing. However, simplicity to the rescue! It's old news but still good news:

in the January 29, 2007 New York Times, author Michael Pollan attempted to simplify the way we should eat. He managed to do this in just seven words, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Notwithstanding the fact that he went on to write another 21 pages, when this article ("Unhappy Meals") is printed on computer paper, those seven words are a brilliant summation.

Let's break it down, for seven words do not a post make.

"Eat food." This means eat real food. As Pollan says, eat stuff your grandmother would recognize as food - not your mother as the mid-1900s were when we started eating all sorts of things our bodies don't recognize as food, so Mom won't know any better than you what you should be eating. You'll know non-food because it come in boxes and containers with long ingredient lists on the side. According to Pollan, if you avoid food that have unfamiliar or unpronounceable ingredients, or foods that have more than five ingredients, you'll avoid most foods that have been highly processed. And any time food is highly processed, the nutritional value has been processed right out of it. So, eat real foods. For example, whole grains are things such as brown rice, wild rice, oats, quinoa - not breads or breakfast cereals with long laundry lists of ingredients because then the actual amount of whole grain you're consuming is small and it's been highly processed.

"Not too much." I'm right there with the worst culprits here. I love food. I love to eat. I love to eat too much. If you do too, try paying attention to your body - if you do so you'll learn to notice when you're hungry and when you're not. Eat when you're hungry. Stop when you're not. It's a powerful weight loss tool, if you need to lose weight.

"Mostly plants." Okay, I'm sorry, Pollan wrote this as two words, when he actually meant it as four. Maybe he thought nine words was more than we could handle, maybe he was afraid of the Popeye effect - you know, how when you were a kid you didn't care if Popeye got big and strong from eating spinach, you still weren't going to do it. The two phantom words are: "especially leaves." There, I said it. Those are the really healthy parts of the plants and the parts that are the least calorie-dense. French fries seem like a plant food and for most Americans they are the only plant food they eat. Let's not quibble, but this is not the kind of plant Pollan meant.

There's more. Of course there is. But if you're starting to improve your diet, this is a great and simple way to start.

Can something so simple really be right? Uh-huh. You can get involved in a lot more details. But do you want to? Do you find that following strict dietary rules lead to better health, or worse? I'd love to hear your opinion.

Sometimes you have to believe it to see it.

I have a relative who doesn't believe in what I do. He doesn't believe in good health. He doesn't have it. He says he doesn't know anyone who's in good health. That he said this with a straight face in front of my husband, who is 55 years old, awakens between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m., alternates just the weight lifting portion of his workouts with 1800 pound and 5640 pound workouts, and walks about 15 miles a week, shows me that sometimes you can't see what's right in front of your nose. Sometimes you have to believe it to see it.

Still, I get his point. Most Americans are not in great shape or great health. We eat too much and too many things that only by the greatest stretch of the imagination can be called food. We neither move enough nor rest enough. And we certainly don't relax enough.

So, what would it take to be madly healthy? Is it even possible?

I know it's possible. It's even probable for most of us if we change our ways. Another relative, a cardiologist, told me that 80-90% of chronic disease in our country is due to lifestyle. (I've heard this from other sources, but can't put my hands on the exact quotes right now, so I hope you'll take my word for the statistic.)

For me, a reformed cookie-chomping slug who is insanely grateful to be married to a man who's willing to wake up and walk the dog in all weather, since I'm not, being madly healthy means that I wake up with the energy to start my day and keeping that energy going until it's time for me to lay my head on my pillow at night. What does it mean to you? Are you there? Do you believe you can get there? Can you see it?