"Scientists operating with the best of intentions, using the best tools at their disposal, have taught us to look at food in a way that has diminished our pleasure in eating it while doing little or nothing to improve our health."

A fine piece of writing by Michael Pollan (from the N.Y. Times, but available to us unregistered paeons as of this post) on "nutritionism", dietary fads, dubious science and the generally problematic nature of the way our culture approaches food. To summarize his advice:

1) Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

2) Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims.

3) Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.

4) Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.

5) Pay more, eat less. [Much elaborated upon.]

6) Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.

7) Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.

8) Cook.

9) Eat like an omnivore.

Seems like good advice to me. Personally, however, I'm holding out for a study that says seldom descending below 9,000 feet will impart Confucian sagacity together with stevedore virility. I may have to conduct my own experiments, though.

One more fact of interest from the article: "The American Heart Association charges food makers for their endorsement." Think about that during your next CPR class.