Oprah: Food 101 with Michael Pollan

Today’s (Wednesday 1/27/2010) ‘Oprah Winfrey Show‘ with Michael Pollan (author of ‘In Defense of Food’ & ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’) was by far the best show of hers I’ve ever seen (although I will admit that I haven’t seen many haha)!  I’m thrilled that millions of people will be seeing it – actually I’m happy that millions will be seeing it, but THRILLED that someone (most likely more than one) will begin to consciously think about what they’re eating/buying.

Here’s a clip from today’s show:

Here are some of the ‘Food Rules’ discussed on the show today:

#2 – Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. Would your great-grandmother recognize portable yogurt tubes as food?

#7 – Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third grader cannot pronounce.

#13 – Only eat foods that will eventually rot.

Some of his quotes on the show today:

Do you want to pay for real food now or pay the doctor later… the less we spend on food, the more we spend on healthcare.

The low-fat diet craze made everyone fatter. When you cut out one thing, like fat, you end up eating more processed carbohydrates. This may have led to our obesity epidemic.

Cooking is the only way you can take back control of your diet from the corporations that control your food. Corporations tend to use too much salt and sugar. It may be convenient, but if you understand what it takes to make food that cheap, you will lose your appetite.

Here’s some of his other ‘Food Rules’:

1) Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. “When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can’t pronounce, ask yourself, “What are those things doing there?”

2) Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can’t pronounce.

3) Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.

4) Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot. “There are exceptions — honey — but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren’t food.”

I believe that you can watch today’s full ‘Oprah Winfrey Show’ here:

Oprah: Before You Grocery Shop Again – Food 101 w/ Michael Pollan

‘Food, Inc.‘ will be on sale for only $9.99 until January 29, 2010 at Amazon.com