As part of my ongoing Happiness Project, I am working on improving our family’s eating habits, using Michael Pollan’s writing as a guide.
Last month, I endeavored to follow a piece of Pollan’s advice from the “Eat” section of his book In Defense of Food: “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” (You can click here to see how that went.)
This month’s resolution? It’s a doozy.
Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar; b) unpronounceable; c) more than five in number; or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup.
Pollan reasons that, although none of these criteria in and of itself is deadly to a healthy diet, all are “reliable markers for foods that have been highly processed to the point where they may no longer be what they purport to be.”
Pollan uses the example of a loaf of bread to illustrate his case. Pick up a loaf of bread in the bakery section of your local grocery store – or check out a bread recipe (oh, to be the kind of person who bakes fresh bread each week!) – and you’ll see the same basic ingredients: flour, water, yeast, salt.
But grab a loaf of sliced bread from the bread aisle (think Wonder bread) and you’ll find a much longer list of ingredients – and one that tends to break each of Pollan’s four-part edict above. Now I’ll admit that I don’t know what ethoxylated monoglycerides are, nor guar gum. But I do know what flour, water, yeast, and salt are. And familiarity, for me at least, feels better in this case than multisyllabism.
Nevertheless, my efforts to adhere to this latest Pollanism have been difficult.
First, we have a (messy) pantry full of all sorts of stuff that snuck past the great-grandmother test, but violates this one. And my mama didn’t raise a girl who throws away food willy-nilly. So I’ve resolved to do my best at the grocery store while we continue to work through the pantry backlog.
Second, eating better seems to cost more. A bag of Goldfish, for instance, is at least a dollar cheaper than the natural food aisle Cheddar Bunny equivalent. Natural cheese is similarly more expensive than the sliced processed cheese product. And all of those individual dollars add up to a much higher grocery bill. Entering into this food contract might bring a lighter heart, but it will certainly bring a lighter wallet.
Finally, all of this stuff takes more time. Sure, I’ll soon learn what foods pass the tests – and sticking to the perimeter of the store helps – but in the meantime, I’m spending a lot more time reading labels and comparing prices rather than just picking up what’s on sale.
So we’ll see where this leads. Certainly this month’s healthy eating resolution feels more like a revolution so far.
Let’s just hope it’s one of those revolutions that ends in peaceful stability rather than one that leads to increased discord and strife!
P.S. I’m really enjoying the food theme for the month of November over at the Happiest Mom. I am an especially big fan of Meagan’s Six-Meal Shuffle concept.
P.P.S. As a public service message, I’d like you to know that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have only six ingredients. So does that mean that they’re almost a health food? Yes, I think so. (And I bet Jo and Christine would agree with me.)
What’s your favorite healthy food? What’s your favorite culinary guilty pleasure?
Image: fruits & vegetables, Cornelis Schuytsraat by Colin+ via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
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Sounds like a great plan! I’m in favor of “five ingredients or fewer” for recipes too–I used to love to cook complicated things with miles-long lists of ingredients, but now with kids and no time, give me simple! I also find that though fresh, organic, local food is more expensive, I buy a lot of ingredients and things in bulk rather than processed foods, which are really what cost a lot and are generally full of unnecessary calories and junk. And I used to think I could never bake bread, but then I got the cookbook Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (I think there is a Healthy Artisan Bread version now), and now I make almost all of our bread (I did graduate beyond the no-knead bread therein–though I happily fall back on it in a pinch–but it taught me so much about the baking process that I could apply to other recipes. And it really is so quick and easy! Give it a try).
Thanks so much for the cookbook recommendation. I have already added it to my wishlist (oh, the joy of having the December holidays and my birthday rapidly approaching!) and will credit you if and when I become a regular bread baker. You had me, by the way, at “no-knead”!
Hey Kristen, I too notice that trips to the organic market set me back a whole lot more than the standard market (and I must say that Trader Joes is, at least here in LA, a very good bet all around). As for revolution, your post had me thinking of the parallels of education and nutrition—and just how non-egalitarian things stand. If you’re reasonably well off you can bit the bullet and buy organic, but if you’re less well off “healthy” might mean not enough food for the whole family. I suppose this is self-evident, but if we are to truly care about ALL our kids and each other, the notion that there’s no Whole Foods in the hood must not simply be taken as a fact of life.
My mom was very health oriented (and now looks great at 82 and is taking exercise classes still) while my dad thought all that was silly (and has fared much worse physically, and cannot walk unassisted); I remember wanting WonderBread with all my heart and soul as a child, and now I realize because the commercials were so dazzling, kids miraculously growing big and strong with this tasteless squishy super-product. I just could not realize that the WonderBread company was not my friend, and so I was ready to take secular communion from every marketing stranger.
So, here’s to great health for your family—and to every family (oh, and fave food, healthy: perfect pear or peach; guilty pleasure: French Fries).
I remember when I was teaching elementary school in the Washington Heights neighborhood of NYC and a very naive, more judgmental version of myself wondered why my students almost universally brought in 25 cent packages of potato chips for snack. “Why not an apple?” I wondered. The answer, as you point out, is that there is no Whole Foods in the hood. Moreover, in this neighborhood at least, there also wasn’t even a near-ish equivalent to my local Kroger. Food was likely bought at the corner bodega – which featured a small selection and an exorbitant mark-up. And an apple, plain and simple, cost more than a bag of chips.
So yes, absolutely, healthy eating is a whole lot easier to do when one has some disposable income – not to mention physical access to decent markets.
On a far less serious note: I am so pleased to know that you are a fellow fan of the pear and the peach. And now you’ve got me thinking about which one I prefer. Since local peach season ended longer ago than local pear season, I think I’ll go with the peach this evening.
That is tough. Shopping at our local food co-op, while it has amazing natural selections, costs a fortune. One paper bag full of groceries can easily contain $100 worth of items, especially when you get pre-natal vitamins and bars of my favorite dark chocolate included in the mix.
We try hard to eat healthy, but what you are doing is taking it a step further which I applaud and we really should try ourselves. When I have done a lot of label reading in the past (mostly for caloric reasons), it does complicate the buying process at first but pretty soon you know what you need to know.
My favorite healthy food is fruit…sometimes I think I could live on it with a few nuts for protein.
My favorite guilty pleasure is normally anything with dark chocolate and red wine but being pregnant I have had some pretty wild guilty pleasures from pickles to cookies to Rolo’s to Reece’s peanut butter cups (Halloween did not help.)
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have been my number one go-to indulgence during all three of my pregnancies. (Not that I don’t love them usually…) :)
I hope you’re feeling well!
Kristen: You are right. Healthier foods costs more than the processed ones. The documentary Food Inc highlights how families want to choose to eat healthy, but with the current economy cannot afford it because eating healthy sometimes costs triple the amount of a processed food. I was amazed at how many products contained high fructose corn syrup – it is so common place and so hard to avoid. Sometimes it is so frustrating that you are forced to give in and buy the processed food because there isn’t a suitable alternative.
My guilty pleasure is definitely ice cream. I could eat it morning, noon and night.
Thanks, Rudri, for the reminder that I need to watch Food, Inc.. (With Netflix and the instant queue I might even be able to see it this weekend.)
Healthy food is definitely more expensive! After much struggle, I have finally gotten my kids to abandon Gogurt in favor of the Horizon brand squeezable yogurt. But it was a fight, I tell you.
Check out the Newman’s Own peanut butter cups (dark chocolate covered)–they’re really good!
I love your five ingredients plan! And eating is such a complex thing – emotionally as well as in terms of physical health.
Then there’s the pesky budgetary issue. Far more real than many wish to admit.
Hi Kristen! I’m really enjoying reading about your adventures with Pollan-isms. Responding too to Andrea’s comment above, the “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day” is an excellent book (if _slightly_ optimistic).
However, with respect to healthy food being more expensive–which is undeniable–I must point out that we as Americans spend less of our disposable income on food than during most of the 20th century (note too that one’s food budget [at least in the graph whose link follows] comes out of _disposable_ income, as if it’s optional!). And I mean a lot less: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/Sl91V2N0NRI/AAAAAAAAKoc/1XjOfOwAOSQ/s1600-h/food.jpg. We all must make choices with our finite budgets, but I for one am proud to spend a little more on good food and a little less on, well, everything else!
I think you make a great point. Living in a country town in the Midwest, we don’t have that many opportunities to spend money on the things we enjoy (great ethnic food, for instance). And, partially as a result, we devote a large amount of our discretionary income to grocery shopping and the farmer’s market. (And you have all but convinced me to sign us up for a CSA this year.) So there is definitely some choice involved. But I’m still aware how lucky we are to be in a situation where there is leftover money for quality food choices once the bills are paid.
By the way, dear readers, Nathan is a great friend (one who surprises long-distance pals with pumpkin snickerdoodles – yum!), a terrific father, and a new blogger. Please check him out: http://mealsquotidian.wordpress.com
I am a big believer in balance. I think that it is great to try to eat healthier food but that doesn’t prevent problems created by not getting off of the couch to exercise.
Kristen – What a great read today! I too work hard to make sure that what my family and I eat is reasonably healthy and non-processed. It helps a great deal that I love to cook. Right now IEP has no preference for processed foods, mostly because he’s rarely seen them. But Kitch’s comment made me wonder how big a struggle this will become once he’s in preschool and has peers to compare to.
I didn’t make it that far in this particular Pollan book (I thought the subtitle pretty well summed things up) but I’m seeing now that I missed some great advice. I may have to pick it back up.
As for my favorite healthy food, lately it’s pomegranate seeds on top of a salad. My favorite guilty pleasure (oh it’s so embarrassing!)… marshmallow fluff.
PS – If you ever do want to make your own bread I have some great recipes. It’s really not so much work if you make a two-loaf batch. You eat one and freeze the other, so you’re really only baking twice a month.
Hi Gale – Knowing the subtitle of In Defense of Food really does sum it up. As an all-around read, I enjoyed the book less than I did The Omnivore’s Dilemma, but the step-by-step directions really appeal to my Type A nature. (And I suspect that my eating habits needed a whole lot more improvement than yours do!)
I would love to see some of your bread recipes – especially the basic ones – if and when you have time to share them.
I applaud anyone who could do this! Although I try to feed my family mostly healthy foods, I have to admit we almost always have some form of junk food in the house. My favorite healthy food is probably the fruit and yogurt smoothie I eat almost every day. My downfall? Fruit snacks. I ate way too many again last night…
I don’t imagine that we’ll ever have a house that is totally junk food-free. To be honest, I’m not sure if I ever want to. I suspect that the total absence of something would make me and my kids want it even more.
Thanks so much for stopping by Motherese, Wendy!
We try (emphasis on ‘try’) to follow the five ingredient rule, too, to cut down on processed foods. And it IS more expensive, which is disheartening. But a lot of things that are good for us are expensive, but we don’t question spending money on them: doctor bills, medicines, that membership to the gym, eyeglasses, the kids’ AYSO membership, etc. That’s how I look at it, anyway.
Of course, right now, Halloween candy has invaded our house, and I can”t fight that battle.
Um, yes, I’m totally in your camp on the reeses cups issue.
Health food, baby, ALL THE WAY.
This is definitely a tall order, and I can only imagine the learning curve. Maybe the easiest approach is to “shop the perimeter” of the grocery store: fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy. Although I know it isn’t that simple.
The financial side of this is definitely a big consideration. I’d love to buy organic everything, but need to prioritize. What really makes the most difference? Produce and meat, for sure. And even within that, there are certain fruits and vegetables more likely to carry pesticides, etc. So I’m learning this, bit by bit.
Eva, I bet you’ve seen this list of the “Dirty Dozen” most contaminated fruits and vegetables according to the Environmental Working Group, but just in case: http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214
I admire your perseverence in sticking with Pollan. Diet change of any kind is challenging, no question! Guar gum — sadly, I do know what this is. It’s another form of fiber, artificially reinjected into food (also a key ingredient in some fiber supplements). But on the list of multisyllabic mystery ingredients, I think this one is less of a public enemy. (I’m no expert though.)
To add to the list of foods containing five ingredients or fewer: Haagan-Dazs Five ice creams. I haven’t inspected the label myself, but it’s purported to have just five ingredients, none of which should be objectionable to Pollan :)
Thanks for shedding some light on the guam gum issue, CT. I actually looked it up last night on Wikipedia, but found that I understood no more about it after reading the article.
And thanks too for reminding me about those Haagen-Dazs Five ice creams. Something tells me that I will enjoy them immensely. :)
And for googling purposes, that would be Haagen-Dazs …
I have been trying to find the balance in this as well. Sometimes, you compromise in the things that you can. For me, the perfect healthy fruit is perfectly ripe strawberries. Guilty pleasure: Five Guys cheeseburger AND their fries…YUM!
I’m going to be honest and I feel weak for admitting it but I’m not sure I have the stamina to do this. Not at this point in my life, and particularly not with two fussy boys at my table. But I am mindful and I too try as much as possible to avoid most stuff from the inside aisles, but I could never cut it out completely. Particularly the Diet Coke I have keeping me company at the moment.
You’re not weak at all! I think this whole undertaking would be a lot harder if I weren’t pregnant and hyperconcerned about eating better. And the Diet Coke? I can’t imagine ever giving that up completely. That and the Reese’s cups have a permanent place in my heart. (Just like you, my dear!)
Kristen, this grabbed me. I just got home from the grocery store. Here are the items I bought that were okay: Greek yogurt, cream cheese, coffee, cider, ground turkey, rolled oats, eggs, chicken breasts, and cauliflower (a huge, beautiful head). Here are the not okay items and why: margarine, cereal bars, tomato soup in a box, roasted red pepper soup, chocolate peppermint soy milk, veggie stock (all with too many items); boxed mac and cheese, whole cranberry in a can, jellied cranberry sauce in a can (HFCS).
I took no extra time and didn’t have a list.
I’d say you’re doing mighty well if this is what you bought without giving it a second thought!
I love that you are doing this!! I does take a little bit of time to completely shift away from the over-processed foods but once you have and it’s been a few months you will be shocked at how good you feel! It is harder on the pocketbook but the more we (as consumers) demand healthy unprocessed, pesticide-free, chemical preservative -free food the more it will become available and the more affordable it will become. Many grocery stores already carry their own brands of organic foods. I find that I have to plan ahead, use coupons when I find them, shop only for one week (stocking up just leads to waste for me) use store discounts like the local Hy-vee by me offers 10% discount on everything in their natural and organic section on Thursdays…this adds up quick. Wishing you success in this endeavor.
PS. I still have treats…right now I have a chocolate pumpkin cake in the oven.
I think you make a really important point here: we consumers do have the power of the pocketbook. (I have actually been pleasantly surprised to see how many companies have picked up on the fact that consumers don’t want HFCS in their food and have removed it from their products.) I try to remind myself of that power when I’m weighing the cost difference between a cheaper, more-processed item and a more expensive, less-processed one.
Wow. I did a major diet overhaul before I had kids, but things have crept back into my pantry and my mouth. I try to be good with my kids, while balancing convenience and what they will eat.
I like the rule my daughter’s school promotes. If you eat well 80% of the time, the other 20 can be less perfect. It’s funny, I gre up with very few highly processed foods. Yes, we had store bought bread and crackers; but I never saw a twinkie, and sodas were out of the question. My husband, on the other hand, needed to learn how fresh foods tasted.
That 80/20 rule sounds very smart to me – and much more sustainable than a cycle of rigid adherence followed by guilt-inducing screw-ups.
I really like this too, the 80/20 concept. It’s so important to allow a treat every once in awhile. For me, it’s almost always chocolate. Honestly, I feel like I need a small piece of chocolate every day. Because if I tried to go without, I’d have a breakdown at about Day 8 and eat a whole chocolate cake.
It’s good to know yourself and your limitations, right?!
Sounds like you made a lot of trick-or-treaters happy with your Reese’s is a healthy food announcement.
The Mrs. has us eating lots of salads–so we eat any of the veggies that I would nto touch as a kid: broccoli, snow peas, etc.
Not good for me, but I love would be just about anything on the Mexican food menu.
This is quite the challenge. I think you will be surprised at how much easier this becomes as time goes on and habits/expectations change. It is a shame that in some ways eating healthier means paying more. Check out some co-ops and you may find ways to save and eat healthy.
Thanks for the suggestion about the food co-ops. I have friends who participate in them in different cities and they have all had great experiences. Unfortunately, in my country town, there isn’t one within an hour’s drive. I am committed to the idea of joining a CSA in the spring, though. Every little bit helps!
I just wrote a whole post about Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It is hard to eat healthy when the kids watch commericals and have tasted the “good” stuff. I have been trying to avoid hfcs in most things, but I haven’t been checking cereal boxes. Sigh. I’m guessing LC has lots of big chemical sounding words in it (in addition to the blue marshmallows).
Grocery shopping is not an enjoyable errand for me because I analyze things too much and end up taking an hour when it could’ve only taken 20 minutes. I admire you for doing this. I used to create weekly meal plans. I need to revive those. If I can do a little bit at the begining of each season, I should have a decent list to recycle all year long. (Sounds good in theory…)
Have a great weekend!
We have this done to an art. Seriously. I avoid most canned items, boxed items, and, well, all easily prepared items in general. This can be tough when it comes to snacks for the kids, but they’ve learned to survive. I’ve learned what breads do and don’t have high fructose corn syrup and have found the perfect loaf that is easy(ier) on our wallets. (Grandma Sycamore’s Homemade bread, I don’t know if they have this outside of our state though.)
Good luck as you simplify! It can be hard on the wallet–a big reason why we’ve cut quite a few things from our grocery list.
P.S. Chocolate is definitely considered a healthy food.
I’m with Amber on everything, including the chocolate! (Though we don’t have Grandma Sycamore’s around here. We have a decent selection of whole wheat breads – they’re a bit dry, which works for me because I HATE a gummy sandwich.) Buying produce in season helps keep the cost down, though that makes antioxidants look a little less delicious in winter, when the blueberries and raspberries are still shipped in, looking shriveled and costing a fortune. We stick with green beans, squash, broccoli, greens and frozen peas most of the time, with a once-a-week splurge on asparagus, brussels sprouts or eggplant, etc. I’ve been trying to use cheap fruit like apples and pears creatively, too. And it goes on and on…whole chickens rather than boneless pieces; meat rarely in general; dried beans; etc.
I’ve always found packaged and quick-prepare meals more expensive than their alternatives, though that might be little more than an assumption I grew up with. I still buy Annie’s mac-and-cheese, and that doesn’t seem too pricey. What gets scary is the price on organic produce at places like Whole Foods, where I swear I saw a single tomato for sale for $2 this summer. I hate to admit it, but I carry around one of those magazine cutout cards that tell you what to prioritize, organically speaking. I wish I didn’t have to pick and choose, but $2 tomatoes are just not happening.
p.s. thanks for the heads up about Reeses…I bought some on sale, post-Halloween, for my class next week, and after reading your post totally opened the bag and had two. Oops.
I hear you completely on the Whole Foods issue. I was actually there this weekend (a rare event; the closest one is over an hour away) and I was both fascinated by the selection and horrified by the prices. Now I know where they got their nickname, “Whole Paycheck.”
You’re an inspiration, Amber! What are your go-to snack options for your kids? (That has been the trickiest thing for me so far.)
I remember an episode of Oprah with Dr Oz, who mentioned five ingredients to avoid at all costs: hydrogenated oils, enriched flour, bleached flour, sugar, and HFCS. It seemed so revolutionary at the time, and now it’s just plain common sense! I also recall a conversation with a diabetic years ago whose doctor mentioned while shopping to check the ingredients list and make sure that sugar wasn’t one of the first three ingredients. That one I actually follow quite religiously when buying cereal. Wasn’t it Bill Bryson who wrote about America being the only place you could start the day off with a “big steaming bowl of cookies”?
That Dr. Oz is a smart cookie. (Pun intended.) :)
Love this post. Food is such a big deal. A place to seed so much guilt. A spot for abundant pleasure. I’m hoping to sew more of one than the other.
I have no doubt I gave my children a healthy serving of guilt as they were little. Now I’m having fun serving up the pleasure.
Interestingly it’s not all about junk vs healthy foods. It’s what tastes delicious to me. Like asparagus stir fried with olive oil and garlic. Three minutes. 3!!! So fast I have it for lunch with humus and I feel sooo good. And one of my new favorite snacks: dates and tamari almonds. This keeps me hiking or skiing forever.
But I will sniff out the dessert from here to your house. And, have you tried those potato chips with salt and vinegar? I haven’t even looked to see how many ingredients they have. I don’t care. I’m eating them by the bag full. I’m all about the joy.
I have a sweet tooth to match my salty one. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see that potato chips, at least the ones we buy from time to time, have very few ingredients – usually just potatoes, oil, and salt. Throw in a little vinegar and you’re still under five, which makes you golden according to this latest Pollanism.
That’s a fantastic goal! I love love Michael Pollan’s books and am always glad to see others embracing it as well. I just recently finished his latest book, Food Rules. My favorite rule and I can’t quote it exactly but the gist was, eat whatever junk food you want, so long as you make it yourself. The argument being that you, most likely, won’t make cake or ice cream or french fries everyday. He’s right, but it makes me feel better about baking and indulging when I do!
That’s a great one! I know that I for one would eat a lot less junk if I had to make it or bake it myself. (I wonder, though, what he’d say about my tendency to eat a dozen chocolate chip cookies after making a batch…)
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