Michael Pollan | Nourish Yourself

If it grows from the ground, you should probably be able to eat it without worrying too much. At least that’s what I’ve always believed. And now (hallelujah!) Weight Watchers agrees with me! Cue the angel chorus…

In a move that has generated a ton of buzz in the healthy eating community, Weight Watchers has modified their incredibly popular Points program to make fruit a “zero Point” food. As background, (most) vegetables have been “zero Point” since the Points program was introduced in 1997; this encourages Points-counting Weight Watchers devotees to eat lots and lots of vegetables, which helps them fill up with low-calorie, nutrient-dense food. Unlike vegetables, fruit has always been assigned Points based on WW’s proprietary calorie-fiber-fat based algorithm. A banana, for example, was 2 Points. No longer.

So why the change? Well, under the old system, that banana had the same Points value as two Oreos, which finally started to trouble the powers-that-be at Weight Watchers. They’d always ascribed to the belief that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. And of course on some level, that’s true. But the nutrient value is so radically different between a banana and an Oreo that it no longer felt quite right to equalize them for their members.

So under the new Points-Plus system, members can eat as MANY fruits and as MANY vegetables as they choose. Anytime, anywhere. This is brilliant. All the data suggests that our nation is radically undereating vegetables and fruits in favor of processed foods. Beyond that, diets like Atkins which recommend high-protein, low-carb eating have demonized higher-sugar fruits like pineapple or vegetables like carrots to the point where people are afraid to eat them! Unless you’re battling diabetes, that’s simply throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Vegetables and fruits are low-calorie, nutrient-dense, and full of fiber. All of us should be striving to get as many servings a day as we can, seeking variety seasonally

In the words of a compelling voice of reason (that of author, Michael Pollan, in his book Food Rules):

Eat (real) food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Amen and hallelujah.

I’m often asked questions by clients about how affordable it really is to eat healthfully, or more specifically to eat organically. Oprah recently had Michael Pollan (author of Food Rules , In Defense of Food, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma and contributor to the movie Food Inc.) on her show. And today, her website posted this article by an Oprah.com writer who attempted to follow the movie’s guidance AND stick to her budget.

I thought I’d share it with you, as it makes the case that while there are financial tradeoffs involved, they are not insurmountable, and can be readily overcome through cost savings in other budget areas. Beyond that, they are WORTH it, and we need to start thinking about finding the best quality as our objective when buying food as opposed to finding the lowest cost.

From a personal perspective, when my family converted to organic milk, I was a little worried about DOUBLING the cost of milk with two preschool-age milk-drinkers in the house. In truth the extra six or seven dollars a week for the two gallons they drink was easily recouped by cutting back on other things (like brewing my own coffee vs buying it from a coffee shop or taking a lunch vs. buying it at work one day a week). Once I’d convinced myself of the value of organic milk, these were pretty easy ideas to generate!

Organic meats took us a bit longer to try and I’m not 100% converted yet but I do now buy organic MOST of the time. Organic meat is definitely more expensive, so it’s helped us to view meat as something we need less of overall…and to really savor what we do buy.

That’s the whole game as far as I’m concerned…quality over quantity….excellence over frequency. It’s a process to change the way we’ve been taught to think about food (which I would paraphrase as “get as much of it as you can, as cheaply as possible”) but it’s nice to see other writers helping to explain that the effort is one worth undertaking.

Tag Archives: Michael Pollan

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