Hey guys! If you didn’t catch Michael Pollan and Alicia Silverstone on Oprah yesterday for the show “Grocery Shopping 101,” no worries! I took some notes of the things I thought were particularly cool to share with you You can also check out Oprah’s site here for some video re-caps.

For full disclosure — I’m just going to say, right off the bat, I kinda love Michael Pollan. He is living the English major’s dream of writing literary journalism, getting street cred with the scientists and still using his literary wand to craft his argument. (My fascination only grows having seen him mentioned in the Acknowledgements of my ecocriticism course’s text book…)

[photo cred]

Michael Pollan shared some of his “Food Rules,” from his recently released book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual and gave insight into his own diet (mostly plants, some grass-fed organic beef).  The NY Times featured a piece on his Food Rules a few months ago (I wrote about it here), too.

Pollan’s rules are meant to be guidelines for day-to-day living and as something to stay conscious of, particularly when shopping at the grocery market (and whenever you are considering your food choices). You may ask why we need food “rules” when eating is one of the most basic human instincts.  The answer is difficult to swallow (pardon my pun). Because food has become highly political and embedded in corporate interests and because food has become highly profitable, marketed and advertised — and even manufactured to be addictive — we’ve lost touch with our inner instincts. I could cry a river, but I’ll just shut up tell you that Pollan’s new book is currently only $5.00 NEW from Amazon.com here! For a limited time, Food, Inc. (the documentary Pollan participated in and that I wrote about here) is $9.99 on Amazon.com here. I think the sale price ends tomorrow night at midnight.  Here are some insights into Pollan’s rules and research:

• Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself (Food Rule #39) – It actually takes a lot of effort to cook junk food from scratch. If you put in the time and effort, you can go ahead and enjoy it. (I don’t think poor Michael understands that my cranky tummy has no bounds and neither does my ambition, so if I truly believed I could cook and eat as much “junk food” without consequence, I surely would. But these hips don’t lie. They surely don’t!)
• Cooking is key. Pollan thinks cooking is key since it’s the only way you can take back power from the corporations (and restaurants) that use much more fat, salt and sugar than you would use yourself. Kitchen-phobic? Check out my ”get in the kitchen” motivation here.
• We need a food revolution. As a result of federal agricultural subsidies, crops such as corn, soy and wheat are made cheaper to the consumer (and ever notice how soy is in EVERYTHING now?). The government doesn’t, however, subsidize fresh produce.  Says Pollan, “we’ve made it rational to eat badly.” Because it truly is cheaper at the onset to eat a burger than to buy all the fixins to make a salad, we can rationalize eating poorly (I hear you if you think it’s like ya gotta choose to eat poorly or be poor).
• We all vote with our forks. Each item you eat, every meal, every morsel that goes into your body, is a choice that tells Big Brother and Agribusinesses what you want and what they should continue to produce for profit. I get it if you’re broke (holla!), but splurge a little less here and there on your Seven jeans and buy more organic foods, more foods from farmer’s markets and more fresh produce.
• If you’re going to eat meat, eat meat that has itself eaten well. Cows were meant to eat grass, not corn. Eat grass-fed meat.
• Getting out of the supermarket is key. Shopping at a supermarket is like walking through a maze of bad choices. At a few corners you might find something worthwhile, but most of the time you just end up lost, dazed and confused. Try venturing out to health food stores, farmer’s markets and even checking out food co-ops in your area.
• The average American eats fast food 4 times a week. While that number sucks, I thought it was worse (I’ve known people who eat out EVERY day…). Even cutting out one fast food meal a week will make a difference to your health and to “rockin’ the food vote” in the right direction.

Oprah also featured Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle. I had no idea that Chipotle was so revolutionary. I guess because I rarely eat out, I had my head in a pretentious, closed-off cloud. Apparently they use mostly organic and fresh ingredients (only the corn is from a can or frozen). And while I applaud Chipotle, I am always still wary of fast food places. From the little research I did online, I found that McDonalds first invested in Chipotle. Not that that really means anything (except that the circle of fast food always goes back to a damn clown).

Alicia Silverstone joined later via Skype and showed the audience some of the foods she purchases at Whole Foods, including a Rice Dreams mud pie ice cream that seemed to make her weak in the knees. You can check out her shopping list here.

Seen Food Inc.? Read any of Pollan’s books? Saw the Oprah show? Have anything you want to get off your chest? (I’m all eyes…)

<3,

The Cranky One

Tags: agribusiness, Alicia Silverstone, Food Inc., Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, michael pollan, NY Times, Oprah, organics