Food rules

Rule 1: Eat food, not edible foodlike substances.

Rule 2: Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food.

Rule 3: Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.

Rule 4: Avoid food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup.

Rule 5: Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients.

Rule 6: Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.

Rule 7: Avoid food products containing ingredients that an 8 year old cannot pronounce.

Rule 8: Avoid food products that make health claims.

Rule 9: Avoid food products with the words “lite” or the terms “low-fat” or “nonfat” in their names.

Rule 10: Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not. For example, imitation butter—a.k.a. margarine.

Rule 11: Avoid foods you see advertised on television.

Rule 12: Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

Rule 13: Eat only foods that will eventually rot.

Rule 14: Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature.

Rule 15: Get out of the supermarket whenever you can. Visit the farmers' market.

Rule 16: Buy your snacks at the farmers’ market.

Rule 17: Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans.

Rule 18: Don’t ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap.

If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.

Rule 20: It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.

Rule 21: It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language. (E.g., Big Mac, Cheetos, or Pringles).

Rule 22: Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.

Rule 23: Treat meat as a flavouring or special occasion food.

Rule 24: Eat more plants.

Rule 25: Eat your colours.

Rule 25: Drink spinach water.

Rule 27: Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.

Rule 28: If you have the space, buy a freezer.

Rule 29: Eat like an omnivore.

Rule 30: Eat well-grown food from healthy soil.

Rule 31: Eat wild foods when you can.

Rule 32: Don’t overlook the oily little fishes (make sure they're not fish-farmed).

Rule 33: Eat some foods that have been pre-digested by bacteria or fungi.

Rule 34: Sweeten and salt your food yourself.

Rule 35: Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature.

Rule 36: Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the milk.

Rule 37: “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”

Rule 38: Favour the kinds of oils and grains that have traditionally been stone-ground.

Rule 39: Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

Rule 40: Be the kind of person who takes supplements — then skip the supplements.

Rule 41: Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.

Rule 42: Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism.

Rule 44: Pay more, eat less.

Rule 45: Eat less.

Step 46: Stop eating before you’re full.

Rule 47: Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.

Rule 48: Consult your gut.

Rule 49: Eat slowly.

Rule 50: “The banquet is in the first bite”.

Rule 51: Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.

Rule 52: Buy smaller plates and glasses.

Rule 52: Serve a proper portion and don’t go back for seconds.

Rule 54: “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper.”

Rule 55: Eat meals.

Rule 56: Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods.

Rule 57: Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.

Rule 58: Do all your eating at a table.

Rule 59: Try not to eat alone.

Rule 60: Treat treats as treats.

Rule 61: Break the rules once in a while.