Food Rules

foodlove is not only passionate about delicious food but also sustainable, ethically farmed and wholesome good foods!

Amongst all the research I do to source and create yummy recipes I love to read about food, not just recipe books (which I can't resist anyway!) but about the history of food, how it has evolved, how from food we can understand different cultures and the evolving of a civilization.

It is thrilling to know that Chinese were the pioneers in all things cooking, they created noodles which later became pasta and is part of Italians staple diet, they brought with them all the basic cooking methods which now French chefs are trained in such as boiling, poaching, deep-frying, shallow-frying, sauteing, etc. Going further back since biblical times food was at the centre of a community's heart. From making cheese and bread to roasting meat and spices food has had a deep impact on our world and one can't doubt it brings people together.

To understand that in 1880s when the French gastronome Brillat Savarin wrote the Physiology of taste, eating was a ritual, not a chore or something you had to do to live. It was a beautiful ceremony of appreciating food in it's entirety with all our senses. Quite sensual really but food is beautiful! Not only to look at but to smell, eat and enjoy!

It is fascinating to know the first biscuit was not a sable made in Paris, but a dry oat-like biscuit carried in 1492 in the three small ships the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria that travelled with Christopher Columbus to the New World. Made just from flour, salt and water it was baked until much of the water was evaporated so they wouldn't get mouldy out at sea. That glorious landing on American Soil in 1498 where he discovered potatoes, tomatoes and corn amongst other fruit and vegetables brought amazing flavours to the rest of the continents!

This is what makes me passionate about food and eating! It has been very sad to watch our society abuse food by turning it into food-like products. Some for storage and extended shelf-life but some others just for convenience sake. Convenience never nourished or gave you a sense of well being. This is why "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan brought a smile to my face. In this book Michael gives you some rules that are designed to help you eat real food, phrased in everyday language and collected from grandmothers, folk wisdom, science and common sense from around the world it is not only funny but an eye opener to the way we eat today. Here are a few of my favourite rules ranked in no apparent order:

1. Eat food: not edible food like substances but food

2. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognise as food (think Go-Gurt Portable Yogurt Tubes, she would have asked if it was food or toothpaste!)

3. Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in their pantry (think xanthan gum, cellulose, ammonium sulfate haven't been eaten by humans for very long so are best avoided)

4. Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients (this doesn't apply to recipes)

5. Avoid food products that a third-grader cannot pronounce (simple one!)

6. Avoid food products that make health claims (the healthiest food in the supermarket is fresh produce and doesn't make any health claims because growers don't have the budget or packaging!)

7. Avoid food products with the name "light" or "low-fat" (they actually contain more carbohydrates in the form of sugar to counteract with the lack of flavour, because you know fat=flavour)

8. Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not (margarine which is a fraction cheaper than butter but made from hydrogenated oils and contains trans-fats gives you macula degeneration in the long term)

9. Avoid foods you see advertised on TV

10. Eat only foods that will eventually rot (think Mango juice which expires in a years time at the time of purchase, nah!)

11. Don't ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap (ouch that one is hard!)

12. If it came from a plant eat it, if it was made in a plant don't eat it

13. It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car (you know it, I know it!)

14. It's not food if it's called the same name in every language (think Big Mac, Pringles)

15. Eat mostly plants especially leaves (I'm not saying become vegan or even vegetarian but leaves are very good for you!)

16. Treat meat as a flavouring or special occasion food (cancer is linked with high consumption of red meat...)

17. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well (it makes sense, it tastes better, it is better for you and the animal)

18. Sweeten and salt your food yourself

19. Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the milk

20. "The whiter the bread the sooner you'll be dead"

21. Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself (enjoy these treats as often as you are willing to prepare them, chances are it won't be everyday!)

22. Pay more eat less

23. Eat when you are hungry not when you are bored

24. Eat slowly (enjoy every mouthful, the different flavours and textures!)

25. Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it (that doesn't count if it's a 7 hour roast lamb!)

26. Buy smaller plates and glasses (chances are you'll eat less and still feel satisfied!)

27. Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does

28. Do all your eating at the table (or at least try!

29. Cook (bam! has been done for centuries! Make time for it and enjoy it!)

30. Break the rules once in a while!