There’s been a new parade of “everything you thought you knew about health is wrong” articles in top-flight media. Gary Taubes’ New York Magazine piece on exercise was one; now comes Michael Pollan’s New York Times Magazine piece, “Unhappy Meals,” about the million blind alleys nutritionists have lead us down in the search for better health. Pollan’s follow up to The Botany of Desire looks pretty good — The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. If his article is any indication, it’s probably quality material that sometimes suffers from being overwrought.

Pollan readily admits that pretty much everything you need to know about how to eat is right there in the first paragraph of his piece, but then goes on for several thousand more words covering nutritionism’s missteps in sordid detail. It’s a topic I’m interested in, yet I still found myself reverting to skim mode about halfway through.

In Pollan’s opinion, how do we move “beyond nutritionism”? Here’s a summary of his 9-point list, and my (inexpert) reactions.

1. Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize. OK, but there are probably quite a few things my great-great-grandmother ate that I wouldn’t touch with a 20-foot pole.
2. Don’t trust food products that make health claims — remember the margarine debacle. Agreed.
3. Read “ingredients” lists to avoid heavily processed foods. These foods will contain ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or they’ll have high-fructose corn syrup. A good rule of thumb, but if broccoli had an ingredient list, you wouldn’t recognize a single ingredient either. All food breaks down into smaller parts, and not all processing is bad.
4. Frequent the farmer’s market. Agh, I’m sick of hearing this. I heart Ralph’s.
5. Think quality, not quantity — or as he puts it, “Pay more, eat less.” This may be the best advice on the list. There’s only one dietary change that seems to have a direct impact on longevity, and that’s calorie restriction. More important, it means you’re eating tastier food!
   
6. Eat a lot of plants in general, and leafy greens in particular. Thank goodness for Green Smoothies.
7. Eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture — don’t mix and match. Roughly put, if you’re going to “go French” and eat a lot of double-cream cheese, make sure there’s no Big Mac on the side. Food cultures survive because they kept a culture healthy, and “work” according to their own internal logic. This is a useful point that cuts through a lot of headline-grabbers.
8. Cook at home, and even better, grow your own food. Oh for some direct sunlight!
9. Be a true omnivore, eating as many species of food as you can. This is great and all, but doesn’t it contradict #7?