How To Eat.... The Cliff's Notes Version

I've literally read thousands and thousands of pages on nutrition over the past two years. Recently I added a couple more very informative pages to my tally when I finished reading an interesting article by Michael Pollen in the New York Times Magazine.

If you have the time and inclination to read it, please do yourself a favor and do so. If you barely have time to get through my blog (and you skip the longer entries), here's a simplified version (it's going to sound familiar, but there's a reason for that...).

• A healthy diet is one that focuses on tons of leafy vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein.
  
• Whole foods (unprocessed foods like .... fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains) contain nutrients, micronutrients, vitamins, and healthy phytochemicals that have complicated interactions which science is still struggling to understand. (Think of how we know that we need vitamin D to properly absorb calcium. It's taken science a while to understand that. Consider how many vitamins and minerals are in one tomato: we are far from understanding how every single vitamin compliments or interacts with all the other vitamins, but we DO know that tomatoes are good for us. You can take a lycopene supplement and hope that your body has the right balance of nutrients to take advantage of the lycopene-or-(god forbid) eat a fresh tomato.)
  
• A healthy diet is a varied diet. Don't just eat the same four or five vegetables, grains, or fruits every week. Eat lots of different plant matter.
  

Your challenge this week: eat more foods. (NOTE: I did not say eat more food. ) Make a list and see how many foods you eat. Next week try and add some new fruits and vegetables to the list.

Please read the article. I recommend it. If you like it and want to read more, Pollan also wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma. If you'd like other book recommendations, just ask. I've read close to a dozen on nutrition this past year.