scootie's Flickr photostream/Creative Commons

Michael Pollan has shown a remarkable and prolific dedication to helping us make smarter choices about what we eat and where our food comes from.  He continues his quest in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine where he shares with us his favorite Food Rules to Eat By.

The collection of 20 Dietary Do’s and Don’ts were gleaned from responses to Mr. Pollan’s request to readers to send in advice on eating well. The highlights include both amusing and insightful wisdom on how to choose, prepare and eat food.  Eventually the submissions will be incorporated into his next book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual to be published in January. In the meantime, Mr. Pollan invites you to continue to post your own food rules.

Understandably, our suspicions of the nutritional advice from marketers have grown (thank you Smart Choice), and diet fads and enforced restrictions on what we eat usually end up confusing us, more than helping to navigate the grocery aisles.  So, I agree with Mr. Pollan that the time has come to once again look to our collective cultural wisdom to help us make smart healthy choices about what to eat:

How did humans manage to choose foods and stay healthy before there were nutrition experts and food pyramids or breakfast cereals promising to improve your child’s focus or restaurant portions bigger than your head? We relied on culture, which is another way of saying: on the accumulated wisdom of the tribe. (Which is itself another way of saying: on your mom and your friends.)

Now, obviously not everything that your friends and family advise you to eat is going to be the most sensible, but as the communal food discussion deepens, we will gradually sift through the bad advice to find what is truly useful, kind of like a self-correcting wiki.  So, go check out the slide show of Food Rules, use the action link below to add your own, and think about the following advice (one of my favorites from the list) when you eat your next meal today:

“It’s better to pay the grocer than the doctor” was the saying my Italian grandmother would frequently use to remind us of the love and attention to detail that went into her cooking.  -John Forti