The Food Rules That Didn't Make It Into Pollan's Newest Book

Food Rules, Michael Pollan's follow up to In Defense of Food, debuted at # 2 on the NYT Best Sellers list last week. Priced at $11, this handy guide expands on Defense's endlessly quoted “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" maxim, and is conveniently sized to fit in any savvy grovery shopper's purse or back pocket. Pollan's books are big business -- he's sold over 1.5 million copies -- so it makes sense that he would continue his work with the slow food movement by offering his teachings in a shorter, more accessible format.

The NYT's Well blog caught up with Pollan last week to ask him about how he sourced the ideas on the list, which he compiled from folklorists, anthropologists, doctors, and an assortment of sage grandmothers. So, what are some of the rules that didn't make the final cut?

“Don’t eat anything bigger than your head” is a funny line. But is that really true? You could eat a melon and you’d be fine. My favorite one that we got was, 'Only one meat per pizza.'; I thought that was wonderful...We got a ton that were funny and playful and not necessarily good health advice."

If Food Rules proves to be a big enough hit, might we see a compilation of Pollan outakes and B-Sides like the one's above? One can only hope. Till then, we still have that book about being confused by Michael Pollan books to look forward to.

· Michael Pollan Offers 64 Ways to Eat Food [NYT]