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May
21
On Monday, I started talking about the five rules I use for eating healthy food. I use these relatively simple rules because It’s just too difficult to keep up with all the guidelines, recommendations and plans for eating the perfectly balanced diet. You can drive yourself crazy and still not be 100% perfect.
Today we look at rule #2, which I like to call, the 100 year rule. This is based in large part on one of Michael Pollan’s recommendation which I’ve taken and modified slightly.
What Is the 100 Year Rule?
If you were to take the food you’re about to eat and show it to someone who lived in the 19th century, would they recognize it? Would they believe you when you said it was food or would they look at you like a crazy person? If what you’re about to eat makes a 19th century person quiver in fear, run away screaming or shake his or her head in disbelief, you probably shouldn’t be eating it.
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Does the food seem like something that would have been eaten in the 19th century but was prepared in some really odd way? For example, Twinkies seem like sponge cake which would probably seem normal to someone from a 100 years ago. However, if you ever watched how twinkies are made, I think you would agree with me that they simply aren’t food.
Does the food contain ingredients you don’t recognize? Take a look at that ingredient list. Are there more than five chemicals in there that have long scientific names? Is there at least one ingredient in the top five that’s nothing more than a long chemical formula? Perhaps you should put that food down then.
Was it raised in a completely unnatural way? No cow was born to live in a 6′ by 3′ pen, pumped with antibiotics every day and fed corn, grain and pieces of other cows. Sorry, that’s just not natural. You may want to remember that the next time you think about ordering a steak. Feel free to eat meat but try to make sure it was raised the way meat should be raised and not the way some factory finds it most efficient to raise.
Clarifications to the 100 Year Rule
Is it a 100 years from when I was born? I suppose. Mainly you’re trying to answer the question of “would someone who lived in a time before massive food processing and chemical engineering have recognized this food?” To me, that’s the 19th century and about 100 years ago. Your time line may vary.
Do I need to base it on the country I was born in? Not really. For example, if I showed sushi to someone who was born in my homeland 100 years ago, they would think I was crazy for eating raw fish. However, people in Japan would think I was fine. As long as someone from a preindustrial society somewhere would agree with you that this is food, you’re probably fine.
Why Use the 100 Year Rule?
Because processed food sucks. We put too many chemicals into our food, too much crap that really belongs nowhere near our bodies.
Are You Saying This Because You’re Some Kind of Anti Technology, Anti Progress Fanatic?
Not at all. At no point in my life did I wish I could live back in the days before modern medicine, modern standards of living, modern rule of law and modern technology. Heck, this blog should be sufficient evidence that I like modern technology. However, I do think we’ve gone overboard in the things we do to our food. I love that I can fly around the world. I love that I can instantly communicate with people thousands of miles away. I love that we no longer lose 1 out of every three children to disease or starvation. I don’t love the fact that my food contains more chemicals than a toxic waste dump, more antibiotics than a hospital ward and was prepared using the same process that’s reserved for refining gasoline.
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There are some things that technology does well and some things it does not. Technology can give us better food, I firmly believe that. I also believe that mass production, industrial processing and chemical cocktails are meant to give the food companies a better profit margin and have nothing to do with quality of food.
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One Response to “Rule #2 of Healthy Eating, The 100 Year Test”
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