The New York Times has a list of food myths, solicited from a variety of experts. The main takeaway is that all you really need to pay attention to when it comes to diet is Michael Pollan’s 2007 article on nutrition, in which he provides a simple suggestion:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Everything else seems to be subject to change based on the latest of the research and the fashions and hysteria of the day.
Update: More evidence that eating lots of red meat is really bad for you. My advice is to turn to fried chicken for refuge.
March 25, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I’ve read his In Defense of Food book, and started the Eater’s Manifesto, and must admit I am a Michael Pollan disciple. He makes some really compelling and downright common sense points about the world’s food supply and how out of whack the whole chain is and the detrimental effects upon one’s body, health and the environment at large. I have changed the way I shop a good bit, and find it interesting that I am using some of his guidelines, like shopping more on the perimeter of the store instead of down the aisles where the more processed food is, and trying to buy things your grandma or great grandma would recognize as food, without a lot of effort involved. I am totally pleased that the Obamas have planted a garden in the back lawn, and at my home, we have already planted one “square foot” veggie garden and a similar herb garden after having two container gardens over the past year. A friend of mine is threatening to kidnap me and take me out for a Cosmopolitan or a Margarita because I told her I have actually been making and freezing stocks…chicken, beef, veggie…and was in the middle of making strawberry jam. My point in all this is…if I can do it, anyone can, and it’s easier than you might think.