10 Food Rules You Should Follow

What should you eat?

With so many food choices available to us—from wholesome organic foods to supersized processed offerings—answering this question can be confusing. Add “expert" advice and grocery stores teeming with products plastered with health claims, and you may feel you need a guide just to choose breakfast cereal. Bestselling author Michael Pollan (pictured) cuts through this overload in his book "Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual" (Penguin). He distills 64 food rules to guide Americans away from the Western diet of processed “edible food-like substances” and toward diets that originated in traditional food cultures. Here we’ve highlighted 10 of our favorite Pollan food rules, selected because of the science that backs them as a guide for healthy eating.

Rule 1: Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. »