Vegetarian Star

Last March, Michael Pollan asked readers of the New York Times Well blog to submit rules for healthy eating habits.

After over 2,600 responses were taken, Pollan picked his favorites.

We’re liking some of the responses, like not leaving the table until you’ve finished your fruit.

However, we’d have to disagree with reader submitted rule #6:

“Never eat something that is pretending to be something else; eg., no “texturized vegetable protein” or veggie burgers (fake meat), no artificial sweeteners, no margarine (fake butter), no “low fat” sour cream, no turkey bacon, no “chocolate flavored sauce” that doesn’t contain chocolate, no Quorn. If I want something that doesn’t taste like meat or butter, I would rather have the real thing than some chemical concoction pretending to be healthy.”

We beg to differ on some of those items.

Take a Boca Burger versus a McDonald’s Happy Meal burger, for example.

The Happy Meal burger contains these stats:
275 calories
106 fat calories with 11.8 grams of total fat
35 mgs of cholesterol
387 mgs of sodium
30.5 grams of total carbohydrates
12.3 grams of protein
6% of daily calcium
13% of daily iron.

In contrast, the Boca Burger’s numbers are the following:
90 calories
25 fat calories and only 3 grams of total fat.
5 mgs of cholesterol
280 mgs of sodium
320 mgs of potassium
4 grams of total carbohydrates
3 grams of dietary fiber
14 grams of protein
15% of daily calcium
10% of daily iron

Looks like this “faker” Boca Burger pretending to be real is clearly the better option.

For the entire list of Pollan’s favorite reader submitted rules, visit nytimes.com.

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In Defense of Food author Michael Pollan is outspoken improving health through better food.

He believes in less fast food, cooking at home more often, and everything in moderation.

He does not, however, believe in a vegan diet.

From isthmus.com:

That’s a very similar argument to what Karen Dawn makes, that if you’re too hardcore about a vegan diet you lose people.
“That’s right. I don’t want people to lose track of the fact that pleasure is a very important part of this, and being neurotic about eating is not good for your health. You know, there’s a great M.F.K. Fisher quote: “All things in moderation, including moderation.” I think she’s got the right idea.”

Granted, not everyone is gung ho about cutting all animal products from their lives.

But eating vegan isn’t pleasurable? Vegans are neurotic?

Pft!

Pollan’s starting to sound like Giles Coren.

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• Chrissy Teigen Failed Vegan Experiment
• Mia Evans Is A “Masterchef Junior” Vegetarian Star
• Holly Madison Enjoys Vegan Smoothie From M Cafe In Beverly Hills
• Controversy Over Pro-Vegeterian Curriculum In Schools
• Ellie Goulding Creates Protein Bar “Everlasting Joy” With GoMacro