The Rules

1. Eat food.

2. Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

3. Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.

4. Avoid food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup.

5. Avoid food products that have some form of sugar (or sweetener listed among) the top three ingredients.

6. Avoid food products that have more than 5 ingredients.

7. Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

8. Avoid food products that make health claims.

9. Avoid food products with the words “lite” or the terms “low fat” or “nonfat” in their names.

10. Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not.

11. Avoid foods you see advertised on television.

12. Get out of the supermarket whenever you can.

13. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

14. Eat only foods that will eventually rot.

15. Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature

16. Go food shopping every week.

17. Buy your snacks at the farmers market.

18. Eat close to the earth.

19. Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans

20. Don’t ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap

21. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.

22. It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car

23. It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language (think Big Mac, Cheetos or Pringles).

24. When you eat real food, you don't need rules.

25. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.

26. Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food

27. "Eating what stands on one leg [mushrooms and plant foods] is better than eating what stands on two legs [fowl], which is better than eating what stands on four legs [cows, pigs and other mammals]."

28. Eat your colors.

29. Drink the spinach water.

30. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.

31. If you have space, buy a freezer.

32. Eat like an omnivore.

33. Eat well-grown food from healthy soil.

34. Eat wild foods when you can

35. Don’t overlook the oily little fishes

36. Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacterial or fungi.

37. Sweeten and salt your food yourself.

38. Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature.

39. Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk

40. Make water your beverage of choice.

41. Milk is a food, not a beverage.

42. "The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead."

43. Avoid sugary and starchy food if you're concerned about your weight.

44. Favor the kinds of oils and grains that have traditionally been stone-ground.

45. Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

46. Love your spices.

47. Be the kind of person who takes supplements – then skip the supplements

48. Eat more lie the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.

49. Regard nontraditional foods with skepticism.

50. Avoid ingredients that lie to your body.

51. Enjoy drinks that have been caffeinated by nature, not food science.

52. Have a glass of wine with dinner.

53. Pay more, eat less.

54. ...Eat less.

55. Stop eating before you’re full.

56. Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.

57. If you're not hungry enough to eat and apple, you're probably not hungry.

58. It's okay to be a little hungry.

59. Don't let yourself get too hungry.

60. Consult your gut.

61. Serve the vegetables first.

62. Eat slowly

63. "The banquet is in the first bite."

64. Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.

65. Give some thought to where your food comes from.

66. Don't be a short-order cook.

67. Buy smaller plates and glasses.

68. Serve a proper portion and don’t go back for seconds.

69. Order the small.

70. "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like pauper."

71. Eat meals.

72. Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods.

73. Do all your eating at a table.

74. Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.

75. "No labels on the table."

76. Place a bouquet of flowers on the table and everything will taste quite as good.

77. Leave something on your plate.

78. Eat with other people when you can.

79. Treat treats as treats.

80. Compost.

81. Plant a vegetable garden if you have space, a window box if you don’t

82. Cook

83. Break the rules once in a while