Pollan's 'Rules to Eat By' Hard to Swallow

Food industry critic Michael Pollan is compiling a book of "Rules to Eat By"—like "If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, you're not hungry"—but his advice that you rely on your ancestors' wisdom for your eating decisions tastes a little off to Patrick Cooke. Cooke's grandfather grew up in the Depression when fresh fruit and vegetables were scarce, he writes, and "to him a Filet-O-Fish was a kind of miracle."

People back then ate "what they could, when they could" without consulting corny sayings, Cooke argues at the Weekly Standard, noting that his grandfather felt "awe and gratitude at delivery of such abundance" in modern supermarkets. There's nothing wrong with frequenting farmers markets as Pollan suggests, Cooke writes, "but there is more than one acceptable set of rules. Forget the scold. If you're not hungry enough to eat a Whopper, you're not hungry." (More food stories.)