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Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Michael Pollan, a trusted resource on food-related issues, offers his manual for anyone concerned about their health, the planet and the connection to food.  Down-to-earth, funny, and easy to use, Food Rules is a set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether you are at the grocery store or an all-you-can-eat-buffet restaurant, this handy, pocket-size resource is a great guide for anyone who would like to be more mindful of the food they eat.

Some of rules included are:

  • No. 1: Eat food.
  • No. 11: Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
  • No. 19: If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.
  • No. 20: It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
  • No. 36: Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
  • No. 39: Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
  • No. 40: Be the kind of person who takes supplements — then skip the supplements.
  • No. 47: Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.
  • No. 58: Do all your eating at a table.
  • No. 59: Try not to eat alone.

“Food Rules”: A Completely Different Way To Fix The Health Care Crisis by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan on food rules.

Can Mushrooms Save the Earth?

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

Paul Stamets with giant Fomitopsis officinalis.Paul Stamets may be the worlds foremost expert on mycoremediation. Mycoremediation being the use of fungal bodies to rejuvenate contaminated sites.

In an experiment, a plot of soil contaminated with diesel oil was inoculated with mycelia of oyster mushrooms. At the same time, other plots were treated using chemical remediation techniques, bacteriological techniques and a control plot was left untreated.  After four weeks, more than 95% of many of the PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) had been reduced to non-toxic components in the mycelial-inoculated plots. The other plots remained virtually unchanged.

It appears that the natural microbial community works with fungi to break down contaminants into some of life’s basic building blocks, carbon dioxide and water. Wood-degrading fungi are particularly good at breaking down aromatic pollutants like those in petroleum and chlorinated compounds like those in persistent pesticides.

Paul Stamets tells his own story.

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World by Paul Stamets