If you were a second responder, the first Michael Pollan book you read was In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, (256 pages, $7.50 at Amazon), which boils theory and anecdote down to a tasty, healthy feeding strategy.

 

If you’re new here or haven’t paid attention — or love Pollan’s work and want to spread the gospel — here’s Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (137 pages, $11 retail, $5.50 at Amazon), a skinny paperback that says pretty much everything you’d find in his longer books.

 

Or you can consider Pollan’s reduction of his message to seven words — "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" — and read nothing more because you know how to crack that koan and adopt a way of eating that just might save your life.

 

Why, you may wonder, does a clearly written 256-page book need to be boiled down to 64 general principles?

 

Two reasons.

 

Those of us who read about food have, in the last few years, been swamped by the language of nutrition. Antioxidants. Polyphenols. Probiotics. Omega-3 fatty acids. But you can know all about this stuff and still not be able to answer the basic question: Yeah, but what should I eat?

 

Then there are those who have never heard Pollan’s message. They’re the folks on the coach, eating pre-packaged snack food, sucking down sodas, serving vegetables as an afterthought. In short, people who are devotees of the Western diet — which is, says Pollan, “the one diet that reliably makes its people sick!”

 

Pollan wants to help both groups — and break the cycle of self-created disease.

 

And the quickest way to do that is through lessons so simple even the guy chowing down a Hungry Man (“It’s good to feel full”) meal can understand.

 

“Food Rules” may be short, but it’s elegantly organized. Part I addresses the question: What should I eat? (Answer: food.) Part II asks: What kind of food should I eat? (Answer: mostly plants.) And Part II considers: How should I eat? (Answer: Not too much.)

 

These are un-American answers. Advertising trains us to shop in the center aisles of supermarkets. We’ve been brainwashed to believe that fast food is food. Because we’re so busy, we’re encouraged not to cook for ourselves. And that way of living works for us — right up to the moment we’re overweight and diabetic.

 

But if we break the cycle?

 

“People who get off the western diet,” says Pollan, “see dramatic improvements in their health.”

 

What does Pollan tell you in these pages? Here’s a sample:

 

— “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”

 

To buy “Food Rules” from Amazon.com, click here.