Cardinal rules for cooking/eating?

I just read Food Rules, and found it to be a sad letdown compared to Omnivores Dilemma and In Defense of Food.

For me a cardinal rule is "If it is food it should taste good",
The converse, "If it tastes good it is food," is significantly less true.

What rules do other people use?

that's kind of a broad rule--I mean, oreos "should" taste good, McDOnalds french fried "should" taste good, Starbucks mocha choca half caf vente latte "should" taste good.

The less processing the better, make it from scratch, grow it yourself.

NO nitrates, preservatives HFCS, trans fat, artificial colors, MSG, fake sugar, phosphoric acid(ie soda).

Variety is really good.

Support your LOCAL meat growers that grow "happy" meat.

Anything anal is no fun, whether it's meat or attitude.

"Learn how to cook" would be a great start for a lot of people...

1. No shame. Not cleaning your plate is a lesson to serve less next time, not a source of guilt. Similarly, there are good reasons to eat better, but feeling bad about what you've eaten just compounds the problem.

2. No hurry. This rule is deliberately second: if you are in a position where there is some time pressure in your effort to feed yourself/others, then you have an opportunity to build your habit of planning ahead.

3. No waste. Those chicken bones would make some good broth, maybe along with the onion roots and carrot tops...salt them after boiling, though, because they're all good in the compost after the broth has been drained off.

those are good Joel!

If you roast those bones in the oven till they're nice and brown you'll get more flavor out of them.

I like those rules.

One more "Food should be made by people who eat food"

- Try to eat as fresh and uncooked\unprocessed as possible.
- Try to avoid dairy products, due to them not feeling very good after eating - nor does the way of attainment makes sense personally (the Buddhist "think of where your food comes from").
- Try to avoid all animal flesh, due to both not feeling great after eating - and preferring to get my nutrition from things which I don't feel I can actually directly communicate with :=D Even bugs are rather communicative from my own experience.

- Using the above, I try to scout my feelings for "what do I feel like eating?" both when eating, and when shopping for food. Really seeing if I can imagine myself eating that item makes things more to the point. No reason not to eat what you want freely, either the same thing for a while, or a changing selection. I love cucumbers, but don't too often feel like eating them :+D

A a side note, a rather interesting thought I had was about "sex foods" Anything that would smell or feel problematic for having sex, isn't attractive as a food either. Meat, and the local humus, wouldn't be very attractive in an intimate situation

These are a summation of some of the 'rules' we talk about in our home (we have five children ages any-minute-now newborn to just-turned seven).

1) Only eat food. Many non-foods are cleverly disguised as food, but don't be fooled; they are not food. Don't eat them.

2) Only eat what you can/would prepare in your own kitchen. I couldn't/wouldn't make sodium benzoate, fd&c yellow #5, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, or maltodextrin (amongst myriad, seemingly nearly infinite 'additives') in my kitchen, so I don't eat them. This correlates closely with number one, but warrants special mention because of the unbiquitousness of these additives that are not a part of the title of dishes commonly served like 'chicken soup', which is a food, but only if it's really chicken soup and not processed with fifteen additives including hyper-refined salts, sugars and grains- also cannot/would not make in my kitchen.

3) Eat from local, synthetics/toxin-free sources as much as possible. Though being proponents of traditional foods cooking/eating and being first generation citizens of our country, we find this very challenging. We are not living in the climate that produces the foods that our bodies feel best consuming. So we do buy and eat things like organic olives, unrefined organic coconut oil, and a few other items that cannot be grown here. We hope to move back to the much warmer climate our parents (and theirs and on and on) came from in the next five yrs though. Can't wait!!!

4) (This is my seven yr old's solution to figurng out if something is truly food, so I'll include it because while it's not fool-proof, it's a pretty good guiding idea) Don't buy anything with a list of 'ingredients.' Preferably grow, but otherwise buy your own ingredients and make food!

And of course this all rests on the rule that probably should be first:

5) Learn how to prepare and use all of the edible parts of any source of food; it should be tasty, nutritious and respectful of the source and the diner. This is the best preparation of a food and a dish that takes a week (or more) in prep. before it is eaten is worth the wait!

Right now we are having a hard time getting our boys to eat at the table for any meals because they are foraging all day outside! So, many of the food rules we are talking about now are about how to decipher edibles from inedibles that grow wild on the property and also when each vegetable is ready for harvest (and please don't pick off teh flowers or pull the plants while they are still babies!).  I do love the green, yellow, and dirt-coloured stains that they have on their faces all day from eating so much stuff out there though. They feel so empowered to feed themselves; it's wonderful!

My universal rule for life in general is "reality is what you can get away with".I try to eat as close to the wild as possible,avoiding domesticated plants and animals.I try to maximise nutritional density with nuts,meats,seeds,greens,and fruits.I do consume but limit my intake of fillers like grains and beans.Phuein,I was a vegan for 7 years so can totally relate to what your saying too but the sex connection?Personaly I dont find animal products to be unsexy anymore.Not having a shower,Ive grown to appreciate the smells and stains that accompany animal butchering/consumption...even in the bedroom!