Michael Pollan shares seven-word advice for eating less processed food

Michael Pollan told 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker that his best-known guidance for eating better still fits in seven words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” The advice landed alongside CBS’s description of ultraprocessed foods as plastic-wrapped, ready-to-eat items that fill grocery shelves, a category that now makes up about half the American diet.

For families trying to shop and cook around those products, Pollan’s long-running rule book is blunt: avoid foods whose ingredients you cannot pronounce, and make time to cook a priority. That is easier said than done in a food environment built on speed, heavy marketing and labels that can make processed items look wholesome. Pollan said some foods that seem healthy, including some veggie burgers, sweetened yogurts and salad dressings, can still be ultraprocessed.

The warning has been part of Pollan’s work for decades. His books on the subject include The Omnivore’s Dilemma in 2006, In Defense of Food in 2008 and Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual in 2010. The central idea also showed up in his 2008 talk at the University of California, Berkeley, where the phrase “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” sat at the heart of the message, and in his 2009 New York Times post “Food Rules to Live By,” which helped turn the shorthand into a public touchstone.

Pollan framed the practical problem as one of priorities, telling viewers that people who want to cut back on ultraprocessed foods have to treat it like something worth making room for: “We make time for the things we value.” That matters because the easiest packaged options are often engineered to save minutes, not improve diets, and they can crowd out simple meals built from ingredients that need washing, chopping and cooking.

The concern is not limited to Pollan’s own writing. Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler told 60 Minutes that ultraprocessed foods made with ingredients such as corn syrup and maltodextrin have been making people sick for decades. For shoppers scanning a label in a hurry, Pollan’s seven words remain a fast filter: choose real food, keep portions in check and center meals on plants before the grocery cart fills itself with convenience.