CDC: 42 percent of Americans obese by 2030

Anyone who is constructively interested in this ... I'd enthusiastically recommend Michael Pollan's book "In Defense of Food," just as an interesting read and primer.

If you don't want to, I'll point out a few things. He boils down his advice to three simple phrases, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

If you do that, you can't go wrong. It has worked for millions of years before we went off the rails with food science trying to fix what wasn't broke.

Mind you, though, his definition of food is going to differ from what most people on here have been conditioned to consider as food. He distinguishes between food (what people have eaten for millions of years) and man-made edible-like substances that have created so much harm.

The book is mostly NOT eating advice. It more covers how we have gone astray. But he does have one part where he gives seven rules for eating, which I think are great and have ingrained in myself. They are really just common sense.

1) Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" Pollan says.

2) Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.

3) Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.

4) Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.

5) It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"

6) Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.

7) Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.

I ate fairly well, but thinking more the way that list tries to get you to think, along with adopting my girlfriend's attitudes toward food, has made a nice change in my life. She grew up in a different culture. They raised and grew a lot of their own food. And she really ENJOYS food. Real food. Different tastes, natural foods, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, fresh cheeses and meals prepared with good ingredients that combine things in great ways.

One change that has made a huge difference which she brought to me as I was reading that book was number 6 (enjoying meals together). I know people will say they are busy and it is hard to arrange the family dinner. And maybe it is easier for us because it is just us two -- without kids with lots of activities. But we both live active lives and still find a way to eat 85 percent of our meals together. We cook for at least four days of the week during the weekend so we have meals with good stuff in them ready to go for lunch and dinner. Just have to heat them up. On another day or two, we will do something quick and easy. Like last night I steamed some rice and stir fried some bok choy with garlic and olive oil to throw over it. Some home-made bread. A couple of cheeses. An apple for desert. It was not our best meal ever, but I can feel good eating that way.

We set the table or to the roof deck with a beer most nights, or a bottle of wine occasionally, and we really enjoy the meals -- take our time. We have greens -- different types -- with every meal. We do one killer meal each weekend -- where we cook for each other or cook together, and we use ingredients that follow the guidelines above. I make fajitas, for example, and rather than buying store-bought tortillas with ingredients in them that I can't pronounce, I now make the tortillas from scratch using simple Masa corn flour. It's surprisingly easy and fun -- I bought a tortilla press.

I make my own bread each week -- it tastes better and it is what bread should be (flour, water, yeast, salt). I experiment with different types -- partial whole wheats, oat bran flour, and I can throw all kinds of grains and sunflower seeds in. Along the lines of number 1 above, Pollan points out it can be tricky. Your great grandmother might walk down the supermarket aisle today and think she recognizes the bread, but if you look at the label, it will have 10 ingredients that have no place in bread -- as she knew it. So you shouldn't be buying that bread. Which is why I feel good just making it myself -- it's not that hard.

Anyhow, I know that is going to sound dramatic to most people on here, but it's a matter of choices. I have some flexibility in my life, which definitely makes it easier, but it's a priority that I think makes me feel better and enjoy life more.