17 Dec 2025 · 5 min
Brian Johnson explains Michael Pollan's rule to eat food, not edible food-like substances. He gives three ways to spot non-food: unpronounceable ingredients, extreme shelf life, and whether your great-grandmother would recognize it. Pre-commit by staying out of the inner grocery aisles.
Hey, this is Brian with a quick note before we jump into today's show. If you haven't signed up for the Optymyze Premium membership yet, A, what are you waiting for? And B, you can now get the first 30 days of optimizing for free. Just cruise on over to Optimize Me and sign up. Over 10,000 people now start their days with Optymyze so they can actualize their potential, including best selling authors, leading entrepreneurs and even NCAA championship teams. Two of them. So again, 30 days of free optimizing at Optimize Me. If you're already a member, thanks for your support. Now for the show, You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on edible food like substances. It's inspired by food rules. Michael Pollan may recall he's got seven words. Eat food, not too much, and mostly plants. So rule number one of the book, there are 64 rules. Rule number one is to eat food. Well, that doesn't sound that complicated, right? He says, well, it shouldn't be. But what we have in our grocery stores outside of the you got the kind of outer aisles, that's typically the good stuff. Those inner aisles, what you're going to find there is edible food. Like substances. It kind of looks like food. But he says it's not real food. You need to eat real food. How do you know that it's not real food? Here are some hints your third grader cannot pronounce the ingredients. That's one hint. It never rots. It just stays good forever. Again, remember, longer the shelf life equals lower your life. The longer something preserves on the shelf and the more you eat that, the shorter your life is going to be. Keep that in mind. Then there's also the great grandmother rule. If your great grandmother didn't eat it, it's probably not food. It's probably edible food like substances. Rule number one, eat food. Are you shopping on all these aisles? Remember our willpower 101 wisdom pre commit to not even going down those aisles. You're going to hang out here and here and here, right? Eat food. Rule number one. What kind of edible food like substances are you eating? Identify them and have fun removing them. Isn't it a bit odd we went from math to science to history but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course, it's too late to go back and change that. And you're too busy to read full time to catch up yet. If you're like us, you're all about optimizing your and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on optimal living and pulling out the big ideas that can truly change your life. You know those sections you asterisk and underline and mark all up? Then imagine that guy me connecting those ideas to other great books and helping you apply them to your life today. Well, that's what I do as something we call Philosopher's Notes where I break down each great book into a simple 6 page PDF, 20 minute MP3 and 10 minute Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in fun, inspiring, super practical optimal living 101 classes on stuff like purpose 101 confidence 101 business 101 meditation 101, that sort of thing. You've got a personal trainer? I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom plus Modern Science plus Common Sense plus Virtue plus Mastery plus fun. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. We'd love to have you join us. Check us out at BrianJohnson. Me join.
