Eat Food (Shev. 22b)

Michael Pollin has a famous motto:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Although Pollin wasn't the first person to deny that Mcdonalds and similar restaurants fail to serve real "food," he popularized this idea. In essence, Pollin draws a line between what he sees as "food" and what he sees as everything else. Food is natural, real, and you know where it comes from. Mcdonalds is processed, fatty, and sugary. Although these menu items make you feel full and taste like food, they are not food. The best one can say is that they are "like" food.

Like Pollin, the Rabbi Shimon has made this distinction between real "food" and other items that are "like food." For the him the thing that separates food from non-food is whether it is kosher. Therefore, if someone were to make an oath not to eat anything and they ate pig, frog, bugs, or sick animals, R. Shimon exempts him. This is because pig, frogs and the like are not food (food is what we are allowed to eat from the time of Sinai). Therefore, if one eats these things they are liable for eating non-kosher food but they are not liable for breaking their oath.

On the other hand, we read a little later in the Mishnah that if one says "my wife will receive no benefit from me if I have eaten today" and earlier that day  he had eaten his wife becomes prohibited to him. This is true even if what he ate was pig, frog, bugs, or sick animals. Rashi explain that reason for this is because even though these foods are prohibited, they are nonetheless edible and explains that Rabbi Shimon would agree with this ruling. Rashi makes a distinction here between the act of eating and the idea of "food." Pigs may not be "food" per say according the rabbis, but one definitely eats them.

This brings us back to Pollin. While we are told to eat food we are also reminded "not too much." No matter whether we eat "food" or not, eating has implications of its own. Eating food is a subcategory of just plain eating, and eating too much of anything, even "food" can be harmful.

It's not just about eating the right stuff, it's about eating the stuff right.