Take Michael Pollan's 64 new food principles and eat them.

The American author/journalism professor's Food Rules: An Eater's Manual has just been published.

It's the 3rd in a food series that began with The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals in 2006 and continued with In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto in 2008.

Food Rules condenses what Pollan has learned into 64 conventions.

Here's an edited version of a phone interview with Pollan, a professor of science and environmental journalism at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California.

Q: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" is a powerful, memorable instruction that was in In Defense of Food and now Food Rules and sums up your food doctrine. What effect has it had?

A: It has sort of moved into the culture as a meme. I hear it all the time and see it on T-shirts. The idea was to make some very easy rules people would remember. The "mostly" (mostly plants) is contentious. It appears to annoy both carnivores and vegetarians.

Q: Now you've given us Food Rules: An Eater's Manual with 64 digestible points/rules/personal policies. Why?

A: I did this because I was hearing from lots of medical professionals, doctors and parents that they would love to have something – a brochure, really – that whittled things down to the essentials. I wanted to trim the content and get it out to a lot of people who might not be inclined or prepared to read a whole book. I wanted to preach to beyond the choir. I expend a lot of time speaking to upper-middle-class, well-to-do people, but talking to them about obesity and diabetes. I'm trying to reach a very broad audience. It's intended to be user friendly, something where you can dive in anywhere and come back.

Q: You've pegged one of the largest food problems with the term "edible foodlike substances." Did you coin this phrase?

A: I think I did coin this phrase. I felt a fundamental part of our problem is that we should eat "food" and a whole lot of things don't deserve that designation. I felt I required a counterpart to food to draw that distinction. I tried to be as value-neutral as I could.

Q: Rule 17: Consume food cooked by humans, not corporations. Does anybody want to cook anymore?

A: Yes and no. Many people find they don't have enough time to cook. Many people feel intimidated by cooking. Many do want to cook but are hindered by a lack or knowledge or equipment. I see inklings of a switch back to cooking, moderately due to the economy. I think there are people rediscovering the kitchen right now. The more I look at this query, the collapse of cooking is a very big part of our problem all the way down to the farm.

Q: Rule 28: Buy a freezer. What's in yours?

A: I have half a lamb in my deep freezer right now that was given to me by a farm around here – Full Belly Farm. So we've been gradually working on that. It's in cuts, not a full carcass. When we find a thorough source for grass-fed beef, we get various cuts of that, too.

Q: Rule 46: Stop eating before you're full and effort to eat only to 67 to 80 per cent capacity. Easier said than done?

A: Once you start giving attention to it, it's just about being heedful. Yeah, for most North Americans it is hard. We've been sort of taught by the civilization to eat until you're full. The French say: "Je n'ai plus faim" – I have no more hunger. Ask yourself, before you take that bite, is my hunger gone?

Q: My 10 minutes are up but I have more questions, like, what have you consumed in the past 24 hours?

A: Yesterday for lunch I had a little bit of yogurt with trail mix blended in. For dinner we had brined, organic chicken served with whole grain couscous and oven-roasted brussels sprouts. This morning for breakfast I had steel cut oats and that's as far as I've gotten today – it's 11:45 a.m.

Q: That's not very much food.

A: I should say in the afternoon I was helping a chef acquaintance prepare cassoulet and had some boudin blanc sausage. Oh, and I had an apple actually for dessert.

Q: Are you done with writing about food?

A: Um, no. I'm not. I have more to say. I want to write about cooking, and I want to learn how to cook better. I also have not written very much on the global food inquiry – how you feed the world.

Q: Rule 64: Break the rules once in a while. Which have you broken lately?

A: Well you know I don't really have trouble going along with these rules on an everyday footing. There's not too much that I neglect. I guess the "stop before you're full." I don't have a serious sweet tooth. I do have a fat tooth. Cheeses are a stronger weakness for me than pastries, but cheese is serious food. French fries – that's one rule that I break. I'm not preparing my own french fries.