Food rules

Some of these food rules that Michael Pollan has gathered are great, some are 'eh,' and one just pisses me off: "Never Eat Something Pretending to Be Something Else," with veggie burgers as the first example.

Excuse me, but why does meat have a monopoly on being an acceptable ingredient for burgers? Aren't burgers basically the form-- a patty? Then why is it more "natural" to ground up a cow into that form than do the same with soy, or wheat germ and vegetables? And what makes you think your real burger isn't a "chemical concoction" (with antibiotics, at that). Talk about being self-righteous while not knowing what's in your food.

By the way, I generally agree with the principle of eating "real food." I just don't think that veggie burgers are less real than meat.

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One of the rules offered in the comments was to leave your food rules at home when you're a guest, which is a 'yes and no' issue as far as I'm concerned. I won't leave my vegetarianism at home, nor will I-- as one of the agreers to that comment wrote--eat dessert or anything else if I'm full. It doesn't take a lot to convince me to eat dessert, but I think it's rude to expect someone to force-feed herself out of politeness. I do think it's rude to not try things just because you generally don't like them, and I think it's rude to pick food apart (I've had parties where I've served, say, smoked salmon on crackers, and people will pick the salmon off the crackers, which in my book implies barn-raising). But as a host, you shouldn't take yourself so seriously that you're hurt when someone won't eat something. That's just absurd.