The Western diet is characterized by large amounts of carbohydrates and a sedentary lifestyle. Several researchers link this diet to what’s called “metabolic syndrome,” a medical term for many of the diseases associated with the Western diet. These include Type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, heart disease and certain cancers.

As Americans, we give so much on fundraisers for curing these diseases, as if a magic pill will come along someday. Why can’t we do a little better in preventing them, too? We have the knowledge for that.

Last week I shared with you how food journalist Michael Pollan revealed in his latest book, “In Defense of Food,” that nutrition science is not only a fairly young science but also its biggest accomplishment has been to confuse eaters.

Nobody likes a critic who fails to provide solutions. Right on the front of his book, Pollan gives seven words to dine by: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

And in his book he provides several rules for finding your meals. But before I get to that, I want to share with you that I am not a health freak. I eat bad food, too. I like greasy cheeseburgers like any red-blooded American. However, I do understand moderation. And my taste buds happen to agree that healthy food tastes better than a lot of unhealthy food. You just have to know how to cook it. So because I eat healthy most of the time, I can have that cheeseburger occasionally.

OK, Pollan’s first book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” pointed out that humans, as omnivores, really are eating a few grains, particularly corn. Everything, even our meat, comes from corn these days. Are you drinking pop right now? You are pretty much drinking corn and water. These grains of corn, wheat and rice and the legume of soybeans work well in capitalism. In “In Defense of Food” Pollan writes:

“The needs of a human eater are a very different matter, however. An oversupply of macronutrients, such as we now face, itself represents a serious threat to our health, as soaring rates of obesity and diabetes indicate. But, as the research of Bruce Ames and others suggests, the undersupply of micronutrients may constitute a threat just as grave. Put in the most basic terms, we’re eating a lot more seeds and a lot fewer leaves (as do the animals we depend on), a tectonic dietary shift the full implications of which we are just now beginning to recognize.”

He goes on to borrow nutritionist language in describing the relationship of omega-6 fatty acids in the body to omega-3 fatty acids. Seeds contain more omega-6, a store of energy for the seedling, while omega-3 comes from leaves and provides a host of essential nutrients. Wild fish have a lot of omega-3 fatty acids because they eat either plants such as algae or other fish that eat plants. It is another reason why more consumers are seeking out grass-fed beef. The omega-3 argument that once again proves butter (from cows that eat grass) is better than margarine (from seeds such as safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, or soybean, etc.). It follows that olive oil is better for you can corn oil or vegetable oil.

“Thus without even realizing what we are doing, we dramatically altered the ratio of these two essential fats in our diet and our bodies, with the result that the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in the typical American today stands at more than 10 to 1. Before the widespread introduction of seed oils at the turn of the last century, the ratio was closer to 3 to 1.”

Pollans notes that the role of these two fats are not entirely understood, but some researchers are convinced the ratio between the two bears responsibility for the diseases associated with the Western diet. Get out there and eat your fruits and vegetables.

Last week, I hinted that Pollan suggested eating real food. He draws a line between food and food-like substances (mainly processed stuff). For the record, he’s not a vegetarian. Here are his eating suggestions:

1. Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

2. Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A. unfamiliar B. unpronounceable C. More than five in number or that include D. High-fructose corn syrup.

3. Avoid food products that make health claims. (Remember the trans-fats debacle? Now it is even easier for food products to make dubious health claims. Don’t trust the Food and Drug Administration to protect consumers.)

4. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

5. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. (You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmers market.)

6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.

7. You are what you eat eats, too.

8. If you have a space, buy a freezer. (To freeze bulk, in-season meat and veggies.)

9. Eat like an omnivore.

10. Eat well-grown food from healthy soils.

11. Eat wild foods when you can.

12. Regard nontraditional foods with skepticism.

13. Do all your eating at a table. (No, a desk is not a table.)

14. Try not to eat alone. (When we eat mindlessly and alone, we eat more.)

Pollan provides a few more suggestions, including a particularly apt one on the benefits of tried-and-true cuisines. (Look at the French with red meat and red wines and low heart disease.) And he defends the higher costs of healthy food by saying it sustains the farmers who grow unsubsidized food and you pay less in health costs down the road.

You don’t have to wholly follow all that Pollan writes, of course, but moving in that direction probably is going to be better for your health.

Tribune Manager Tim Engstrom’s column appears every Tuesday.