If you haven't heard of Michael Pollan, he is the bestselling author of "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto " and "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals " - both great food books.

His latest book, "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual" lists 64 rules for eating wisely - whoa, now that's a lot of rules!

Slashfood intereviewed Pollan, and here's what he had to say

Slashfood: How did you come about the idea for this book?

MP: I got the idea from a couple of doctors after "In Defense of Food" came out. They were saying they would love to have a pamphlet of very simple, memorable rules to help out patients. We don't have time to give them a big nutritional lecture, and they don't need to know all the science behind it but they do need some guidance. People are very confused about what to eat. I thought that kind of chimed with the work I was doing, leading to the conclusion that nutrition was a lot simpler than people have been led to believe both by the media, the government, the food industry and this whole blizzard of health claims out there and this controversy over fats and carbs was really obscuring some pretty simple truths. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." So the rules help people navigate the supermarket, navigate the restaurant menu and navigate their own kitchens.

Slashfood: It's sort of one of those dummy books.

MP: Yeah, I've always thought the titles of those books were a little insulting to the reader. Very smart people are very confused about food too, but in some ways that is what this book is. It's the distillation of 10 years of work, reporting on food, agriculture and health and just boiling it down. It's a book you can read in an hour. Online it costs 6 bucks. It's really just to reach everybody and hopefully relax [them] about food. Being anxious about your diet doesn't make you healthy either.

Slashfood: I think your book is really needed, but it's sort of sad that we need to tell people to eat more vegetables. It's stuff we were told as kids.

MP: It is sad that we should need such common sense, but there's a very good reason for it. Nutritional science, which is very well intentioned and has been trying to get to the bottom of what you need to eat to be healthy, has been hijacked by the food industry, which takes every new study and turns it into a clever way to sell processed food. Processed food is the most profitable food in the supermarket, and that's where all the marketing is. So it's not surprising that people have lost track of the idea you shouldn't eat it. And of course it's the food that carries the health claims. In fact, one of my rules is to not eat food that has health claims. The stuff in the produce section, which is the healthiest food of all, is utterly silent about its health benefits. I'm trying to give voice to the fruits and vegetables, so they're not drowned out by the processed food.

Slashfood: There was an article in the New York Times about how more people are relying on food stamps and people are on budgets. Processed food is cheaper. How do you get around that?

MP: That is a big challenge. The fact is, in this country, today, to eat well you need more money and that is because the system is rigged in favor of processed foods. The government subsidizes corn and soy beans, which in effect subsidizes fast food because the corn gets turned into high-fructose corn syrup and cattle and chicken feed, and the soy gets turned into the hydrogenated oil in which all fast food is fried. To make this system more equitable and to make healthy food accessible to everyone, we need to change the farm policies at a federal level and create incentives to make farmers grow real food, simple vegetables, whole grains and fruits and less attractive to grow the building blocks of fast food.

Slashfood: That's going to take years. What about now?

MP: If you're willing to cook, you can afford it. There are ways to do it. One of the great blessings in the supermarket, for example, is dried beans. You can buy organic dried beans for like two bucks a pound and that is a lot of food. That is a really cheap source of protein and fiber -- but you have to put a little time in. You've got to be strategic about cooking, perhaps making a few meals and freezing them on a Sunday afternoon or getting three meals out of a chicken. Not buying chicken breasts, but buying a whole chicken. You make roast chicken one night, you use the leftovers for say tacos or chili and then the next night you make a soup. We've kind of lost the arts of the kitchen. Most great cooking comes out of the need of poor people to stretch ingredients. I know people are challenged on the time front so without question fast food is very seductive and it's remarkable how cheap a fast food hamburger is. You can get one for a dollar, but once you know what's in one...

Slashfood: What's your take on changing the diet of children who have autism?

MP: The autism debate is a very sticky complex debate that I haven't followed closely enough to have anything of value to say. What we do know is that most of the chronic diseases that most of us suffer from in this country are the result of diet and that by changing your diet you can roll back the effects of everything from heart disease to many types of cancers to diabetes. The phrase "health care crisis" is a euphemism for the catastrophe of the American diet. Three-fourths of our health care goes to treat preventable chronic diseases. There is a powerful link between diet and disease.

For the rest of the interview and to get a sneak peak at some of his rules in the book, continue here.