Mark Bittman talks about Food Matters: A Guide To Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes.
From the award-winning guru of culinary simplicity and author of the bestselling How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian comes a plan for responsible eating that's as good for the planet as it is for the waistline.
Bio
Mark Bittman
Mark Bittman is a bestselling cookbook author, journalist and television personality.
Although Mark Bittman never formally trained as a chef, his pursuits as a curious and tenacious foodie have made him a casual culinary master. His weekly New York Times food column, The Minimalist, meshes accessible and inexpensive ingredients with "anyone-can" cooking techniques to produce exceedingly delicious dishes. Bittman's funny, friendly attitude and trademark informal approach to food-craft extend to his blockbuster TV programs (which retain delays and mishaps that other producers would edit out), his blog, Bitten, and ambitious cookbooks, like How to Cook Everything and The Best Recipes in the World.
After a decade as the "Minimalist," Bittman has emerged a respected spokesperson on all things edible: He's concerned about the ecological and health impacts of our modern diet, which he characterizes as overwhelmingly meat-centered and hooked on fast food. His criticism has the world listening: His revolutionary How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is a bestseller, and his memorable talk at the 2007 EG Conference (available now on TED.com) delivered a stinging condemnation of the way we eat now. A subsequent New York Times article pursued the same argument.
Bittman is currently at work on a new book, Food Matters, which explores the link between our eating habits and the environment, offering an accessible plan for a planet-friendly diet.
Theory or practice of eating only plants. The vegetarian diet includes grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts; it excludes meat, poultry, and fish, but some vegetarians eat dairy products (lactovegetarians), egg products (ovovegetarians), or both (ovolactovegetarians). Those who eat no animal products (including honey) are called vegans. Motivations vary and include ethics (both unwillingness to kill animals and abhorrence of modern methods of raising animals for meat), self-denial or religious taboo, ecology (including concern about the wastefulness and environmental costs of beef farming), and health. Vegetarians point to the many health benefits of their diet, including low rates of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, and obesity. While obtaining sufficient protein is seldom a problem in affluent societies, vegetarians must be careful to consume enough iron and, especially for vegans, calcium and vitamins D and B12. The most influential early proponent of vegetarianism was Pythagoras, in the 6th century BC. Many Hindu sects and most Buddhists are vegetarian, and much of the world eats hardly any meat because it is unavailable. The Enlightenment led to a humane concern for animals; in the 19th century Britain became a major centre of vegetarianism, and vegetarian movements soon arose in Germany, the U.S., and other countries.
It isn't the meat that's eaten, it's how it's raised. All the corn syrup, refined carbohydrate, sugars and starches are causing the diabetes and obesity epidemic.
Think sustainably raised food and less processed.
Couldn't agree more. I think it is possible to raise the animals in a good environment. Also, I am a fish lover too. But imagine that fish are as vanished as never before. Basically, it all comes down to ecologically raised animals. And true, we should eat more non-meat products.
It isn't the meat that's eaten, it's how it's raised. All the corn syrup, refined carbohydrate, sugars and starches are causing the diabetes and obesity epidemic.
Athanora, I think the message is not that we conform to one ideal: schveganism, but that we do considerate damage control. Remember what he said about fanatical 20-somethings?
If you haven't achieved anything in 40 years of living, you ain't gonna achieve anything in 40 more. You might as well just eat for pleasure and die gastronomically happy.
Yes! Food matters! And for those who still need more information, there is the Omnivore's Dilemma. If it is difficult for you to become vegan right away, make your transition slowly, become a less-meatarian first. Eat consciously and educate yourself about what you eat.
member. 
