I am reading foodie Mark Bittman’s book, Food Matters right now. It is a simple, straight-forward guide to conscious eating that is good for your health and the health of the planet. It reminds me a lot of Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food – another favorite of mine, but it’s a topic that is worth rereading. Bittman isn’t a dietitian, he’s a food lover, but he manages to love the most nutritious and flavorful foods to make up a sound and healthful diet that tastes great. Here is a customer’s review of the book from amazon.com:
Mark Bittman's Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating is a guidebook for the typical American eating the typical American diet--heavy laden with meat, animal products, and processed foods. This typical American diet, Bittman points out, is calorie-dense, harmful to the atmosphere, taxing on global resources, and unhealthy. Bittman easily mixes scientific research with his own personal account of needing to lose weight due to high cholesterol and sleep apnea and shows that shifting his diet by emphasizing vegetables, legumes, and beans over meats and processed food helped him reach his weight and health goals without resorting to rigid dieting and calorie-counting. Let me make it clear here that Bittman is not advocating vegetarianism. He allows himself a little meat during his dinner meal and incorporates some meat in the recipe section of his book.
Mark Bittman's Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating is a guidebook for the typical American eating the typical American diet--heavy laden with meat, animal products, and processed foods. This typical American diet, Bittman points out, is calorie-dense, harmful to the atmosphere, taxing on global resources, and unhealthy. Bittman easily mixes scientific research with his own personal account of needing to lose weight due to high cholesterol and sleep apnea and shows that shifting his diet by emphasizing vegetables, legumes, and beans over meats and processed food helped him reach his weight and health goals without resorting to rigid dieting and calorie-counting. Let me make it clear here that Bittman is not advocating vegetarianism. He allows himself a little meat during his dinner meal and incorporates some meat in the recipe section of his book.
A food journalist and cook book writer divides his book into two sections. The first section, Food Matters, lays down the reasons we need to shift from meat and processed foods to vegetables, fresh produce, legumes and beans. If you've already read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma or In Defense of Food, this information won't be new to you. But it is a good recap of the incremental way the typical American diet has become unhealthy, burdensome to the environment, and "insane."
Bittman’s recipes read like a good book. They’re easy to follow with lots of swaps and substitutions noted. I’ve been reading this book before bed each night, which is making me incredibly hungry and dream of his recipes! I made his Tofu and Greens when I realized I had tofu and bok choy in the fridge just waiting to be used. It was simple and flavorful.
Bittman’s recipes read like a good book. They’re easy to follow with lots of swaps and substitutions noted. I’ve been reading this book before bed each night, which is making me incredibly hungry and dream of his recipes! I made his Tofu and Greens when I realized I had tofu and bok choy in the fridge just waiting to be used. It was simple and flavorful.
I’d recommend getting your hands on this book. You’ll have a new outlook on eating and will be armed with great recipes to try. Just don’t read it before bed like I do unless you’re prepared to have sweet…and savory…and salty…and hunger induced dreams.
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