"...by simply changing what we eat we can have an immediate impact on our own health and a very real effect on global warming---and the environment, and animal cruelty, and food prices."
- from the introduction of Food Matters
by Mark Bittman
It is Spring, time to think about planting a garden, riding a bike, fitting into swimsuits, and loosing weight. Well maybe not all those things cross your mind, but the season of farmer's markets should make you start to think about healthy eating.
Food Matters gives us a plan for responsible eating that is as good for the planet as it is for your weight and health. Indeed the seal of approval on the world apple on the cover reads "Lose Weight, Heal the planet".
Is the way we are eating contributing to global warming? In terms of energy consumption, serving a typical family-of-four steak dinner is the rough equivalent of driving around in an SUV for three hours while leaving all the lights on at home.
Mark Bittman attempts to have us adopt a more conscious approach to buying and eating food. He explains that the American diet, which is full of meat, refined carbohydrates and junk food is bad for us as well as the environment, leading to both individual health problems---heart disease, obesity, diabetes; and international disasters--global warming.
As a solution, Bittman argues for changing the way we eat and buy food. Specifically, he wants us to eat less meat and junk food and more vegetables and whole grains. Been there, heard that, even read several popular books about the topic by Michal Pollan. Food Matters explains exactly how to follow Pollan's advice and why.
Bittman describes his own reasons for wanting to eat and feel better:
"My route to saner eating was more or less accidental. Two years ago, I was 57 and weighed more that I ever had before. When I graduated from college, I weighed 165 pounds. When I stopped smoking, about five years later, I weighed 180. When my first daughter was born (and when I started writing about food), I hit 190. Over the next 20 years of so, I managed to gain another 25 pounds or so, until I reached 214. I'm not a small person, so I didn't look that heavy (or that's what I liked to think, though people now tell me otherwise), but you could tell I was overweight, and I developed a number of expected health problems. My cholesterol was up, as was my blood sugar (and there's diabetes, as well as serious obesity, in my family); I had a hernia; my knees were giving out (your knees know how much you weigh!); and I had developed sleep apnea."
At this time in his life, Bittman began working on How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. He was not then nor is he now a vegetarian, but the more he learned about food the more he knew he had to change his style of eating.
Thus the first part of Food Matters begins. Bittman offers a no-nonsense rundown on how government policy, big business marketing and global economics influence what we choose to put on the table each evening. He demystifies buzzwords like "organic" and "sustainable" and offers straightforward, budget-conscious advice that will help you shrink your carbon footprint---and your waistline.
Flexible, simple, and non-doctrinaire, the plan is based on hard science but gives you plenty of leeway to tailor your food choices to your lifestyle, schedule, and level of commitment.
Bittman, a food writer who loves to eat and eats out frequently, lost 35 pounds and saw marked improvement in his blood levels by simply cutting meat and processed foods out of two of his three daily meals.
But the simple truth, as he points out, is that as long as you eat more vegetables and whole grains, the result will be better health for you and for the world in which we live.
How can you not like an eating plan where the basics include: a pot of beans, a bowl of cooked grains, a simple steamed vegetable, a salad and the premise that, there is no reason for an eating style that excludes dessert.
Sane eating, simplified! Bittman avows, we can also save the planet and relieve some of the pressure on our pocketbooks. As promises go, that's a whopper, a super-trifecta encompassing the major obsessions of the current moment: weight loss, environmentalism and penny-pinching.
General principles:
-
Eat fewer animal products than average
-
Eat all the plants you can manage
-
Make legumes part of your life
-
Whole grains beat refined carbs
-
Snack on nuts or olives
-
When it comes to fats, embrace olive oil
-
Everything else is a treat, and you can have treats daily
Suggestions:
Part two of the book is the recipes. A month's worth of meal plans shows you how Bittman chooses to eat and offers proof of how satisfying a mindful and responsible diet can be. No calorie counting, and no strictly forbidden foods: Just a few quite specific recommendations that you can adapt to your own style.
My favorites (yes, I have tried these!) include:
Bittman treats the preparation of food as an enjoyable daily activity that needn't be fetishized but that also shouldn't be reduced to layering prepared foods in a casserole dish, popping it in the oven, and chirping "Yummers!"
At a time when one-half of America seems to view cooking as an elite hobby while the other regards it as an esoteric mystery, Bittman is that blessed thing, a practical cook.
Barbara Theroux is the manager of Fact & Fiction, now part of the Bookstore at the University of Montana.
|
