Being interested in food and how we eat as a society, I recently finished reading “Food Matters”, by Mark Bittman and wanted to share a few things thoughts on the book. What I liked about this book was the half education / half recipe layout—it makes it easy to find interesting content and works great for people like me who like to flip between pages and sections while reading. The beginning of the book talks about our over-consumption of food, some history of food consumption and some food politics pertaining to how we got to where we are today in regard to environmental and health problems—particularly in developed countries. Some interesting facts (the book is scattered with great diagrams and pull-quotes):
- 60 billion animals are raised each year for food–10 animals for every human on earth. The only way to reduce factory farming is to demand less meat.
- 7% of Americans’ calories come from soda.
- Meat consumption would have to fall 3 oz. a day to stabilize greenhouse gasses produced by livestock.
- Spinach has more than twice as much protein per calorie as a cheeseburger.
- Your body can scarcely tell the difference between white flour and white sugar.
I recommend this book for the conscious eater who wants to be healthier and help reduce global warming and the detrimental effect of our eating habits on our environment. It’s very easy to eat healthier—Bittman offers simple suggestions such as – cutting back on simple carbohydrates, dramatically lowering meat and junk food consumption and eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, and legumes. This book is a great resource for someone just starting to learn how to cook healthier and offers simple education about food and recipes for anyone (meat and non-meat lovers alike). Have you read any good books about food lately?
