Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes

This particular book I picked up after reading an article about the ending of Mark Bittman’s weekly column for the New York Times. Subtitled “A Guide to Conscious Eating,” it does not jump on the organic bandwagon, but instead examines what it would look like if Americans were more conscious about their food choices. Bittman begins by focusing on the environmental effects of industrialized farming and meat production. He examines the eating of meat and its evolution from being a luxury to becoming a staple of daily meals. He argues the inefficiency of converting plants into meat, and compares the greenhouse gas emissions of meat production to automobile pollution. After discussing factory farming and industrialization, Bittman takes a look at the effects of marketing and advertising on the food industry, as well as the role of the USDA in the misinformation of Americans.

Like a textbook, important statements are pulled out of the text and highlighted in the margins, which is great for skimming. One major fault of this book is that, although a list of sources is included in back, there are no annotations or references listed for most of the numbers and statistics quoted in the text. Many of the tables and charts have sources listed, but others do not, leaving the reader to wonder where the numbers came from, and how they were calculated. Overall, this is a highly readable approach to the nutrition and food issues which are prevalent today, but readers wanting solid evidence and citations may find this particular work lacking. ( )

A guide to conscious eating

I love all of Mark Bittman's books. ( )

Brilliantly simple and therefore superb. I am going to have my teenager read it as a means of getting ready for adulthood. Mr. Bittman elegantly lays out several coherent arguments towards saner eating of real, whole foods, including working in how eating in his manner would slow global warming (a great deal of greenhouse gases erupts(!) from meat production). He lightly cites other works where necessary, accepts our human nature and points out easy ways to eat better. I got this book at my library, I will probably buy a copy and the follow-on recipe book. ( )

a good reminder to cut back on the meat and carbs and the definite no-no's - junk food and pop; also includes recipes and a meal plan ( )