Mark Bittman "gets it" when it comes to what's wrong with what we eat.

In the video at the end of this post, Mark Bittman describes the “big picture” about food in much the same way that we do in our book. He describes our typical western diet as the harmful, grossly inefficient and unsustainable monster that it is — but yet he continues to include all sorts of animal foods in his cookbooks like “How to Cook Everything.”

Like I said, Mark Bittman “gets it;” he just doesn’t do it all the time. He jokes about being a vegetarian until 6 PM and things like that.

But for me, this whole topic is far too serious to joke about. When it comes to moving back toward the natural diet for our species, I said in the Introduction to our book, “I am convinced that there has never been anything more important in the history of the world.” And I am dead serious about that.

Mark Bittman is a great source of information, but I prefer to follow the advice of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in this world.”

All that said, we can all learn a great deal from Mark Bittman — I certainly have already. His work appears in many footnotes in our book and I have quoted him often in the first 100 days of this blog. (Today is # 101.) Take a look at a few of my posts that have featured Mark’s work — then take a half hour and watch the video at the end — it’s really very good — entertaining and informative.

NY Times…getting it right when it comes to the cost of “disease care”  It’s not very often that I applaud an article in any newspaper — on the topic of the cost of health care in this country and what to do about it. But on April 12, Mark Bittman of the New … Continue reading →

“Good News” about food from Mark Bittman…may breed complacency  Earlier this week, Mark Bittman wrote a column in the New York Times entitled “Food: Six Things to Feel Good About.” In the article he cited the Child Nutrition Act and things that Michelle Obama and Walmart were doing to … Continue reading →

J. Morris Hicks, the "big picture" guy when it comes to how we feed ourselves

Then there’s my all-time favorite Mark Bittman article; in the New York Times on January 27, 2008. Rethinking the Meat Guzzler. I read it then, referenced it in my book and have referred to it many times since. You should read it too.

Finally, here is the video that I told you about. “In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk.” Watch, enjoy and learn from Mark Bittman — he really does “get it.”

In addition to the video below, you can learn more about Mark from this Washington Post article from 2010.

Mark Bittman on what’s wrong with what we eat | Video on TED.com.