'Is Eat Real Food' Unthinkable?

Like a Greek friend of mine always said, “I said it, and I heard it”. And, I’ve been saying it for so long that it’ ingrained in my brow - the argument, the ‘debate’ about what to eat is such a no-brainer. Like Michael Pollan said: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

But true to form, the FDA, in their newly released guidelines, is making it so complicated that the average American consumer will throw up their hands in despair and head off to McDonald’s. That’s what our government agencies do these days in order to please their corporate masters, and those on the right that deeply believe that all government regulation of industry is bad, bad and even more bad.

The FDA has once again buried any good parts of their message - for Americans to eat more real, unadulterated, whole foods that they prepare at home - in so much mumbo-jumbo that big agri-business won’t get upset and come a-knockin’.

Mark Bittman weighs in eloquently.

- maven

By New York Times food writer, Mark Bittman

In recent weeks we’ve seen a big, powerful government agency, a big, powerful person and a big, powerful corporation telling us what to eat. Even with all this big, powerful input, we know nothing that we didn’t know last year. We do, however, have a new acronym; unfortunately, it’s not the one we need.

And a little progress. Limited kudos go to the United States Department of Agriculture, whose Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 — yes, it’s 2011, but they’re published every five years — are the best to date. We’re told to eat “less food” and more fresh foods; wise advice. But aside from salt, the agency buries mostly vague recommendations about what we should be eating less of: we’re admonished to drink “few or no” sodas — hooray for that — and “refined grains,” Solid Fats and Added Sugars. And there’s our fabulous acronym: SOFAS.

Click to read more ...

What's wrong with what we eat?

Mark Bittman would like to answer that. Did you know that raising livestock supplies more harmful components to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change, than all our cars and trucks? Did you know that our demand - not need - for animal calories are contributing to the current health crisis, i.e. diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease? Did you know that raising animals for food is far and away the largest culprit in land degradation?

Does this mean you have to become a vegetarian? Surprisingly, no. Despite the fact that we, as humans, kill 10 billion … that’s right, 10 billion animals a year. There’s no way to do that gently, humanely.

The time has come to stop raising animals industrially and stop eating them thoughtlessly.

We can eat well, eat better, be healthier and reduce our carbon footprint by doing this - reduce your meat consumption by just 50%.

Listen in: