Good Food

I watched this TED talk tonight and really enjoyed it (see below). I love watching TED talks when I have time to watch them. It's hard to believe this one is from 2007. I agree with a lot of what Mark says here and I often think about becoming a vegetarian, vegan, or "vegan-ish"....at least cutting my meat and dairy consumption significantly. I don't know if I could ever do it because it would be very hard, but I sure think about it a lot.

For me it's more from the standpoint of health and because when I actually think about the animal I am eating it makes me upset to think about it's death. There really isn't any health benefit to consuming the amount of meat that we (Americans) do. But like Mark says, he eats meat and probably won't quit eating it, but I agree that eating significantly less meat and more plants, more real food, is what we should all be doing. I fall into the category of people that just wants to eat "good food", meaning quality whole foods. I enjoyed his short summary of how food and food production has changed over the years. It really puts it all into perspective. It's amazing how quickly things have changed with food production over the years and the shear number of animals that the US alone eats.

I saw Michael Pollan on Oprah a couple of weeks ago and I've seen him on many other shows. I like him a lot and I am thinking about reading some of his books. I really like his standpoint on food. He talks about being conscious about what we are eating and knowing where our comes from...eating more whole foods and cutting out processed food. I know eating that way is a little bit more expensive, but I think there is definitely advantages, not only for our health, but for the environment as well. Whether you "believe" in global warming or not (I don't think it's something that can be debated) it is something to think about... when you find out that your meat, fish, or even produce is coming from somewhere halfway around the world. To me that just seems like such a waste. Also, the amount of chemicals and preservatives in processed foods just scares me. What happened to real food?

If you have 20 minutes, watch this video, he makes a lot of good points.
Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat Video on TED.com

If you have another 17 minutes, watch this Michael Pollan TED talk...this one is more science based regarding agriculture, but I geek out on this type of thing.
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_view.html