What's wrong with what we eat?

[Xicano]

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YkNkscBEp0

[Lucinda]

1. Thanks for the link!

[Luminous Animal]

2. I like and respect Bittman. A friend of mine just published a book,"Farm Together Now" and Bittman

wrote the forward.

Nice!

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,book-info/store,books/products_id,8918/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Farm-Together-Now-The-Book/117519501603087?v=wall&viewas=0#!/pages/Farm-Together-Now-The-Book/117519501603087?v=wall

[Warpy]

3. His cookbooks are also good

His "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" is my go to book when I'm hungry, the kitchen is full of unfriendly ingredients, and I'm too lazy to shop. There's always some combination in there that will work.

He's absolutely correct about what's wrong with the standard diet, even when much of it is cooked at home.

Unfortunately, he's got an uphill battle against all the yuppie idiots who think it's somehow cool not to cook.

[Luminous Animal]

5. My husband got me "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" for Xmas. I'm a third through

and I've already used 4 pads of little post-its!

[silverweb]

4. Ohhhh, this is bad.

I'm already a vegetarian, but now he's got me wanting to bake my own bread. Trouble ahead!! :D

[csziggy]

7. Start out with a bread machine

You can find them cheap at thrift shops. Use the machine to mix the dough and do the first rise, usually with a "Dough" setting. Then take the dough out, shape it and let it rise for another hour before you bake it.

Bread machines used this way make it easy to make bread.

[Stevenmarc]

27. Also

most have a timer setting so you can drop the ingredients in before you go to bed and wake up to a freshly baked loaf, so it doesn't take any real time out of your day.

Another option is a Kitchenaid, the dough hook takes all the grunt work out of bread making like the bread machine but it's more of a multi-purpose thing, good for when you don't want your kitchen to start looking like a Williams Sonoma annex.

[csziggy]

28. Only if you want the steamed bread baked in the machine

Which I hate. Unless I am making Boston Baked Bread, which is supposed to be steamed, bread baked in the machine is just the wrong texture. The other problem is that many bread machines do not make the shape loaf many people want for either artisan or sandwich bread. Mine makes loaves far too tall to be practical and the bottom and side crusts are not a very good texture.

And, yes, the KitchenAid is superior, but for the beginning bread maker is harder to deal with and a much bigger investment.

I got my bread machine for $10 at a thrift shop. It still had the stickers on it and had probably never been used or maybe used once or twice. The manual was not with it, but was available for download. It got me back into bread making which I had done for years completely by hand with no mixer or machinery at all.

Then I found a vintage Hoabrt KitchenAid on Craig's List for $80 in absolutely immaculate condition. I had to buy the dough hook, and I need to get one of the shields since it tends to throw flour all over the place. The bread made with the same recipe is pretty much the same whether made in the bread machine or in the KitchenAid, but the KitchenAid has allowed me to expand my horizons on bread making and other baking.

Disclaimer - I am retired so I have all the time in the world to mess around with bread making. Usually I set up my dough, leave it to rise and carry my timer around with me so I don't forget to get back to it at the right time. But it still ties me up for most of an afternoon.

[Lucinda]

29. Bread is easy!

If you search for bread or Ain5 on DU you can find a bunch of good recipes and tips for quick and easy good fresh bread. Several of us went on a baking binge last year and gathered lots of tips and tricks :) I have a couple recipes in my journal too.

[silverweb]

30. Terrific!

Just the thought of yeast and machines, etc, terrifies me. I want something really, really simple, like a soda bread(?) perhaps, that even I can't screw up.

I'm entranced by the idea of making my own crusty hunks for dipping in olive oil or sopping up winter soups -- as long as it's not complicated.

Maybe starting with a simple flatbread would be best. If Bedouin women can do it over a campfire, I should be able to do it in my kitchen, right? (Last time I baked, my 30-something son was in 1st grade -- and I made cookies for his class that turned out like hockey pucks.)

I will definitely check out your journal. Thanks! :hi:

[Lucinda]

31. The Ain5 is the easiest. You just stir up a batch...let it rise for 2 hours

then refrigerate, and pull some out shortly before you want to bake it.

Video from the authors website:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?page_id=63

And we have a ton of tips in the archives here at DU. :)

[silverweb]

32. Sounds perfect.

I'm going to try it after the next scheduled grocery shopping trip next week! :)

[Lucinda]

33. Good luck! Pop into Cooking and Baking if you have any questions!

:hi:

[silverweb]

34. Already added to my groups/forums.

Thanks again! :hi:

[Lucinda]

35. YVW!

We are a crazy bunch, but often useful. :rofl:

[Taitertots]

6. The problem is overpopulation

There is nothing wrong with eating meat, candy, cola, or junk food. If someone would rather die slightly younger in exchange for enjoying things they find satisfying than I'm totally satisfied with that.

The problem is that there are too many people to sustain our lifestyle quality. We need less people and not lower quality of life.

[Luminous Animal]

9. Sustainable food production does not equal a lower quality of life.

[Taitertots]

19. Based only on your biased opinion

Lots of people don't agree with that opinion.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ysabel]

11. I don't have a problem with eating meat

I do however have a problem with eating shoes or purses or whatever the hell it was that was my sil called roast beef...

[Catherina]

17. A fine illustration of the problem.

"The problem is that there are too many people to sustain our lifestyle quality"

And there in a nutshell is the problem.

Sure. Let's have fewer people on this earth, let's keep pushing birth control on poor nations so that the entitled few who consume the majority of the world's resources can continue "our" quality of life.

Giving such importance to "Our" wasteful, selfish, greedy "quality of life" is majority of the problem.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Taitertots]

21. There are too many people on earth

"let's keep pushing birth control on poor nations so that the entitled few who consume the majority of the world's resources can continue "our" quality of life."
You are being intellectually dishonest by falsely attributing that opinion to me.

If we can't maintain earth's population without widespread quality of life loss, then we need depopulation. Not eugenics depopulation of the third world, which you have falsely attributed to me. Across the board population decreases until all the people of the world have the same opportunities that we do.

""OUR way of life" is the leading cause of wars and suffering in this world. It's also the leading argument behind "Less people! More resources for us to consume!""
That is a work of pure fantasy. The lack of resources to spread evenly between the worlds people is the cause of wars and suffering. Without stopping the exponential population growth it is without question going to get orders of magnitude worse, even if we stopped using resources.

[Kalun D]

24. Both are true

A. There are too many people on earth. This is due to petroleum based farming and Christian and Muslim religions being against birth control (among other factors)

B. Americans over-consume. There's no need or reason to eat meat 3 times a day every day.

""then we need depopulation. Not eugenics depopulation of the third world, which you have falsely attributed to me. Across the board population decreases""

so who's going to decide who gets to have kids and how many? So you are not killing anyone but you are keeping people from being born, that's eugenics

""until all the people of the world have the same opportunities that we do""

so there's nothing wrong with our over-consumption? 5% of the world's population consuming 25% of the energy.

"Less people! More resources for us to consume!""
"That is a work of pure fantasy."

but it's exactly what you are saying in this very post. You are saying, control population, and continue our "quality of life" which is mass consumption.

""Across the board population decreases until all the people of the world have the same opportunities that we do.""

in other words, everyone at our level of consumption, there is no middle, we should not do any sacrificing, we want to eat junk food, meat all the time, and drive gas guzzlers. Even if the cost is exorbitant for the planet. Even if we have to curtail 3rd world population to do so.

The first world has already controlled it's population, the only place to control population is in the 3rd world. So if you are advocating population control you are advocating eugenics. What we need is to control our consumption and trying to bring more of the 3rd world all the way up to our level of consumption.

[Taitertots]

36. Why are you lying and saying that I advocate that?

If you can't stop lying about the content of my posts I have no interest in discussing this with you. When you are willing to honestly discuss the problem of over population I'll gladly discuss it with you. If you want to keep hallucinating that I am advocating eugenics then you can keep your bullshit to yourself.

[Kalun D]

37. Call it Whatever You Like

there is no need for population control in the 1st world, we are already at near zero growth

if you advocate population control, you advocate it for the 3rd world, especially if you want more people to have our lifestyle.

[Taitertots]

38. Why are you falsely attributing your opinions to me?

Developed nations need depopulation just as much as the third world, if not more.

Since you won't stop lying and falsely attributing your opinions to me, I will have to bid you good day because I won't discuss this with someone who has no interest in honest discussion.

[Kalun D]

25. Really?

""The problem is overpopulation""

the only place there's overpopulation is in the 3rd world.

so 1st world over-consumption is not a problem? 5% of the world's population consuming 25% of daily energy production? Everyone eating meat 3 times a day everyday?

32 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef. That's one person consuming what 32 people could live off of.

[Ysabel]

8. recent crappy food holiday experience

was force fed crappy non organic non local grown food by old fuddy duddy relatives = yucko!

- suffered horrible gas pains (am glad to be home)...

[msongs]

12. force fed? they tied u down, pried open your mouth, and stuffed it in? some family lol nt

[Stevenmarc]

26. Not to mention the egg nog waterboarding

[travelingtypist]

13. And the food that's good for you is too expensive for most people to afford.

An orange is 75 cents here. A candy bar is a quarter.

[Kalun D]

14. Priorities

the price of healthy food has come down.

Americans priorities are skewed, $75 phone bill but .75 cents is too much for a healthy body

driving a Mercedes through the drive up window at Micky D's. I drive a $40K car but my body is only worth .50 cent.

the candy bar has a hidden cost too, like poor energy to perform work, chance of diabetes from the HFCS, or an end of life hospital visit in the $10's of $1000's.

[travelingtypist]

15. Simplistic.

Sure, people make bad choices, but like the guy in the video said, our industrialized food system is broken. Some stores in inner cities don't even carry fresh produce. How can people buy good food if it's not there to buy? And the HFCS thing, this crap they sell as food tastes good, but it doesn't satiate the hunger and so people just stuff in more of it. Seems like you're blaming the victim rather than recognizing the bigger problem.

[Tunkamerica]

16. 75 dollars is for a month and i try and eat healthily and spend more than $300 for myself.

[dfgrbac]

22. Everyone needs to know about THE CHINA STUDY!

Please check out AMERICA: A Society Sick and Dying – Starved for Truth!

[xchrom]

23. bittman is very cool. i follow his cookbooks. nt