I just finished reading Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating. It was eye opening and reaffirming of many of the views that I've held. Basically it boils down to this: you can begin a change in eating that is both affordable, follows no fad diet or latest wonder food (as in the over-marketed acai berry bogus that is being spoon fed to us all) and is a truly GREEN for the environment.
What you do is cut back on meat, dairy, and processed foods. What contributes to both the greenhouse emissions and our waistlines is overconsumption. As Americans we are eating waaay too much meat, too few vegetables and too many things that are engineered or processed. You've got to know that vegetables are good for you and junk food isn't. But what makes this "conscious eating"?
It's Green because you're essentially not eating anything that comes in a box and eating whole foods. The processing required to create those five-syllable ingredients in factories eat up gobs of power, transportation, etc. By cutting back on meat, you lower demand which trickles down to fewer animals being fed (their food is processed too), slaughtered, processed and transported. Even by switching to grain fed, pastured meats and poultry you send an even bigger message with your dollar to support local farming and healthy animals, not to mention limiting the amount of methane gas that is produced from these factory farms. If these animals are pasture raised, the normal cycle of their life can be set straight again. They eat natural foods that their bodies were intended for and their waste is no longer poison but fertilizer and dung beetle food!
It's a fantastic read, and has recipes included. It's just simple, back-to-basics cooking- which I really appreciate. I've used Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" Cookbook since we got it as a wedding gift. We've love everything we've made in it and it's all straight forward, with no crazy ingredients required.
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