When an award-winning chef and avid meat consumer starts telling folks to eat more vegetables it’s a story worth hearing. New York Times bestselling author Mark Bittman’s newest book Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating tells this story.

Bittman’s book reads like a diet book, complete with meal plans and suggested recipes. Yet, it is far more than this. It provides critical education about how our food is produced, subsidized, introduced into our schools, and advertised to our children.

Written in quick, readable chapters, Bittman’s book provides thorough evidence of the need for higher vegetable consumption in our diets, and importantly, less animal-based foods. He takes the USDA to task over its inadequate food pyramid, which lists unhealthy sugars, fats, and processed “food” as an actual food group.

The author points out that, in practice, the USDA does not support its own recommendations to consume fruits and vegetables. In fact, Bittman says, our country does not grow enough produce for every American to meet the USDA’s recommended daily allowance. Instead, he writes, “agricultural subsidies cost taxpayers $19 billion a year and benefit only 3100 farmers”—most of them producing meat and dairy.

But don’t worry: we haven’t reached a tipping point in vegetable consumption. Meat still reigns supreme. And this, Bittman points out, is part of a larger global problem affecting our environment, the obesity epidemic, and the overall health of Americans. He asks us to curb meat consumption and increase our intake of fresh fruits and veggies. After all, there are still plenty available for your diet.

The crux of Bittman’s sometimes-vegetarian diet plan is simple: eat only plant-based foods such as grains, vegetables and fruits for breakfast and lunch, and then lavish yourself at dinnertime with anything from a steak to pizza and even ice cream for dessert. By cutting back on the amount of animal products we consume, and increasingly eating more plant-based foods, Bittman believes that both our planet and our bodies will benefit.

Half this book is devoted to recipes, almost all of which are strictly vegetarian. Yet meat is not completely eliminated from the repertoire: he sprinkles pro-meat recipes throughout. His menu ranges from sweet to savory, including ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts.

Even if you love bacon and can’t imagine life without it, this book will fit into your diet. If you already consume a hefty helping of veggies on a regular basis, this book will inspire new twists. It’s a quick read packed with hearty amounts of well-researched nutritional information and recipes that meet the current demands of our planet and our bodies.

Labels: diet, Food Matters, Mark Bittman, recipes, USDA food pyramid, vegetarian

Grab your mosquito net and your whisk. You’re about to embark upon a culinary health journey the likes of which no other book offers.

The Jungle Effect by Dr. Daphne Miller provides medical evidence of the health benefits from eating seasonally, locally, and organically. We all knew these diets were good for the planet; Miller points out why they are good for people, too. Her travels take place in the world’s “cold spots:” regions with little prevalence of diseases like colon cancer, heart disease, or depression. What do their diets have in common with being disease-free?

Miller provides delightful tales of digging for wild greens on the hillsides of the Mediterranean or guzzling mountain-made sports drinks in Copper Canyon. You’ll learn of foods as unique as cactus and as common as the potato. Why are they so good for our bodies? How do we prepare them? Where can we buy them?

Don’t let the medical science scare you away from one of this year’s best reads. The Jungle Effect is easily digestible—both the reading and the recipes included. Each chapter carries you to a new corner of the world where neon yellow cheese in a box and foam-wrapped, fast-food burgers have yet to penetrate. (Did you know such places still exist?)

Cast all prejudices aside: this is not a wacky new health book preaching a fad diet. Based in nutritional science, foraged at the local farmers’ market, and brought to life in easy-to-prepare home kitchen recipes, the diet Miller suggests borrows heavily from what other locavores have been touting for years. If you have already been filing your kitchen pantry with the bounty of your garden or farmers’ market, you are already firmly prepared to incorporate Miller’s recipes. Even if you haven’t, you’re just a hop, skip, and a cabbage from making the transition. No international passport required.

For any true food nerd interested in why our bodies crave anti-oxidants, or what benefits we reap from pork, this book is for you! Do you know someone with a family history of breast cancer? Then you’ll want to lend her this book. Have a parent with arthritis? Read up before the next family dinner.

From Iceland to Okinawa, The Jungle Effect offers travel tastes from around the globe that will tempt your tummy. Put that together with the nutritional knowledge you will gain and you’ve got the actual recipes to a happy, healthy diet. As they say in Denmark: Ver så godt. Or in Paris: Bon appétit!

Labels: "cold spot", "The Jungle Effect", book review, Daphne Miller, diet, health, locavore, nutrition, recipes, travel