What's wrong with what we eat | Mark Bittman 

Yeah, I like his quote about animals. ..."the time has come to stop raising them (animals) industrially and stop eating them thoughtlessly.

17 years later we all appreciate how this guy was on point!

This is excellent, he pretty much sums up all my reasons for being a (semi) vegetarian. It's not the consumption of meat I have an issue with, it's the process it takes to get on one's plate and the thoughtlessness with which it is consumed.

I've listened to this a couple of times and I think that Michael Pollan has defined the issue in as even handed a way as possible. My choice in life is to eat vegan. I wish everyone would. Realistically however, what we need is for meat eaters to become highly discriminate in their choices. Go for quality over quantity and cut way back. So...all my meat loving friends, I encourage you to really think about how much and how often, and what kind of meat you will consume.Learn about factory farming, learn about feedlots, and let that knowledge guide you in your consumption of meat products.

@Gardyloo - While I agree with you (I'm vegan myself), I think that from a pragmatic view, Bittman might be taking the right approach. Tell people they should eat NO meat, and 95% of your listeners will dismiss your ideas without even considering them. But tell them they should just eat LESS meat, even a LOT less, and a sizeable percentage of them might actually listen to you, and some may even choose to act. Two people eating 50% less meat has the same effect as one person going vegetarian.

fantastic, I love the tone of this talk, much more logos than pathos

最近才知道這個TED網站, 我看這些主講人的演講跟簡報,來磨練自己的講課工夫. 今天看到這段關於少吃肉的主張,我印象中已經有一段時間了. 但是看到本尊跟原本的片段 Mark Mittman 使用的數據雖然是舊的,整個演說卻很有力量, 我過去在食品製造業作過總經理幕僚,說真的看到這樣的主張,我想很多人會頭痛的 不過,該改變的就得作

Cowspiracy on Netflix!

Sorry, but four people don't eat 15 cows per year, as the graphic seems to suggest. Would be impressive if one person could manage to consume one all on their own.

You might also find this TED talk interesting "Tackling diabetes with a bold new dietary approach: Neal Barnard"

The only thing about this is that he's saying "DON'T EAT X, DON'T EAT Y", the Terry Wahls video showed exactly what we SHOULD be eating. This just scares me off choosing anything - he said cheese is bad, that we don't need any animal products - what about greek yoghurt?

This was a remarkable talk, thank you Mark - I mean, you were preaching to the converted in this case, but the wealth of information condensed into 20 minutes provided a lot of food (no pun intended) for thought :)

I have been studying nutrition for a while now. I have taken classes in college and continue to study on this subject. As a vegetarian since 1981, and more hours in school in nutrition I feel I have some knowledge in this field. Do not let one video sway your wisdom. Go out and see the whole picture from those who have the wisdom and are not biased by money. I am 50 years old, in very good health, very physical. I work out in the gym every work. I am very strong. You are what you eat.

just FYI, did you know your taste buds regenerate once every week or so? and that they actually develop to match the molecules of the food we eat. So you can actually train what tastes good by what you eat, in about a week. I think about how wine initially tastes awful(my experience), and later people just love to savour it. (I still don't like it.)

tangent - b12 can be manufactured in adequate amounts by healthy gut bacteria. the b12 in spirulina and seaweeds are molecular analogs, and not true b12- they don't treat b12 deficiency and can make it worse.

The enlightened individual is way ahead of the curve and clearly on the right track. The information he seeks to spread is widely known among many groups of people. I can only hope is wisdom becomes adopted by more societies for all our good.

Thank you Mark - Your voice is more than welcome - and may I say very well said! I hope its not too late.

This is very informative. Thanks. I actually switched to a vegetarian diet 18 months ago and now eat a mainly raw vegan diet. The best choice I ever made.

Plant based foods such as potatoes, oatmeal, and quinoa are excellent sources of protein, far easier to digest, etc. Have you ever tried hemp protein?

Some good examples are Oreo cookies and Dad's by Mr. Christie

@reforest4fertility It's odd that Bittman says livestock production contributes more to greenhouse gasses than transportation, since transportion is PART of livestock production. Shipping the grains from the field to the feedlot, transporting the cattle from the feedlot to the slaughterhouse, shipping the meat from the slaughterhouse to the processing plant, shipping the finished product from the processing plant to the supermarket - I'd say transportation is part of meat production.

Only the plants are LOADED with Round Up. I was eating a real whole foods diet, but I didn't know it was loaded with Round Up until it perforated my gut.

Can't argue with a word of what he says. After I stopped eating meat, dairy, and most processed food 25 years ago my health improved 100%. And a half dozen folks I knew with various forms of cancer who did likewise are still around today.

@thefredsociety Eating vegetarian food is not about replacing meat with vegetables, but rather with other sources of protein. There are so many other dishes you can cook up with legumes, quinoa, eggs, tofu, tempeh, seitan, and nuts-- all protein sources. What it takes is willingness to explore new avenues and possibilities. Indian cooking is incredibly delicious, and much of it is vegetarian.

An excellent video!

so personal responsability. gotcha.

Don't see it as a challenge, look at it from the the other side of the problem - from this side it can look like an impossible task, but when we actually do it, we'll look back and see what an amazing feat we achieved, so think from the otherside - don't get down on how hard it will be, get happy about how much good it will do

This is a lot more appealing than most other Health-food promotions I've heard...it doesn't sound cultish or fanatic.

I'm not going to delve into the whole pro or anti meat arguments but I will say this- our obsession with excess and the unlimited has gotten the better of us. It's high time that we learnt of self control, bought locally, paid attention to our bodies and started learning the value of home cooking. This isn't some snide comment about "woman git back in mah kitchen" but that we all need to learn how to cook for ourselves and share this with our families. It's a call for personal responsibility.

PORK WITH RED-ONION RELISH AND OPEN-FACED PROSCIUTTO AND ASPARAGUS ARE GOOD MEALS. EATING A WELL-MADE SANDWICH IS ONE OF THE SIMPLE PLEASURES IN LIFE.

Good words.

This is a pretty good talk. It concerns me that he is still eating meat. There is no way one can raise and kill animals that could be considered humane. My thoughts are that we should reduce suffering for our fellow humans and other sentient animals on this planet. To that end, I am vegan.

Great great talk, thank you!

@thefredsociety Potatoes, rice, pasta, semolina, oats, polenta, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, fruit, avocado...etc. It is easy to reduce meat intake. Plus the extra variety is both delicious and a refreshing change.

Whoa dude (Bittman), notice how fast he blows past the hugest point, "after energy production, livestock is the 2nd highest contributor of greenhouse gases". OK, I know his focus here is on our choice of fuel 4 humans (livestock) and not on what we've chosen as our primary energy source, oil. I know he said it so fast & touched on it so lightly, but after all this is the bigger bomb. He wasn't saying "our energy use", but the production, extraction, processing to the point of our use at...

Why are things like kids sitting in front of thier TV's playing video games, adults sitting in front of thier computers and the reduction of physical activity not discussed? The world war 2 generation has lived a longer life then the previous generations. They had high fat foods that are condemmed today, they had less processed foods but still ate things that would not be recommended today. The one difference seems to be exercise, they walked more and did more physical activity.

I love how defensive people get over their diets. I used to be a chef and a meat eater. I hated , what i perceived to be, the narrow mindedness of vegetarian ideals. After some changes in my life, I began to question my lifestyle choices. I did some research and now I'm convinced that I made the right to choice to eat more ethically. Peter Singers book, The Ethics Of What We Eat is a great source of information for anyone who is interested in what they eat.

"Everyone was a locavore.." I recommend reading Mark Kurlansky's books, Cod and Salt, to learn about the amazing international trade of food products since the dawn of...trade.

I guess what he offers that's practical is the advice to cut way back on the consumption of animal products. As he says, 50% is only a start. Granted, that's not likely to happen on a large scale any time soon. But of course 50 years ago, the idea of any significant number of people recycling would have seemed a silly notion, yet now it's a common practice. It's hard to be optimistic but I try! Yes, there's not much we can do about the situation in China. We have to clean up our own mess.

There have been quite a number of advances in medical science, antibiotics, and workplace safety over the years. These are all good things. Processing food decreases nutritional value by destroying vitamins & minerals while adding preservatives (nitrites, sulphites) that can have adverse effects on health. We are living longer, but I don't think processed food deserves the credit for it.

@Masterphan The amount of protein we need varies by source (Am. Jour. of Clin. Nutrition says 2.5% of daily calories, Natl. Acad. of Sciences says 4.5-6.0%, Natl. Research Council says 8%), but they're all below the amount eaten by the average American, and are easily met on a vegan or vegetarian diet. Chicken breast tenders have 5.5 g protein/100 calories, cooked quinoa has 4 g/100 calories - less, to be sure, but not radically less. Tofu even has 13.5 g/100 calories!

Thank you Mark Bittman! Down to earth truth.

You can get protein from places other than meat, protein is not the major problem, it's the other things in meat (although there is now evidence to say most Americans suffer from an excess of protein to). Vegetarians get protein from whey powder which is a better source than meat anyway, and Vegan protein stuff is somehow made from peas. I'm sure you can find the RDA of protein through a bit of googling.

You don't realize how many other foods are available out there until you actually try a vegan diet. It's a whole other world. You also develop a much more sophisticated palate as you try so many different combinations of vegetables, nuts, fruits, cereals, and legumes. I made a vegan cheesecake that was better than any other cheesecake that I've ever had before I was a vegan.

He's trying to reverse the horrible affect that the industry's marketing have had in the last 40 years or so. That's quite a challenge.

Okay, so maybe I'm a Vagitarian - That's on me. But if you're gonna eat meat (I have for most of my life, and who knows if I'll go back), just make it less awful. Don't eat a bunch of it, and when you do, make sure it's coming from quality. Factory farms just won't do, man.

Virginia: snowiest and coldest winter on record. I know, I know, probably an anomaly.

It is my contention that local and organic food cultivation and production will save the world. Local organic food is good food. There's no doubt about that statement anywhere. And for the following reasons I believe it will save the world. Local food is close. When people buy local the cost of shipping decreases dramatically. Not just the monetary cost but the cost of fuel for trucks, the cost of wear and tear on roads and highways, the cost of CO2 and other emissions from the process of shipping... the list goes on. I don't think there's a need to delve into those costs to show how decreasing them will benefit everyone. Local food is observable. When people can see their food being grown or raised there is a decrease in anxiety about where their food comes from and what it actually is. People may not realize they have anxiety about food but the root of the anxiety around all the food related ailments in western society is ignorance. People see reports on the news or read articles on what is good or what is bad and a lot of it can be contradictory as it comes from unknown or suspect sources. Now what do you do? More research, more suspect sources, more food coming from who knows where and from who knows what... Go and look at your food being produced. You will know it's good food that is good for you. Local food is small scale (relatively speaking). This means even if a local producer is growing or raising only one thing the detrimental effects of monoculture production are eliminated. When you look at a strawberry farm in southern California you see vast swaths of natural desert sucking up water from Lake Mead hundreds of miles away in Nevada. That farm is a huge patch of land where both the flora and fauna are so restricted by manipulation that the species diversity approaches 1. And large amounts of time and energy are spent to keep it that way. Potato farms in Idaho do the same. They bring logistically difficult amounts of water in from hundreds of miles away to water similarly species deficient swaths. The redirection of fresh water, commoditizing water, and species deficiencies are not good for anyone or anything. (If I were to provide supporting documentation for that statement this writing would run very long. If you require supporting documentation you can email me or Google it.) Smaller local patches of monocultures require much less time and energy per acre, can use local water sources and maintain species diversity through smaller monocultures abutting other smaller monocultures. Local food provides income for locals. Putting your hard earned dollars back into your community is just good. No need to explain. It just is. A local producer provides for you as you provide for the producer. And the producer pays taxes in your community (municipality, province / state, country). Local will help get people out of cities and into rural areas. Support local and you support jobs where local food is produced. People working in the food industry, be it production, processing, markets and restaurants will no longer have to live in the ever increasing financial costs of living in the city. Production, processing, markets and restaurants will be local to people working in those industries. No longer will the proximity of a supermarket be a feature on a realtor feature sheet but the feature will be where to get food that is good for you right where it is produced. As a bonus less congestion in cities means getting around in cities is easier and less stressful. Organic local food reduces the the amount of herbicides and pesticides, man made or not, being concentrated in the soil where the food you're eating is being grown or raised. In my opinion this is good. If you believe this is a controversial subject then err on the side of caution and eliminate their use until you know for sure. What are some of the big issues we talk about around the kitchen table and water coolers? CO2 and global warming, taxes and how they are appropriated, obesity / diabetes and other diet related diseases / malnutrition, what industrial food actually is and what it means and availability of fresh water. Buy local food. Buy organic food. Do your part. Even when you're travelling buy food that is local to that community or region to support the place you've traveled to. You'll save the world where ever you are.

Mark, go for it! Make your dream a reality and honor your inner knowing.Your created spark inside wants to burn brighter. You can create a garden in pots and herbs grow great in pots in a sunny place. I have a greenhouse and I grow herbs and vegetables. Yes, it is work, but knowing where my food comes from and what is in it, is my best protection towards a healthier me. I am a certified nutritionist and find that most people eat for satisfaction not for health. Accept each others choices.

My definition of an omnivore is an animal which biologically and psychologically is fit to eat all sorts of foods, animal and plant foods. They aren't specialized the same way carnivores and herbivores are, they eat whenever they stumble upon food. Some birds are omnivores (worms and seeds). Most bears (as far as i know. Berries, fish). Pigs, a lot of rodents.

This is a good talk! I agree with what he is saying and I've been eating towards that goal myself. Eating smart and nutritiously is the best way to go about it. So many of us overcomplicate our diets with all sorts of craziness, ie most of the people I know who eat meat by the truckload, some of the people I know who eat only vegetarian or vegan or gluten free, no carbs, all carbs, etc. It's all too much nonsense and they all think they are right. Eat smart, its not hard but is delicious!

yeah, cause I would assume since cows are adapted to grass and not corn or any grains really, they develop super antibiotic resistant diseases from antibiotic overuse-age and feeding them corn. I would also assume that corn fed cows are probably deficient in B's. Factory farming and conventional are killing us, all the digestive problems like constipation,IBS,diarrhea,colon cancer etc. Not to mention birth defects/deformities and massive spikes in autism and other developmental disorders.

there is a dean ornish quote something to the tune of "you say it's extreme to switch to a plant-based diet... i say it's extreme to crack open your chest and perform open heart surgery"

(Part 3) Especially for people in my generation, who were raised on the idea of the "four food groups" (fully HALF of which were animal products - one group meat, another group eggs and dairy), there is tremendous psychological resistance to the idea of thriving on a purely herbivorous diet.

(Part 2) While it's true that some people may stop at just eating less meat, (and even this is beneficial to animals, the environment, and human health), many people will go on from there to giving up animal products altogether, once they discover that they can not only survive, but indeed thrive, eating fewer animal products. It's a progressive step in counteracting the idea, ingrained since childhood, that meat, eggs, and dairy are essential for life and good health.

Brilliant reminder... and evergreen in every sense.

I agree, however grains including (flour) wheat, soy etc are genetically modified, because of supply and demand. Not all companies use GMO's and some are labeling NonGMO. Greek yogurt is better and you can learn to make your own at home. Greek yogurt has a different type of pasteurization process making it the better choice if you must have dairy.

He's not saying you should cut out meat, just that you should eat less of it. That aside, there are many iron replacements available.

That may be so... but I hope you know that eating a regular American diet will lead to far more nutritional deficiencies. The only thing people have to worry about when it comes to a vegetarian/vegan diet is vitamin B-12, which can be supplemented. People who are meat eaters are just as likely to be deficient in B-12 because they usually don't get the proper amount of other vitamins and minerals through their diet, and just so you know everything works in conjunction with each other.

"Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes nuff said

"I agree with a lot of his points however his push for an exclusive starch diet is very extreme." It does sound extreme but if you try it you'll be amazed. "By the way mashed potatoes without butter are just awful." Yeah, but baked potatoes are really nice by themselves.

@Masterphan Few plants contain all amino acids in balance by themselves (with quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat as notable exceptions), but no one eats just one thing. Eating a variety of vegs and grains ensures a complete amino acid profile. For example, the amino acids limited in beans are present in rice, and vice-versa. So put them together and the result is a complete protein. Meat is a convenient SINGLE source of complete protein, but not therefore a superior one in terms of the total diet.

I found since I stopped leaving my TV on while on the computer and generally watching less to no TV, I haven't had any cravings for food besides chocolate (which is my favorite candy.)

@Anglehound you are to some extent right... but more carbon does not = more plants. what plants need, and also depending on the species, is often more complicated than that.

@Masterphan You admit that complete protein can be obtained from plants and say the problem is that plants don't provide enough of it. So the "superiority" of protein in meat is simply due to quantity? The amount of protein we need is a matter of debate, but sufficiency can be observed clinically. Hair and nails healthy and growing? Healing quickly from illness and injury? Not sick often? Muscle mass preserved? Then you're getting enough protein.

Really liked your video!

True. And if you have a processing plant like I do in the area and want to by healthy meet it is less costly also to order part of the animal you want and split it with others and order a grass fed animal only. They are limited and ordering takes time however if you must have meat that is the best way to get a healthier product especially if you know the grower and what they feed the animal.

Often the ideas which people are the most vigorously resistant to reflect the very issues which they are the most ardently struggling with. If we see the meat-eater, not as a mindless carnivore, but as a struggling, although psychologically blocked, vegetarian, it's easier to see ways of getting through to that person. This is why the vegan who educates and sets a good example is far more effective than the loud-mouth at Thanksgiving who belittles others for their "freshly murdered turkey".

Everyone one in the world should watch this video.

but what if you live in an area that you cannot get more vegitables? and what is the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan?

I actually have watched a video of him a couple years ago, but that wasn't where i learned that "scenario", if that's an appropriate word. I don't define morals, nor do i care about morals. What i'm trying to say is, the reason you eat meat is because you have been learned that eating a balanced diet of meat and vegetables is the optimal diet for humans, not because it is. Young children haven't been introduced to steak, chicken and thanksgiving turkey yet.

I eat steak marinated in Pepsi and Lemon Juice. But only once a month.

I'll swear, my brother couldn't stand eating lunch with one of his dates from the long past highschool. The girls mother couldn't cook, she couldn't cook. she microwaved premade food that didn't fill anyone up, tasted awful compared to my Mom's home made food. He literally could take in 2 bites of a meat and 4-5 spoons of whatever else there was. Ow, and he said the 10-15 minute wait in a ridiculous silence was one of the most awkward things he had witnessed. Do you think they "went out", NO.

He did say it was a hyperbolic example.

how bout pork? i've been eating beef and coke for a long time i think its causing my daily headaches he got a point.

Pretty good comparison, only they can't complain about it. What shocks me, is how many people are not able to kill a cow or a even a chicken, cry when they see a dead cat, kill a chipmunk with their car or watch a disney movie but eat meat three times a day. I'd force people to personally kill a cow for every cow they buy. There would be way less consumption, because you would see what you do and be thankful for the dead animal, like tribers and civilized citizens have always been.

@bakcompat So because of one thing he said you are disregarding the whole lecture?

Products which contain gluten, soy (which includes soy lecithen and/or textured vegetable protein), high-fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutamate, preservatives, polyunsaturated oils, aspartame etc. People automatically have this assumption that anything labeled vegan must be healthy for you because it doesn't have animal products in it.

@Masterphan We "need" animal products? I eat no animal products at all and I'm healthier than I was before going vegan. B12 is not made by animals or plants, but by bacteria in the soil. We wash the soil off the plants we eat, cows don't - that's how they get B12. I like my veggies washed for sanitary reasons, so I take a a standard multivitamin containing B12. Plant protein is perfectly well assimilable by the body and doesn't come packaged with saturated fat the way animal protein does.

Biologically - in the present - There is no point in speculating about how a creature has evolved to evaluate what it 'should' eat now. There is a section in the wikipedia article on Omnivores specifically relating to issues in classification. The point I was making earlier is that we should not provide creatures with an imperfect label, then dictate morals through that label *e.g. when people claim humans are herbivores, therefore we should not eat meat)

@cheapshot1234 Indian food certainly contains a much wider and more flavorful variety of spices than American food (I love Indian food and actually cook it quite often), but I think what Bittman was referring to was the fact that the processed food industry packs tons of sugar, salt, and artificial flavoring agents into food to make it taste better than it really is. I agree that "spice" was probably not his best choice of words, though.

i dont know - there are no nutrients in meat that can't be found in plants or synthesised in the body from plant foods, so we don't NEED half a pound - half a pound is the amount that's unlikely to harm you, i guess

TL;DR version: "We're fucked. Thank you and goodnight."

The historical part is pretty amazing, but how many human beings needed to be fed back in the days? I support local diet, but I wonder if it could ever work in nowadays situation...

I'm presuming you are talking about iron-deficiency anemia, and not other types. That said, the body cannot assimilate more than 3-4mg of Iron at a time, so U.S. meatheads (of which I am one) are generally consuming in excess. It's better to eat a balanced diet, but definitely more towards vegetarianism, imho. You can get quality protein and iron from several sources, and in combination.

Grains are the most starchy food group, starch turns to sugar and sdugar turns to fat

Actually, if the vegetables ran out, the cows and other animals would have nothing to eat, so they would die out at the same time. Eating veggies, grains, etc. is much more sustainable than meat because it's lower on the food chain.

I've already cut out fast food from my diet. Kinda preaching to the choir but it was interesting I guess.

Dude, I train myself. The perfect human food, the mother's milk has only 6% protein, and you grew the most on it. The protein requirement has been grossly exaggerated by the meat and dairy industries to sell their products, 290,000,000,000 dollars worth. I eat grains, veggies and fruits, and I'm energetic and ripped. I'm 50 years old, have been asked if I use steroids( no).

I enjoyed what he had to say well said x

He said, that the average consumption should be reduced, not eliminated. Also, your ignoring the bigger picture..

@Masterphan No, I'm precisely NOT saying that evolution/genetics has anything to do with it, since when rural Asians becomes wealthier, move to cities, etc, and adopt a more Western pattern diet, they start suffering from the same diseases Americans suffer from.

well there seems to be a lot of people with internet connection in arizona.........but what about a climate that averages 10-15 feet of snow 8 months out of the year? or is that how you get frozen vegetables?

@tumblingplanet Yep. so massive in fact The China Study also has regions where Meat eaters show reduced mortality in places compared to plant eaters. Thereby conflicting its central incorrect hypothesis. It is has been critized extensively in peer review. But still is popular in main stream.

WHEN YOU HAVE INSPIRED INGREDIENTS, YOU'VE GOT AN EASY-TO-ASSEMBLE, HUNGER-SQUASHING, LEAN-MUSCLE-BUILDING POWER MEAL IN YOUR HANDS. I KNOW MARK BITTMAN BACK IN 2012 WHEN I WAS STILL VOLUNTEERING IN ZAMBOANGA CITY MEDICAL CENTER HOSPITAL.

Moderation IS important, that's true. But, I'm trying to argue for eliminating meat completely not only because of health reasons, but environmental / unsastainability reasons.

Fascinating, thanks.

(Part 4) Experimenting with, and being healthy and satisfied on, a diet in which these foods are reduced can relax this resistance somewhat, and - especially when coupled with increased knowledge about health, environmental, and animal welfare issues, may eventually lead to acceptance of the idea of the feasibility of, and potentially the embrace of, a vegan diet.

there are a lot of variables that contributed to the rise in average lifespan such as improved medicine and general affluence.

love Mark Bittman...