Eating Like It Matters

Mark Bittman is kind of an anti-foodie food writer. Not that he doesn’t relish food and cooking. After all, he’s the bestselling author of How to Cook Everything and he writes "The Minimalist" column and "Bitten" blog for The New York Times, and, oh yeah, he now hosts three public TV series.

But he’s a practical cook. He’s flexible, and more likely to post the recipe for fast-ish winter stew, or write about turning leftovers into dessert than insisting that you forage for groundroots or raise your own chickens. He doesn't think meat should be abolished, and he doesn't trumpet organic food above all else. People trust him.

So when he says that you can make a sane lifestyle choice that could help you slim down, save money, prevent a number of life-threatening diseases and help save the planet, our antennae went up. Mark Bittman makes the claim in his new book Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, and he joins us from New York with more advice.

Watch Mark Bittman's talk at the TED conference:

(Photo by Young Yun)