Mark Bittman Visits Portland

Portlanders love books. We are a town of bookies.

Portlanders love food. We are a town of foodies.

If there is anything that Portland loves more than books and food, it is a book about food. But wait! Toss in the slow-food movement, and some polemics from a New York Times author and you’ve got a delicious recipe for success!

I am disappointed to say that I was completed out-nerded by most of Portland last Thursday. I thought arriving to Powell’s ½ an hour before Mark Bittman was to speak would suffice (Remember, this guy?). But the second I stepped into The City of Books I hear over the intercom, “If you are here to see Mark Bittman, you better hurry your ass to the fourth floor because most of Portland has already taken their seats!”

I rush up the stairs, whereupon by complete surprise I run into Karen and Bob from work (everyone really is here!), and we push our way through a crowd of enthusiastic foodies. And low-and-behold there is not a free seat in sight. I lean up against the travel books bookcase with a copy of Food Matters, and read until 7:30 when he arrives to applause clad in his iconic blue striped sweater.

Bittman explains that he is an “incriminatalist.” He advocates for Americans to take an incremental approach to improving their diet and thereby their health and environmental impact. Eat 30 meals a week with meat in it? Try cutting it down to 27 meat-meals a week. Also, did you know that the #1 source of calories in the American diet, weighing in at 17%, is soda? And the #1 food group we eat from is that of the “pastry, donuts, sweets” group? Truly astonishing!

I see Bittman as embracing the middle way in terms of food philosophies. He is not a vegetarian, but practices more or less “vegan ‘till 6.” He is pushing for us to more conscious of our food choices. Home cooking has become an activity of the past, with most Americans eating out for the majority of their meals. The only way to become one with your food, to know it and therefore know what exactly is in it is to cook for yourself. But with our ever shortening leisure time, where do we find the time to cook, or to even learn how to cook?

Food in this country, and in the world, is a perplexing and difficult issue. How is it that our country is the wealthiest, fattest, yet most diet-obsessed country in the world?

Oh, and just as a side note: the meat industry sure has done a superb job at brainwashing our entire nation into making us equate “protein” with “meat” when in reality ounce for ounce spinach has 10x more protein than meat! And spinach won’t give you cancer! And don’t even get me started on the dairy industry….

Happy eatin’!

Mark Bittman’s Blog.