Introduction

As of this writing, I’ve been eating like Food Matters—the title of this book’s predecessor, a book that encourages us to concentrate on eating more plants and fewer animal products and processed foods—for three years. During that period I’ve met scores if not hundreds of people who have either come to similar diets on their own (it’s not that complicated, after all) or read Food Matters. The result of my own and just about everyone else’s experiences, as well as most of the research studies that have been published since then, have confirmed the conclusion I reached in the first place: If you swap the basic proportions in your diet—increasing unprocessed fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains—you’ll wind up losing weight and improving your overall health while also improving more difficult-to-measure situations like global warming, the environment in general, and animal welfare.

For me, it’s been astonishingly easy to remain on a diet that relies on far fewer animal products and processed foods than the typically “American” one. And this has been true even though I’m a journalist and author making his living from cooking, eating, and writing about the same. At no time has my new way of eating made my job—or my life—more difficult. If anything it’s easier, since I pay better attention to what goes into my mouth and fully appreciate all sorts of food, now more than ever.

Obviously, I’m not alone in touting a plant-heavy diet. The publication of Food Matters in January 2009 came at the beginning of the seemingly endless discussion about national health care. But in the course of that debate, more and more people—including outspoken people in the big insurance companies, Big Pharma, and even Big Food—were seeing the link between our diet and major health issues like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. And now that these links are accepted by the mainstream, so finally, the implications—and the costs—of the typical American diet are getting the attention they deserve.

Food and diet have become integral in food policy discussions, as they relate to issues as wide-ranging as global warming, other environmental issues, and childhood obesity. But it’s not only activists and advocates who are influencing the dialogue. Anyone who purchases food—which is to say everyone—has the opportunity to advance the changes advocated in Food Matters. I’ve come to call this “personal food policy,” because collectively our choices can stand up to the legislators, lobbyists, and special interest groups that continue to shape the way our food is raised, produced, packaged, shipped, and marketed.

For a variety of reasons, most Americans are more aware of what they’re eating than ever before, and many sincerely want to eat better, though they might not know exactly how to do it. I hear this over and over again, and it’s not hard to believe, given the often confusing and conflicting information floating around. We’re certainly not getting much help from our supermarket shelves or favorite restaurants, where we still have to pass up undeniably tempting and convenient junk to get at the real food.

For a more detailed summary of what “Eating Like Food Matters” means, read on. If none of this is new to you, skip to Part II, page 13—there I discuss the practicalities and principles of the Food Matters kitchen. Part III (beginning on page 35) includes more than 500 recipes and variations that demonstrate just how easy and delicious it can be to become a less-meatarian and begin eating a plant-heavy diet.