A Bone to Pick

I wish I had realized at first that this is a collection of pieces Mark Bittman had already written and published over the past few years. One of my first impressions, then, was that some of his points are repeated quite a bit. However, they are still arguments that need to be heard. He reminds us – and most of us need reminding – what “real food” is: where we can identify the ingredients. He offers a fair consideration of other alternatives, including meatless “chickin’” and healthier fast food endeavors. He covers everything from the ecology of farming to human metabolism and the discussion of what really might be causing food-related diseases.

This book is organized well, for the kind of book it is. Despite the repetition, and the non-chronological order, the themes are well-connected, and give good insight into the state of food. Bittman knows his stuff, and is bold and brassy in getting his message across. The style is very informal and sentences are fragmented and could perhaps be better edited. As a whole, this might be a bit much to swallow in one reading, but as I stated, Mark Bittman is very knowledgeable and worth listening to, at least as one well-informed opinion

Note: I received a free physical copy of this title through BloggingForBooks in exchange for an honest review.