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Although the whole “avoid saturated fat” thing came about largely because regulators were too timid to recommend that we “eat less meat,” meat in itself isn’t “bad”; it’s about quantity and quality. So at this juncture it would be natural for a person who does not read volumes of material about agriculture, diet and health to ask, “If saturated fat isn’t bad for me, why should I eat less meat?”

The best current answer to that: It’s possible to eat as much meat as we do only if it’s grown in ways that are damaging. They’re damaging to our health and the environment (not to mention the tortured animals) for a variety of reasons, including rampant antibiotic use; the devotion of more than a third of our global cropland to feeding animals; and the resulting degradation of the environment from that crop and its unimaginable overuse of chemicals, soil and water.

Even if large quantities of industrially produced animal products were safe to eat, the environmental costs are demonstrable and huge. And so the argument “eat less meat but eat better meat” makes sense from every perspective. If you raise fewer animals, you can treat them more humanely and reduce their environmental impact. And we can enjoy the better butter, too.

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– http://ift.tt/1eQ4UYJ

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“Food is the best, the clearest manifestation of ‘a tale of two cities,’ ” said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, contrasting brownstone Brooklyn, thick with farm-to-table restaurants and of-the-moment cafes, with the borough’s eastern and central areas, where many can barely afford to eat.

Co-ops could help bridge the gap, advocates maintain. Since they are owned and run by members, a co-op’s labor costs and prices are usually lower than at supermarkets or convenience stores.

It is not easy, however, to persuade people who may not have heard of co-ops — or who regard them with outright hostility — to shop in one. Besides carrying unfamiliar products, many co-ops require shoppers to pay a fee and work at the store for a few hours a month, to become owner-members, and qualify for discounted prices.

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– http://ift.tt/1erMh8w

“In the United States the smoking rate is at a new low. Not so in China; it’s the world’s biggest consumer of cigarettes. As strange as it may seem, smoking is a strong cultural indicator that a Chinatown continues to serve a vibrant population of immigrants. A Chinese restaurant with a bunch of cooks smoking out back, or customers puffing while waiting for a table? Worth a try! It’s one that’s less likely to be Americanized.”

– http://ift.tt/1n2qigr

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In general, though, the crowds know something. Dominique Ansel Bakery is a wonderland, and Maison Premiere’s happy hour is such an amazing bargain that I am afraid that simply mentioning it may spook the owners into charging more than a dollar for each pristine oyster.

There are exceptions to this rule. It does not apply to lines formed by tourists who trade their vacation days for a handful of cake crumbs under a waxy helmet of frosting on Bleecker Street. Nor does it apply to lines for brunch. Be wary of the opinions of people who will endure hunger and hangovers for a free mimosa.

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– http://ift.tt/1kYwK9M

Can you really have your cake and eat it? According to Michael Pollan, you can. In this fun RSA Short, Pollan explains how to eat well by following one simple rule without the need for fad diets or deprivation.

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Natural zero-calorie sweeteners have so far been caught between two imperatives: What they want to say and what they can deliver. It used to be that natural sweeteners weren’t sweet enough; now they have an added problem: They aren’t fully natural.

“‘Natural’ would mean that I picked it from the ground,” said Donna LiVolsi, the director of operations at Cumberland Packing Corporation, which invented Sweet’N Low, the first artificial sweetener sachet, in 1957. I met her near the Navy Yards of Brooklyn, where Cumberland still makes Sweet’N Low, along with value brands of aspartame and sucralose and a couple of natural-sugar substitutes — Stevia in the Raw and Monk Fruit in the Raw. When I asked LiVolsi if she thought these latter two were “natural,” she said she couldn’t answer, because each consumer has a sense of what the word means to them.

It’s a question that has bedeviled beverage-makers, too. In the fall of 2012, a German food company surveyed 4,000 people in eight European countries, to find out how they understood the “natural” claim. Almost three-quarters said they thought that natural products were more healthful and that they’d pay a premium to get them. More than half argued that natural products have a better taste. But the respondents weren’t sure what degree or form of processing would be enough to strip a product of its natural status. Some drew a line between sea salt (natural) and table salt (artificial). Others did the same for dried pasta and powdered milk, though both are made by dehydration.

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– http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/the-quest-for-a-natural-sugar-substitute.html?pagewanted=all