Plant based meat ain’t the fix that I was looking for. It’s looking like a processed food alternative to processed meat. In my book, a lost. Lot’s more information from Juliette Luini on the website defining those next points.
We’re inundated with talk of plant-based meat, so we’ve teamed up with the True Health Initiative to suss out what we know and, as important, what we don’t regarding how products from Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat influence animal welfare, the environment, and our health.
Here are five takeaways from the talk:
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Plant-based meats are obviously better for animal rights, but replacing a beef burger with a Beyond burger isn’t going to save the planet from climate change.
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Vegetables are better for the environment than plant-based meats.
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Plant-based meats are ultra-processed, but beef has a hefty ingredient list, too.
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The health impacts of plant-based meat are TBD.
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If you’re a carnivore, switching from a beef burger to a plant-based burger is a good thing for your health, the health of the planet, as well as animals. But if you are comfortable with plants tasting like plants, just stick to unprocessed vegetables and grains.
I’m always interested reading about chefs who are forgoing alcohol as a way of life. Restaurateurs like David McMillan and Fred Morin were well know for being excessive in their food and drinks. Things change and when they do, it usually is for better.
When the chefs of Joe Beef in Montreal gave up alcohol, their whole restaurant changed.
McMillan- I was never falling-down drunk. I was never belligerent. I always got my work done. I was never unkempt. I was always clean, I was always shaved, I always performed at work. I was always kind and gracious in the dining room. But I lived in hell.
Maria Bustillos’s interview back in February with Bourdain before his sudden death. Ill be honest, Im still shocked by it. Im glad it opened a discussion about mental health and it’s implications, depression and alcoholism which were not in the mainstream media. I hope it will be in the forefront for the next decades. With the current state of affair, I really do hope alcoholism will be more researched and talked about. Its a nasty poison.
Anthony Bourdain had started smoking again, was the first thing I noticed as he sat down with me last February. He was a bit hung over from a recent working trip to south Louisiana for Cajun Mardi Gras; “Harder partying than I’m used to, I gotta say,” he said, laughing. Despite his great height his leonine head seemed just huge, and a little fleshier than I’d imagined; there was this slight dissipation to him.
But no—who could be troubled about the wellbeing of Anthony Bourdain? Just look at him, so debonair, so completely at ease. A veritable prince of savoir vivre. Sixty-one, and still very elegant in his looks; the word sexy came to mind. Almost an old-fashioned word now. The sort of person who seems to think with his hips, his hands. He was in love, he would later admit; he and his new girlfriend, Asia Argento, had started smoking again together. He was a little rueful about the smoking, had the air of someone who meant to quit soon.
As he started to talk, everything about him became familiar at once; he slipped so effortlessly into the sleek carapace of his fame. The very air of vulnerability he projected, along with the rough candor, was part of this persona. But in fact he was a very private person, as his assistant, Laurie Woolever, reminded me after his death. Something I’d already known, from reading his books; he’d liked the piece I’d written about him and sent me an unbelievably kind note about it, which was what had emboldened me to ask for an interview. That, and he was famously generous to writers in general.
I loved this passage about him redefining of what luxury means and it begs the question, do you really need alcohol to be happy? Im on the spectrum that it shouldn’t. I do understand the feeling of eeriness, just pushed through the day and now letting go of all the care in the world.
My happiest moments on the road are always off-camera, generally with my crew, coming back from shooting a scene and finding ourselves in this sort of absurdly beautiful moment, you know, laying on a flatbed on those things that go on the railroad track, with a putt-putt motor, goin’ across like, the rice paddies in Cambodia with headphones on… this is luxury, because I could never have imagined having the freedom or the ability to find myself in such a place, looking at such things.
To sit alone or with a few friends, half-drunk under a full moon, you just understand how lucky you are; it’s a story you can’t tell. It’s a story you almost by definition, can’t share. I’ve learned in real time to look at those things and realize: I just had a really good moment.
He was quite special and I wish he was still around.
While growing in northern Québec, I always wondered why we were not exposed to a more indigenous food. Where is the food of the people, the indigenous people? Its not in the realm of the media and it’s not something that we hear about. I think it should be upfront and center. How can the love of the land doesn’t include indigenous food? Hunting and foraging for food is primordial and should be the way to sustain ourself. Now if only we could learn that in school!? Im happy then more people are making pushing to take back what is theirs. Turkey anyone?
“My grandmothers taught me from a young age that I shouldn’t feel sorry for killing animals, since they suffer and are lonely if they are not hunted. We respect animals and pray to the animal spirits to show our thanks.”
“Embracing this cuisine is a form of taking back what is ours.” Indigenous cooks reshape Canada’s culinary landscape. @nytfood
Meanwhile..
Federal gov’t removes poster after online backlash over Indigenous stereotypes @CBCIndigenous
Can’t make this stuff up.
