The Most Important Talk On TED So Far! – “What’s Wrong With What We Eat!”
A good friend of mine, Joshua Rosenthal of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York, shared with me on Facebook the link to New York Times Food Writer, Mark Bittman‘s talk at the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference of December 2007 entitled “What’s Wrong With What We Eat.“ Out of all the talks that I have seen so far on TED ( and granted I haven’t watched them all), this one, by far, outweighs all the others in importance. There is no comparison, in my opinion.
Most featured talks on TED about issues that effect us all have been those that informed us of the doom and gloom scenario that we face on a global scale. These include talks by Al Gore, Sylvia Earle and Karen Armstrong. But what is lacking among these talks are very real and practical solutions that we can ALL either do ourselves or can get behind or can vote with our dollars. They lack practical solutions that are actually solutions instead of temporary actions that seem to only postpone the inevitable or they are solutions that only a small group of people get involved in.
In my last post, “A TED Talk Worth Blogging About“, about Shai Agassi’s bold plan for the mass adoption of electric vehicles, was an exception because he was offering a real, immediate and very practical solution to many of the problems facing the world today and raised by many TED speakers in the past. It is a solution that investors, governments, automakers, environmentalists and rest of us can all get behind, by replacing our gas powered cars with electric ones, when they become available in the near future. While replacing electric cars is still only a partial or temporary solution, it is in the right direction and it is, in my opinion, this type of thinking that Shai Agassi displays that can help us find permanent and lasting solutions.
Mark Bittman’s talk on, the other hand, is a timeless common sense message that offers an ongoing and very real and practical solution that all of us can do everyday simply by choosing to eat differently and to cook more. It is a solution that governments, big business and environmentalists can get involved in as long as they have the courage to do so, which includes changing their own personal eating habits. It is a simple solution that can and will solve most, if not all, of our problems, directly and indirectly. It is the same message that was conveyed by macrobiotic leaders George Ohsawa and Michio Kushi and many other proponents of the natural, whole and organic food movements.
It is a solution worth repeating:
1. Eat less meat and animal products from everyday to at most once per week, if not less.
2. Eat less junk food or none. These include fast food, processed foods, sodas, and so on.
3. Eat more home cooked meals made with whole grains, beans and fresh vegetables. If you don’t know how to cook these foods then learn how.
That’s it. It couldn’t be any simpler.
Do you like what you read here? Would you like to read more? Help me by clicking this link: DONATE Thanks!
Thank You Phiya, what a clear and important lecture.
Thanks for info we need all the facts we can get to keep healthy spritiual and physically. thanks