Many of you are familiar with food writer, Mark Bittman.  Perhaps you even have his well-known book, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. In Bittman’s own words “I’m not a vegetarian…but I am a less-meat-tarian.  Those who are vegetarian, you get a free pass.”  He discusses the correlation between what we eat, health and in particular the effects on the environment.  Certainly this is familiar territory among the veg(etari)an community.  The focus is on getting the mainstream society i.e. meat eaters to well eat less meat.

So what is Bittman’s philosophy regarding diet?  A self-proclaimed “incrementalist”, he’s vegan until 6pm;  after 6 anything goes.  An “incrementalist” is one who believes in gradual change. It’s moderate and therefore more effective.  There is a 90/10 paradigm in the food world that is 90% meat and carbs and 10% vegetables.  The goal is to reduce this to 80% meat and carbs and 20% vegetables with a 10% decrease in meat consumption.

Why is all of this on a veg(etari)an blog?  Because explaining why a veg(etari)an lifestyle (or a move towards one. For more on this….  see this interview:

Here are some vegetarian recipes from Mark Bittman.  You can also find additional recipes on his site.