Eat Real Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.

Those are Michael Pollan’s food rules. Last night Chris and I went to Hudson Valley Community College to see the food author  speak!

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Chris was actually the one who gave me Omnivore’s Dilemma to read two years ago since he knew I was interested in the food movement!

Seeing him speak was really cool since I was a fan of the book and it was part of the reason I gave up meat 2 years ago. If you haven’t read it, the book is basically about how we need to get away from the American Diet of eating too much processed food and how we should really be eating whole plant-based foods and eating meat sparingly.

I feel like I’m pretty knowledgeable when it comes to eating healthy. But I know I don’t eat as healthy as I should 100% of the time. I know what I should be eating but its hard to not give into temptations. But I think I do a decent job compared to some people who just don’t know. But the real problem is teaching the people who don’t know how to eat right how to eat. Michael Pollan was pretty much preaching to the choir—the audience there to see him probably already knows how to eat. There wasn’t an obese person in the room. But not everyone can afford $5 cartons of humanely raised eggs. Most people will choose the cheaper, factory farmed eggs. And there’s not much we can do about it.  There isn’t going to be much change in how the majority of society eats until prices of real food go down and becomes “the norm” or factory farmed eggs go away completely.

Anyway, after the talk there was a small reception with an emphasis on local, healthy food, including local apple cider and apple crisp made with local apples.

Salads from the Capital District Community Gardens.

And delicious squash and goat cheese pizzas from All Good Bakers!

I also snagged a cup of local squash chili from Ric Orlando’s New World Bistro which was amazing, although I didn’t snap a picture of it. Shame on me! Ric is so great at incorporating fresh local ingredients into his food at his restaurant, which makes it one of my favorite places to eat.

Stay tuned for a special guest post tomorrow. Chris is going to give you his view on the food movement, since he is way more articulate than me!