In my last post, I ended my rantings by wishing that Sunnyside would become a “real” neighborhood. Apparently people in high places and by that I mean NY Magazine already feel that it is. As I waited on line at CVS, the title “The Most Livable Neighborhoods in New York” caught my attention and I flipped through the magazine wondering if any neighborhood in Queens made the cut. To my surprise and delight, right under Park Slope and the Lower East Side were the letters s-u-n-n-y-s-i-d-e. Yep, Sunnyside is now “officially” one of the top 3 neighborhoods in NYC which makes me feel about 3% cooler.
Now on to food. I was strolling the aisles of the library yesterday waiting for a title to grab me when I noticed the name Mark Bittman on the spine of one of the books. I recalled his name from the NY Times food blog “Bitten” which I thought was clever considering his last name, get it? The title of the book is “Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating” and hoping to expand upon my meager collection of scary food books I decided to rent it out.
Once home, I cracked it open and began to read. First of all, I like Bitten’s writing style better than Pollan’s but then again I wanted to hate Pollan from the second I heard of him for some reason. Perhaps because he’s so popular? Or, is it because he’s bald? I’m really not quite sure but anywho Bittman skips the animal farm portion which everyone knows the horrors of and focuses on the amount of energy used in animal production. He makes the case that overconsumption has led to a ton of stress on the environment and our bodies. Bittman also addressed my big fear of not getting enough protein if I were to not eat animal products. I’m not sure who drilled the notion of protein deficiency into the American psyche but it has definitely been a concern of mine.
After reading this entertaining book through, I have decided to challenge myself by going “vegan” for two out of three of my daily meals and not buying/eating anything that is sugary or processed when I’m out. I would completely cut out the sugar but I’m realistic and know that everytime I’ve tried this I have miserably failed. And besides, when I’m home the options for sugary/animal products are limited to the box of biscotti, six eggs and three yogurt cups that I bought yesterday. Monday through Thursday should be OK though when I buy my daily iced coffee (soy milk, no sugar) I will seriously miss the accompanying sweets. I’m more worried about Friday and Saturday when I’ll be in Chicago for a conference. Yes, I, a mere mortal will have to face that table where all types of cookies are laid out staring me in the face and inviting me to take just one bite…
