Animal, Vegetable, Junk Review

**Thank you NetGalley and Houghton Miffin Harcourt for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book is published Feb 2nd

I have read a few, of Bittman’s other books and I enjoyed them, sadly, this one fell a little short for me. I appreciated some of the history in the first few chapters. I’m talking about century old history that I was not aware of. I also appreciated the last two chapters where he shared what is being done now to help heal our environment and what we can do to continue down the path of change.

The middle section of the book felt a little dry and biased. It struggled to keep my attention though a large chunk of it. It felt very textbookish for me and I could only read it in small chunks. I also could have done without shaming pregnant mothers and families who choose to formula over breastfeeding. Essentially, it alluded to kids being picky eaters because of how the babies mother ate when pregnant and/or because of being given formula and pureed foods. I cringed when they talked about the “stoplight method” in regards to foods. Nothing makes a kid or person want food more than when you are told you can’t have it.

We do have issues with our food system. There is much that needs to change and this book does present some good ideas for that. So I guess my recommendation is read the first and last few chapters and call it a day.