Mark Bittman has a good column with recipes in the NYT this week that raises a number of excellent points about healthy eating. While we mostly focus on access to cheap healthy food as the main barrier to healthy eating, there are a number of others challenges. Certainly not all, but most Americans do have access to healthy food, however, many may not feel they have the time or knowledge to cook it. Bittman points out that the average American spends 35 hours per week watching TV, which I would say is at least 2 to 4 times as much time, as is needed to shop for and cook a well-prepared meal, for every day of the week. So an important first step to healthier eating, is for people to re-prioritize their time and allocate more of it for cooking. But of course, its important for people to know how to cook and to cook food that taste good. In the article Bittman argues that acquiring the simple skills of chopping, stir-frying, and boiling are all that you need to get going. I agree--healthy delicious food is usually quire straight forward and easy to cook, as long as you learn these basic skills. Fortunately, Bittman also provides a number of recipes and variations to help people get started.
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