Mark Bittman Quotes

Even today with the public's growing interest in food and diet issues, politicians rarely include food as part of their political platforms.

People need help to change the way they eat... this is what government is for in my opinion.... We should make food an issue for everyone who runs for office.

Why are kids being inundated with food that is not good for them, when we're suffering from an obesity crisis? Is the U.S. government talking out of both sides of its mouth, promoting bad food while telling us not to eat it?

Since acquiring major interests in Dole Food Company 28 years ago, educating the public on proper diet has constituted the agenda of the Dole Nutrition Institute.

One thing that makes me very happy is to see the growing activism among chefs in America. Chefs like Tom Colicchio, Bill Telepan, and Rachel Ray and food writers like Michael Pollan have gone to Congress, indeed sometimes even have testified before Congress, have lent this support to Mrs. Obama's effort to combat childhood obesity.

We're adults. We're the ones who should teach the kids what's good to eat. I don't think the government should ever regulate what we eat at home, but we're feeding them in school with tax dollars. Quite frankly, if my tax dollars are being spent to feed kids, I'd rather feed them better food.

Soon after the inauguration, the Obamas gave Big Food a case of heartburn when, in the spring of 2009, Michelle Obama planted an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn, a symbolic but nevertheless powerful act that thrilled the food movement.

Those of us who care about food and where it comes from will miss both Obama and Michelle. Even though Obama failed to do many things he indicated he would do around food, Michelle Obama has done a lot to shine a light on the link between diet and health, which is really important.

Federal policy tells us to fill 50 percent of our plates with fruits and vegetables. At the same time, federal farm subsidies focus on financing the production of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, sorghum, dairy and livestock.

I would love to encourage all my teammates to eat the best way they possibly can. High school athletes. Now, that's not the way our food system in America is set up. It's very different. They have a food pyramid, and I disagree with that. I disagree with a lot of things that people tell you to do.

I think that allowing the nation to become so ignorant about food has been such a backward step - and to be honest I don't think there should be a School Food Trust. It shouldn't be necessary.

I went to a nutritionist; my diet is pretty clean, but I wanted to get some more knowledge and understanding in some areas. My two favorite things, Clif Bars and lattes, she just destroyed in our first meeting. Coffee is fine, but soy is the most genetically modified food that we eat.

I am very lucky in that I can eat what I want and don't have to follow any special diet.

And let's be clear: It's not enough just to limit ads for foods that aren't healthy. It's also going to be critical to increase marketing for foods that are healthy.

You know as far as diet goes, for a while I was really obsessed with counting fat grams along with the rest of the world.

We do take seriously our responsibility, and growing ability, to educate people about healthy eating and giving them greater access to nourishing and affordable fresh food.

The more people get advised to eat vegetables, the less it seems they wish to eat them. And it is quite a natural response. So I've said that the main way that we get to like food is through being exposed to them, but there's a second condition. We have to be exposed to them without feeling any sense of coercion.

I'm trying to teach my daughter about healthy eating.

The USDA is tasked with managing and promoting agriculture - including the well-funded animal agriculture industry - so it's pulled into a tug-of-war every time the dietary guidelines are re-evaluated.

Government has a habit of blaming the private sector for its own failings while taking credit for advances we in fact owe to the private sector.

So you can say, 'Get Big Government out of here, and don't tell me what to eat,' but when kids are going to school, and they're being fed junk, we're pretty much telling them what to eat, and we're telling them junk is OK.

The Surgeon General tells us that we should eat less fat and more fiber. Did you ever take a good look at him? He didn’t get that spare tire around his waist by eating trail mix.

Unhealthy food has gotten a whole lot cheaper and healthy food has gotten a whole lot more expensive… We have to make healthy food cheaper and unhealthy food more expensive, but we are not ready to go there yet.

For in the case of nutrition and health, just as in the case of education, the gentleman in Whitehall really does know better what is good for people than the people know themselves.

What we do eat is at least as important as what we don't eat.