Summary of Mark Bittman's Animal, Vegetable, Junk

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Our brains’ ability to learn and change has made it easier for us to obtain food. We have always had omnivorous diets, eating whatever we could forage or catch.

#2 Our ancestors were hardwired to eat what they could, when they could. They had little ability to preserve the bounty of a big kill, so they stuffed themselves on the spot and took what they could carry. This is why overeating is so difficult to stop once it has begun.

#3 Cooking made available countless new foods that could not be eaten raw, and with them, more nutrients. It also reduced the time humans spent foraging, and allowed them to survive on almost any combination of meat, fish, vegetables, and grains.

#4 While the old belief was that men hunted while women gathered, research now shows that this was not the case. Women had more varied roles than just gathering, and it is likely that every able-bodied person took part in gathering.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822510968

IRB Media

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Insights on Mark Bittman's Animal, Vegetable, Junk

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Our brains’ ability to learn and change has made it easier for us to obtain food. We have always had omnivorous diets, eating whatever we could forage or catch.

#2

Our ancestors were hardwired to eat what they could, when they could. They had little ability to preserve the bounty of a big kill, so they stuffed themselves on the spot and took what they could carry. This is why overeating is so difficult to stop once it has begun.

#3

Cooking made available countless new foods that could not be eaten raw, and with them, more nutrients. It also reduced the time humans spent foraging, and allowed them to survive on almost any combination of meat, fish, vegetables, and grains.

#4

While the old belief was that men hunted while women gathered, research now shows that this was not the case. Women had more varied roles than just gathering, and it is likely that every able-bodied person took part in gathering.

#5

Hunter-gatherers were extremely flexible in their diets, and they thrived on it. They ate what their surroundings provided them, and they moved around a lot, in search of food, which they usually found.

#6

The first area to practice organized planting and adhere to its rules was the Fertile Crescent, which stretched from the Nile River in the west to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the east. The area is sometimes called the Eastern Mediterranean, Southwest Asia, or the Middle East.

#7

The first agriculture was nomadic herding, in which groups roamed with herds of their animals in search of pasture and variety of diet. Shifting horticulture, where forests and grassland were cleared by fire and then planted, was the easiest way to create new farmland.

#8

The process of farming and developing civilizations was a two-way street. It allowed societies to grow and develop, but it also changed the way we lived by creating a dependence on grains.

#9

The Agricultural Revolution was a change that occurred around 5,000 years ago, and it led to the largest human population ever. It was also a change that bred injustice, poverty, disease, slavery, and war.

#10