Knowing a lot about food, especially the harmful aspects of the food chain, can be a burden. It's important to understand these things but it also means that making decisions about what to eat and where to source ingredients can feel like a chore. What does the word "good" mean in relation to food? For some people, a corn-fed prime rib might be the epitome of good. For others, meat from an animal raised with regenerative land practices is good. Food writer and climate activist Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma tackles this exact issue in her book Good Food, Healthy Planet.
Evan Kleiman: I found this book so interesting because of the accessible and thorough way that you work through these issues, and how we should react to that without becoming paralyzed. Even after doing this for so many years, when I'm in the store, sometimes I will be like, "I have to make one of these decisions. What do I do?" So what does "good" mean to you in the context of food? Are we talking about "good" in terms of nutrition? Are we honing in on the taste? Or is it something else? It's such an easy word to say but thinking about what it means in terms of food is so much more complicated.
You're absolutely right, Evan. The word "good" has been something that has kept me up at night. Do I buy organic? Do I buy avocados today? Are almonds good for us? The list can get really long and the litany is confusing, overwhelming. That's the approach I was taking, as I was writing this — to simplify the science because there is all of this evidence and science.
There is the climate science that is telling us that food affects climate, our choices in the kitchen affect the climate, and the climate is affecting how our food is grown and raised around the world. So it's interconnected. Then, there is the medical research, how food and mood, how what we eat is intimately connected to our gut health. As a result, it impacts our mental health and the way our brain thinks and remembers and functions.
If we take all of that and expand it to what's good for us and then extend that same courtesy to the planet — what's good for us and is good for the planet, too — the decision-making can get remarkably easier.
As a person who grew up within the Indian food culture, do you find that a lot of your comfort foods align with this new "good"?
That's a hard one because I grew up with lentils and yogurts. "Eat your bowl of dal." That was something I had to do. I had to finish that bowl of dal with every meal. (Dal is a bowl of soupy lentils.) I didn't know the reason I was having the lentils at that time was because it was good for us. I just knew I had to. I had to have that bowl of lentils.
As I got older and started researching the connection of climate change with our choices in the kitchen, I noticed that lentils were actually one of these nutritional powerhouses. They are great for the soil, they regenerate the soil, they don't use as much water as a lot of the other staple crops, they're easier to harvest, and they're cheap. You can stick them in the pantry. A bag of lentils, as so many of us have found during those long months of COVID lockdown, can hide out in the pantry and you can cook from it a year later. So lentils, yogurt, these are foods that I've grown up eating that remind me of India. My favorite is khichdi, which is literally yellow lentils cooked along with basmati rice with a tempering of hot ghee.
As I discovered, science tells us that a combination of lentils and whole grain is actually one of the best things we can eat with a side of yogurt. The probiotic richness that fermented foods bring us is the best combination for our bellies.
Chhitwal-Varma outlines five strategies that people can use to help them to make decisions about food. Illustration by Jazmin Welch.
In the book, you have a framework that you call Eating With Benefits. You outline five strategies that people can use to help them to make decisions about food. I like it because it shows that our food decisions don’t have to be perfect every time. We eat a lot throughout the day, and if we felt like we had to make the perfect decision every time we put food in our mouths, we might go insane.
It's too overwhelming, right? I would go with, let's make progress, not perfection. I'm paraphrasing someone else way smarter than me who said this way better. Cooking at home, for example, is the better choice versus takeout for a number of reasons, including packaging and transparency of what goes into your food. At the same time, takeout from a small business owner is better than takeout from a fast food joint. So progress, not perfection. It works with the choices we make whether we eat meat or fish versus whole grains or lentils. Progress, not perfect.
We all tend to fall into a rut of repetition when we cook at home. We have five, maybe 10 dishes in rotation. How do we go about diversifying our diets? And why is it important?
The diversity of diet is really important for two reasons. Medical research tells us that eating diverse ingredients, a diverse plate, is actually great for our gut health. We know anything that's great for our gut health is good for our brain health, too. The other thing is climate research, and scientists have been saying this for ages, that we are losing biodiversity at a rate that is incredibly scary. To shift that biodiversity loss away towards a long-term, healthy, prosperous planet, we need to eat more foods.
It may sound as if I'm oversimplifying it but what happens with something as simple as choosing arugula versus lettuce, it sends a message. It starts a ripple in the economy that sends an eventual message to the farmer to say, "Grow more arugula versus lettuce." Right now, 80% of our salad greens are lettuce.
Baingan Bharta Caponata
Serves 4
Total Time: 40 minutes
Baingan bharta is Hindi for “eggplant mash,” a dish that is a party of flavours with roasted eggplant, onions, tomatoes, and various spices. Caponata is a tangy and sweet eggplant dish with Sicilian roots. Together, my Baingan Bharta Caponata is a medley of memories that brings my Indian roots and love for Italian food together in one dish. It is a spicy and sour dish that truly shows off the unassuming eggplant as the star of the dinner table.
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 cups diced (1 inch) skin-on eggplant
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 cup finely chopped tomatoes
- ½ red onion, diced
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 Tbsp lime juice (approx. ½ lime)
- Big pinch of sugar
- Salt to taste
- Handful of chopped basil leaves
Instructions
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Place a skillet on the stove and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the olive oil and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Next, add the eggplant, coriander, and cumin and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the eggplant starts to become tender and somewhat mellow, about 10 minutes.
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Add the tomatoes, onions, cayenne pepper, and turmeric and cook for another 10 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and sugar, turn the heat to medium-low, and cook until the eggplant skin has softened and the mixture is aromatic, another 15 minutes. Add salt to taste. Garnish with the basil leaves.
- Serve in the centre of the table with a sliced baguette for scooping.
You say that we should choose fewer potatoes, no wheat, and less rice, when possible. Why?
This makes me really unpopular. All three of these things are popular in my home. Potatoes, white rice, they are staples, and I find it's so easy to lean towards what one is familiar with. But if we go back to one of the staples, one of the strategies in Eating With Benefits, it is to try something new. It doesn't need to be something brand new. It could be something that is new versus last week or versus yesterday.
When I did an audit of what the community members on my block were eating, it was potatoes and rice. We love them. So how about instead of potatoes, to get that same kind of mouthfeel, we switch to sweet potatoes, switch to sunchokes. White rice — nothing against it, love it, grew up on it, it makes a great palau, add it with lentils. Try another whole grain like millet or amaranth or even wheat berries. A new whole grain is great for our bellies, great for our brain, and great for the planet.
Now let's focus on a couple of recipes. Eggplant, I love it. You have a dish that combines your love of Italy with your Indian roots. Tell us about it.
It's Baingan Bharta Caponata. For people who speak Hindi and for people who speak Italian, it might sing because it is literally an eggplant mash that has been diced and slow-cooked with olive oil, garlic, and paprika on low to medium heat with coriander powder and tomatoes. My mouth is watering at this moment because I want to make that tonight for dinner. I have a couple of eggplants that are sitting on the counter. It brings my love of Italy and India together because that first bite of the eggplant is just so mellow and wonderful. Try it.
“The word ‘good’ has been something that has kept me up at night,” says food writer and climate activist Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma. Photo by Diana-Muresan.
That photograph is so seductive. There's a food that I've never had before and I have no idea how to pronounce the name so forgive me if I butcher it, but what are makhane?
I'm so glad you pulled out makhane from the book. That's the plural form. Makhana is singular and makhane is plural. These are roasted and popped lotus seeds. It's an indigenous crop in India. It's hand-harvested from the stems of the lily crop. It grows without human intervention. It covers puddles, lakes, and rivers in northeastern India. It's just an incredible, light, airy flavor.
You roast them simply. You can add any number of spices to it. My kids' favorite is paprika and salt. They stay on the counter. It's a great snack. It's delicious. And it's one of those forgotten foods in India that I am hoping like hell comes back because it is good for us, great for the villages and the communities where they grow. Let's take makhane mainstream.
“Good Food Healthy Planet” makes a case for a diverse diet which has health benefits and is good for the climate. Photo courtesy of Touchwood Editions.