The Importance of Regenerative Farming

“Across the board, dietary advice typically focuses on what and how much to eat, with remarkably little attention paid to how farming practices influence the nutritional quality of food and whether the “right foods” pack the nutrients they once had.”

Welcome back to another episode of Made You Think! In this episode, we're discussing What Your Food Ate by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé. Exploring the concept of "food chain reactions," the book unveils the hidden connections between our food choices and their environmental, social, and health impacts. Do you really know what you're eating?

We cover a wide range of topics including:

• The revival of physical bookstores fueled by social media
• How the health of our soil essentially corresponds to our health
• Why nutritional diversity is so important
• The relationship between our diets and overall well-being
• What are our food cravings telling us?

And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat, Neil, and Adil on Twitter and share your thoughts on the episode.

Links from the Episode:

Mentioned in the Show:

• Great Book Series (1:04) 
• Barnes and Noble open 30 new stores (2:55)
• Reality Has a Surprising Amount of Detail (19:17)
• Mother Tongue Cooking Club (33:04)
• Force of Nature (57:55)
• Pluck (58:19)
• TrueMed (59:57)
• Rooted (1:09:26)
• Dutch Meadows Farm

Books Mentioned:

• What Your Food Ate
• The Three-Body Problem (5:00) (Nat's Book Notes)
• Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (14:59)

People Mentioned:

• Anthony Gustin (15:40)
• Wendell Berry (15:48)
• Ben Greenfield (26:57)
• Justin Mares (28:21)
• Miles Snyder (33:01)
• Calley Means (1:01:34)
• Gabe Brown (1:04:24)

Show Topics:

(1:35) The revival of Barnes and Noble along with the influence that 'Booktok' has had on physical book stores.

(5:11) How different content performs on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. Each platform serves a different purpose whether it's for entertainment or educational. 

(12:16) Today, we’re discussing What Your Food Ate by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé! Our food is a lot less nutritionally dense than we realize because of way that the food we eat is grown.

(14:55) The co-authors' first book talks about the importance of caring for the soil, as that's the base for everything we grow. The same food can have such different nutritional values depending on how it was grown or raised.

(20:08) Why nutritional diversity is important and how eating as nutrient dense foods as possible is really important too. When it comes to food, it's best to aim for quality over quantity. 

(26:13) When we take a look at the foods we're eating, it makes sense that we may need supplements to give us our essential nutrients that may be otherwise lacking in our diet. 

(28:01) What does Europe do differently than the US in terms of growing their food? We also talk about glyphosate levels in the things that we eat.

(33:35) We give a brief overview of how the government has subsidized farmers in the US, which plays a role in our food supply and what we eat. 

(38:44) Do our food cravings hint to us what we are deficient in? There have been studies done in infants where they chose foods that were beneficial to them when they were sick. 

(40:33) It's shown that diet makes a difference in your overall health. Examples: The British WW2 diet and how a study in Japan showed that diet made a difference in mortality rate for those with lung cancer. 

(44:45) How we source our food plays a role in our overall health. The nutritional density of the same food can vary just based on how it was raised.

(50:39) We share some of our current eating habits from kimchi to sauerkraut, and what we will be having less of.

(53:20) So, what solutions do we have and are we trending in the right direction when it comes to the food industry?

(59:29) Regenerative farming - can this be seen on a larger scale? Neil talks about the mission of TrueMed.

(1:06:28) Nutrients in animals have changed over time due to their diet and breeding, and it has an effect on the nutrients we receive from them, too.

(1:10:53) That concludes this episode! Catch us next time where we will be discussing The River of Doubt. As episode 100 approaches us, we're excited to hear your suggestions on what we should do for that episode!

If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by leaving a review on iTunes and tell a friend. As always, let us know if you have any book recommendations! You can say hi to us on Twitter @TheRealNeilS, @adilmajid, @nateliason and share your thoughts on this episode.

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Thanks for listening. See you next time!