MARK BITTMAN is one of the country's best-known and most widely respected food writers. His How to Cook Everything books, with well over one million copies in print, are mainstays of the modern kitchen. His most recent book, VB6, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Bittman writes on food policy and cooking for the New York Times Magazine and the newspaper's Opinion and Dining sections, where his "Flexitarian" column appears regularly. He's hosted four food and cooking shows, and he is currently a correspondent in Years of Living Dangerously, a groundbreaking documentary event series exploring the human impact of climate change.
Q: Tell us about the VB6 philosophy, in a nutshell. How has it changed your life? Has it changed the way you think about food?
A: It's simple: VB6 is just a set of rules for changing the proportions of foods in my (or your) diet, to emphasize plants and de-emphasize everything else. I eat only minimally processed plants from dawn until dusk, and then whatever I want at night – within reason, of course. (Of course, I "cheat," too; that's part of the plan.) The results have been amazing, and I still get to eat anything I want for part of every day.
