Talk of the Town tonight! For real this time.

Tune in to hear my conversation with Dawn Jackson Blatner, author of THE FLEXITARIAN DIET, tonight on "Talk of the Town with Parker Sunshine." But if you sneak over to ParkerSunshine.com/bookworm and check the sidebar, you can download it THIS. INSTANT.

My review of the book will go up later today on the site, should you prefer a text-based analysis (or not have headphones within reach).

7PM EDT (4PM PDT, 2PM Anna Time because Hawaii has no Daylight Savings Time)
WEBR for D.C./Virginia/ Maryland locals (available through your TV)
Everyone else: Tune in here!

ToTT: I Was A Child Flexitarian

This post ties in with my forthcoming review of Dawn Jackson Blatner's THE FLEXITARIAN DIET -- tune in November 12 to "Talk of the Town with Parker Sunshine."

Last week I mentioned the word flexitarian, which as far as I can find surfaced sometime in the early oughts to describe an eating pattern that is partially, but not completely, vegetarian. But the concept was not new to me -- in fact, even though I didn't know it, I've been a flexitarian most of my life.

As I mentioned in my review of the diet book SKINNY BITCH, my mom is a vegetarian, and as the primary (really only) cook in the house she incorporated a lot of veggie-friendly dishes into our diets. Mom gave up meat in college and, over the protests of my grandmother, stayed that way through 3 healthy pregnancies and never looked back. She never tried to get us to become vegetarians, and she still made hot dogs and chicken nuggets and so on, but we probably ate veggie more than half the time -- I wasn't exposed to the classic meat-and-potatoes meals except at my grandparents' house.

These days my siblings and I are all content omnivores: I gave up meat for a summer and swore off most red meat for 8 years, but right now I would consider myself a flexitarian of circumstance: I don't make meat very much because it isn't convenient. It takes longer to make than a PB&J and, if you forget about it in the fridge (as I am wont to do), it spoils faster. But I don't think I was adversely affected by eating less meat as a kid; I didn't always like my mom's cooking, but we were all well fed.

Previously:
Announcing the next Talk of the Town pick

Talk of the Town Tuesday: Announcing the next Talk of the Town Pick

My next "Talk of the Town" review will air Wednesday, November 5th. You will note that this is the day after the election. Yes, Virginia, there is life after 24-hour CNN vigils. (I think.)

Anyway, we'll probably all have become heartily sick of politics by then, so we're going to tackle our first health title, Dawn Jackson Blatner's THE FLEXITARIAN DIET. A former notable word of the year according to the New York Times, "flexitarian" is defined by Blatner as "a flexible approach to dieting without giving up meat" by adding more vegetables for your diet.

Proponents of flexitarianism tout the health benefits as well as savings (buying less meat!) and the addition of more delicious options to one's repetoire. Is "loose adherence to the meat-free diet" a better option than either going full veggie or staying omnivorous? And can an on-the-go, cooking-impaired person (i.e. me) go "flexitarian"? Find out Nov. 5.