Cool Food: Erasing Your Carbon Footprint One Bite at a Time by Robert Downey, Jr. and Thomas Kostigen is packed with information about the ways in which our food choices impact our carbon footprint. The first couple of chapters were a little boring to me, but once the book got going, I learned a great deal of new information I was surprised to learn that some of my favorite foods are planet-friendly. This book includes lots of practical and easy ways to help ease the climate crisis through the foods we choose to put on our plates

The audiobook is narrated by the authors along with Deepti Gupta. The narration was good, but Downey's interjections of food facts were a little annoying.

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for a review copy of the audiobook format of this book.

📚 2024 #37: “Cool Food” by Robert Downey Jr & Thomas Kostigen

📕 This book is all about the foods we eat, how they impact the planet, and the choices we can make to minimize our carbon footprints. You'll learn how to read produce SKU codes, what fruits and veggies are in season when, whether it's actually better to eat local, and a lot more. The authors have an optimistic approach to positively affecting our planet through choices we make everyday, especially when they add up to signals that affect the choices made my restaurants, grocery stores, big businesses, and farmers.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5: I'm a bit torn on the easy-going tone of this book. Sustainability and food choices are super important to me (and I think to the authors too), but it seems they're trying to appeal to the masses with low commitment suggestions. Getting someone to add a scoop of beans or lentils to their hamburger mixture is much easier than asking them to cut out meat altogether. I'm firmly of the belief it's better to have everyone make small changes than a few people make drastic changes, so a lot of the advice in this book is helpful for that. There are also a bunch of other cool facts about food that have nothing to do with cutting out meat, such as the real weight of food transport in emissions, buying fresh vs frozen vs canned, and carbon footprint labels on foods. A couple fun facts: Dates, apples, seaweed, and ancient grains are some of the most carbon-friendly foods! Farming and production are often 50-80% of emissions for food items, while packaging and transport can be as low as 5%. People tend to focus on the latter, but eating a locally-grown steak will never be as sustainable as importing exotic produce from across the planet.

🤓 You should read this if you're interested in sustainability, especially as it pertains to food (no need to be a vegan/vegetarian to get something out of this -- RDJ is pescatarian!). If you liked "Ultra-Processed People" by Chris van Tulleken, you'll probably like this.

🥰 Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Cool Food was the perfect audiobook selection for Earth Day, informative as well as entertaining. While I can't say I am totally on board with the cool food movement as explained in the book, I did learn some tips for becoming more aware of the ecological impact of my food choices, and will implement several new practices as a direct result of listening to this book. The authors describe several types of 'cool food' or food that has a relatively low carbon footprint, and what factors should be considered when choosing foods to reduce the CO2 impact of what we eat. Their choices lean toward vegetarian/vegan eating, and there are not many recipes described in the audiobook (perhaps there are more in the extra printables?)

The audiobook is read primarily by Robert Downey Jr.'s co-authors with Downey interjecting 'fast facts' periodically. The production was well done, although I did not find the fast-paced interjections to be as cute as intended.

I think that if I were more in tune with the philosophy behind the book, I would get a print copy as a reference after listening, as the lists and such are sometimes lengthy and would be difficult to remember.

Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Audio for the audio review copy of Cool Food: Erasing Your Carbon Footprint One Bite at a Time by Robert Downey Jr. & Thomas Kostigen, narrated by the authors and Deepti Gupta. The opinions in this review re my own.