books on FOOD

	Books I've read on the subjects of food, nutrition, and the food industry. (See also the complete list of Books I've read since January 2000.) The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite - David A. Kessler, M.D. - Kessler is a physician and former FDA commissioner who has had his own struggles with overeating. This book attempts to explain why we overeat, how meals (and appetites) have changed in the last several decades, and offers some suggestions to help overcome "conditioned hypereating." It sounds great in theory, but I had some issues with the book's structure. More than half the 250 pages discuss how the food industry tricks us into eating more by adding large amounts of sugar, fat, and salt to prepared food. He discusses in detail practices used by restaurants like Chili's. The trouble is I never eat at restaurants like Chili's (or Applebee's or what have you), and I typically avoid the types of prepared foods he talks about. Furthermore, the first half of the book seems disconnected from the second half; some of the concepts crossover, but other than that they are two separate books. He should have summed up the concepts in a chapter or two and then gone on to the psychology of overeating, which is where the real problems lie. Finally, many of the chapters in this book are just a page or two long. That seems odd, and combined with the above about the first half of the book, it makes it seem like they were just trying to make the book long enough to look substantial. Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating, And Drinking Wine in California - Jonah Raskin - And interesting account about a Sonoma County foodie and his experiences with such, including visiting and working on different local farms and ranches. You get a real appreciation for the wealth of food grown within a couple hours drive of San Francisco, and in turn learn something about the people providing such delicacies. Recommended. Righteous Porkchop - Nicolette Hahn Niman - Righteous Porkchop is very similar to The Face on Your Plate, which I just finished reading, but it is also an entirely different book. The similarity lies in that R.P. really does tell you the truth about food; you learn about the major types of animal foods--milk, eggs, beef, pork, chicken, and fish--as well as specifics about how the animals are housed, fed, drugged, and treated. It goes in-depth on subjects such as how "old-fashioned" traditional farms actually improve the soil in their environment, and how "modern" industrialized factory farms pollute and destroy not only the land in their immediate vicinity, but also water sources many miles away. The difference between these two books lies in how they are presented. Righteous Porkchop is extremely well-researched and written. Some eight years in the making, the author has done her homework. She has a similar mindset to the author of The Face on Your Plate (she does not eat meat nor tolerate animal suffering), but unlike him she never demands the general population stop consuming animal products, and in fact, counts combatative militant vegans as a liability against the crusade for animal welfare. At 278 pages (plus an additional 32 pages of references and notes) R.P. packs a tremendous amount of information into a small size, including a chapter about "Answering Obstacles to Reform" which both addresses and dismisses the fallacies that "industrialized farming is necessary to feed the world," and "there is not enough land to support the amount of traditional farming needed to replace factory farming" (both statements are used by the factory farming industry as a way to drum up support for their industry). This book is highly recommended for everyone--omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans-- and especially for people who don't care much about where there food comes from. There's a lot to be learned. The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson - Well, I suppose this book does live up to its title as it gives you the truth about what animals go through in order to be the food on your plate, but it doesn't do it well. The author is a militant vegan and his writing is biased thusly. Don't get me wrong - I'm a vegetarian who tries to be as ethical as possible about my animal-based food choices, but after reading this I get the feeling that he won't let up until everyone else is vegan as well, which just isn't going to happen. He anthropomorphizes animals to the point of ascribing feelings to them, such as claiming a pig, whose tail has been cut off, will continue to feel phantom tail pain. How does he know? The pig didn't tell him, and there were no references proving such. His "data" is poor, in one chapter saying mice and humans share 97.5% of their DNA, and in another stating it is 90%. Masson also claims, "Vegans don't have to worry about high cholesterol," which is incorrect. Oh, and his writing is crap as well, with awkward paragraph structures that can, at times, be confusing. To be honest, I only read about half the book and just paged through the rest. Even though I agreed with the sentiment I couldn't take it anymore. Save your time and money for one of the better-written, less biased, more accurate books out there. Golden Gate Gardening - Pam Peirce - An excellent book for coastal Californian vegetable gardeners, especially those in San Francisco. This book contains everything from when to plant what, to what sorts of plants should be started from seed versus purchased as seedlings, and what veggies grown best in which neighborhoods. Now I just need to make those raised planter boxes and then start growing! HIghly recommended. Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine - Marion Nestle - Nestle is a respected professor of Nutrition and has written several books on human nutrition and the food industry (a couple of which, in particular, I'd love to read). Here she takes on the daunting task of unravelling what happened with the pet food disaster of 2007, where thousands of cats and dogs died because of kidney failure caused by the illegal addition of melamine into the pet food supply. There are a lot of problems with pet food. While this book only looks at facts directly connected with the melamine tragedy, it brings up many more questions, including issues with the source of protein in pet foods, problems with the safety of foods imported from China (reiterated in the recent problem of melamine-tainted infant formula imported from that country), and the fact that in the U.S. the pet food and human food industry are very closely tied together. The melamine tragedy really was a case of the "Chihuahua in the coal mine," and should be a wake-up call to everyone, not only pet owners. Now I wish someone would write a book informing the general public of what goes on in the pet food industry in general, because that is something I really want to know. Highly recommended. Twinkie, Deconstructed - Steve Ettlinger - If you've ever wondered why "processed food" is called that, then this is the book for you. The author looks at each one of the ~30 ingredients that make up Twinkies, and traces them back to their origins. You learn about the scale on which commercial food companies operate, and the hurdles individual ingredients go through before they even make it to the bakery. Two-thirds of the ingredients found in Twinkies aren't even found outside of commercial kitchens. While this book may not be an exhaustive list of all processed food ingredients, but it's certainly enough to make you want to do all your own cooking. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - Michael Pollan - This is Pollan's follow-up to The Omnivore's Dilemma which showed us some of the harsh realities present in the world of food. For years I have studied nutrition. I've spoken with Registered Dieticians, taken science and nutrition classes, and read book after book after book. And I have to say, In Defense of Food does an excellent job of summing up everything I have learned in just seven words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." The two hundred pages inside simply explain what he means. That being said, I have to state that I'm not a total Pollan devotee, and everything he writes is not perfect. For example, this book is divided into three sections. He spends the first section discussing what is wrong with the state of "nutritionism" today - how so many present-day food "facts" (like how many servings of a certain food we "should" eat on a daily basis) are based on studies biased by the organizations which funded them, and how so many nutrition studies are contradicted by other studies. Those are valid points. However, reading that chapter leaves me a little gunshy about believing any other nutrition studies. So when Pollan cites other studies in later chapters, I can't help but wonder if I can trust them. If you're going to read just one section of this book it should be the third. This final section tells you, in plain and simple terms, what you should eat to stay healthy, avoid diet-related illnesses such as diabetes, and circumvent the psychological distress that comes from modern-day Western culture ("eat more food", "diet", "eat", "you're too fat", etc). Highly recommended. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - Michael Pollan - This book is very similar in scope to The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, which I read a couple of months ago, and complements it perfectly. The author traces different meals and farming techniques and, as thoroughly as possible, describes the different methods and outcomes. One large section of the book is devoted to describing a fully-sustainable farm, and how so many of those old-fashioned, yet perfectly environmentally-friendly, farming practices have been lost due to the adoption of "modern" factory-farming techniques. Reading this book you learn things like just how much corn is grown versus how little we actually eat, and rather than growing less corn, food scientists are continually trying to invent unnatural uses for corn (corn sweeteners, animal feeds, food additives, etc). This book is a wake-up call to how messed up food production is in the U.S. Highly recommended. The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter - Peter Singer &Jim Mason - I find this book to be a thorough, yet unbiased look at exactly what sorts of farming and ranching practices go into bringing a selection of foods to the table. The authors look at the food choices of three families - one eating a typical American diet, one set of "conscientious omnivores", and one vegan - and track their foods to the source. The book has a good "conclusions" section, and offers suggestions as to how you can best support your own personal ethics through your buying and eating habits. Even after years of reading about and studying nutrition and food sources, I learned quite a few new things. Highly recommended. Modern Meat - Orville Schell - A shocking look into what goes into our commercial food animals, and how that compares to naturally-raised meats. Highly recommended for anyone who cares about what they eat. Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser - A history of American fast food restaurants and culture. An accurate depiction, if somewhat biased. Highly recommended. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair - Turn of the (last) century novel of life in the meat packing industry, based on factual information that eventually caused new laws to be put into effect. Recommended for those interested in the subject.

Books I've read on the subjects of food, nutrition, and the food industry.