Reviews on Eating Made Simple by Marion Nestle
Marion Nestle is a nutritionist and professor. What to Eat is a nicely segmented book of diet advice. A lot of the heady political issues are ones I've read earlier in Fast Food Nation, The Omnivore'south Dilemma and others. Nestle has simple overall advice: "eat less, movement more than, consume lots of fruits and vegetables, go like shooting fish in a barrel on junk foods."
Some other peachy $.25 I picked up from the book:
-avoid farm-raised fish.
-vii eggs a week is pretty much the max
-frozen vegetables are good
-homogenizing milk is a weird process
-Driscoll's pretty much owns the berry marketplace.
-people marketed milk as a weight-loss food.
-margarine's cheap, but pretty much awful
-soy is in everything, just information technology'south so bitter that Americans find it unpalatable. Almost most all oil made of vegetable oil is made of soy.
-organic meat is really hard to find.
-salmonella in eggs only really became an issue in 1980.
-nutrition labels don't have a daily requirement for poly peptide (THIS MAKES NO SENSE!)
-12 ounces of juice is actually all you lot should have in a day.
-the government considers "juice concentrate a sugar.
-I wish our nutrient labels showed glycemic indexes.
-common cold cereal is pretty worthless. I love it anyhow.
-don't believe health claims and endorsements.
-olive and canola oils are probably the ones you lot should use.
-bottled water, especially Coke and Pepsi'southward brands, aren't whatever improve.
-Sweet & Low really shouldn't be on the marketplace.
-wait for breadstuff with the fewest number of ingredients.
-the size of your plate and closeness nutrient is to y'all physically will bear on how much you eat.
If a low-fatty, high carb and low-calorie diet makes you feel good and helps you maintain a healthy weight and you simply want to refine your authorities a tiny bit, so this might be the volume for you. Information technology tells you about some of the benefits of eating organic and choosing healthier meats although it does also give terrible communication about taking vitamins and supplements. If aiming for a low-fat, loftier carb and low-calorie diet makes yous experience awful, hungry and ill - as it does for many of us - and has impeded your attempts to maintain a healthy weight, this book has little to offer and at that place are so many better books out in that location for you. This book says low fat or no-fat dairy foods are the best type to get, that acceptable protein can easily be gotten from beans, fluoride is safe and adept for your teeth and should not be removed from drinking water, soy formulas for infants are completely condom, vegetarian diets are the healthiest, junk food is fine so long equally your portions are small and not too loftier calorie, to lose weight you lot only need to eat less and move more - all of which I would strongly disagree with based on data and research in lots of far better researched books. The department on supplements is unspeakably bad and it is very clear the author has done very little inquiry in this expanse. There is a grain of truth in what she says. I would very much agree that a Centrum multivitamin (or other low quality mutivitamin) is going to practice very petty expert to anyone, only and then would every nutritional medicine expert there is! The information given hither is beyond skewed and extremely selective, not to mention based on flawed studies which do not at all reverberate what nutritional experts are actually recommending. It is not at all the reasonable and educated overview of this topic that it claims to be. (For instance, negative studies using the synthetic form of vitamin Eastward in isolation are not relevant to the use of natural vitamin Eastward in all the 8 forms and as role of a complete nutritional program. No nutrient works well in isolation or at a dose far lower than what is typically used by nutritional medicine experts. These study flaws are very well documented, fifty-fifty in quite old books such every bit 'Alive Longer and Feel Better' by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling.) Dr Abram Hoffer explains that we demand about 45 different nutrients in optimal quantities. He besides explains that no food works alone, and that an enzyme reaction that needs three unlike nutrients to take identify, requires all three nutrients and so no one food should be considered more important than the other. Some nutrients tin can be obtained in reasonable amounts in nutrient, while others volition sometimes or always require the use of supplements to ensure optimal levels. It is not true equally some claim that the optimum levels of all nutrients tin be obtained through diet alone. Supplements are necessary, for the following reasons: * The soils used to grow our nutrient are oft very depleted. Supplements are necessary and eating well is as well important. As Dr Sherry Rogers writes, 'What you lot swallow has more power over disease than whatever medication your physician can prescribe. Food is awesomely powerful.' It is also of import to be aware that the more ill you lot are, and the more stress your body is under the college your nutritional needs will be. A person tin need many times more vitamin C when ill than they demand when they are well, and these higher doses but cannot be gotten from food. More than helpful information on intelligent supplementation is included in books such as Detoxify or Die, Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone: Megavitamin Therapeutics for Families and Physicians, Central Trunk, Cardinal Mind: Across the Paleo Diet for Total Wellness and a Longer Life amongst others. Other bizarre claims in this book include that no doctors disagree on the role of cholesterol causing heart disease or the need to avert saturated fats to cut down heart disease gamble. This is merely not true. See books such equally Ignore the Awkward.: How the Cholesterol Myths Are Kept Live and The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth Nigh What Actually Causes Eye Disease and How to Avoid It for case. Fifty-fifty more bizarre it is claimed that the idea that eggs are healthy is only propaganda by the egg manufacture! This book reinforces the following myths: Reading this book felt a bit like reading the 'health and dazzler' liftouts in the weekend papers. Each topic was dealt with so lightly. There was no real depth of discussion or research, or the necessary intelligent and impassioned challenging of the condition quo that would make putting a book out worthwhile. Far better books than this one which set out a diet that is all well-nigh health and disease prevention and treatment besides equally weight management, and are far better researched and well written include: Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Good for you Alternative to Trans Fats, Central Torso, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Nutrition for Total Health and a Longer Life, Deep Diet: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food, Perfect Health Diet: Iv Steps to Renewed Health, Youthful Vitality, and Long Life, The Cardinal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy and others. Many of us take got fat and ill eating exactly the way this book recommends. Low fat and low calorie diets which include some junk foods and lots of highly processed foods simply don't work for so many of us. If information technology works for the writer and some others that is smashing, each to their own, but for many of u.s. this is non helpful communication and is incorrect. Luckily at that place are lots of really wonderful nutrition and nutrition books available today. Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for Yard.E. (HFME)
* The levels and types of toxic pollution and toxic chemicals we are exposed to are vastly college now than they were in the by (which requires far higher levels of nutrients than were necessary in the past, to bargain with them).
* Many nutrients in food are fragile and only remain fully intact when food is picked and then eaten immediately. Storing foods for long times and heavily processing foods can dramatically lower nutrient levels in the food and may destroy some nutrients entirely; for example, oranges have been found to contain between 100 mg of vitamin C and 0 mg of vitamin C, each.
* The high levels of sugar in the diet of many people is also problematic as sugar is an anti-food.
1. Eating fat makes you fat
two. There is no such affair as good and bad foods
three. A calorie is a calorie and whether calories come form poly peptide fat or carbs doesn't matter when information technology comes to weight loss
4. Junk nutrient in moderation wont hurt anyone
5. The all-time diet for wellness and weight loss is a depression-fat and high-carb diet
I must admit I didn't read all of this volume. I tried to read all of it, but I gave up. This book would be good for people who are starting their journey into good for you eating. Nestle basically walks readers through the supermarket aisle-by-aisle detailing her research on what the boilerplate consumer tin can await to observe. I did larn some ancillary facts near food topics, but I already accept read so much about practiced eating that there wasn't a lot new to me in this book. Plus, I patronize an culling supermarket (Berkeley Basin), my local farmers' markets, and a butcher. I am not dependent on concatenation supermarkets to obtain my food. I was disappointed by Nestle'due south wishy-washy opinion on food. She is not a food activist. She is a food educator. She mostly offers enough facts to let people make upwardly their ain minds virtually nutrient issues. Her book really isn't a guide on what to eat despite its title. In a few instances where she actually offered opinions I disagreed. I am a raw, organic milk drinker, and I plant her chapter on milk weak. She wrote off raw milk considering she never drank any because she couldn't visit whatever raw milk farms to audit them personally. Instead she sides with industrial-organic milk. If you lot are a foodie and you want to read this book, I would recommend borrowing it from the library like I did.
What to Consume is the antidote to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Where AVM screeched and keened about how eating certain foods makes us horrible people, What to Eat is an unemotional guide to making informed food choices. I would call this a crash course in diet, but 'crash' is not the best word to use. It is a robust, honest-to-goodness course in all things food, with its narrative structured co-ordinate to the shelves and sections you'd find in a supermarket. When I picked upwards this book, I was at kickoff dismayed by its size and thought that perchance I'd finish up flipping through information technology and reading brief selections, only no: I read the whole affair straight through. Information technology was that interesting (and informative). Marion Nestle (that'due south the writer's name, and she has no relation to the food company) believes that you shouldn't tell people what to eat and expect them to do it blindly; she is a fan of the informed choice, and that makes all the departure. If you lot are informed nigh the ingredients and manufacturing procedure that goes into an Oreo, and you still want to eat it, that's ok. (She fifty-fifty admits that she personally prefers the Oreo recipe from before they eliminated the trans fats.) But armed with the facts, you can make a better determination nearly how many Oreos y'all should eat, and how often you lot should consume them. That is my kind of nutritionist! There is also enough of insight into nutrient problems such equally why it was ok for y'all to eat raw cookie dough when you were a kid - but why you lot shouldn't permit your own children exercise that today. I was also impressed to notice that many of the issues Nestle raises in this book, which was published in 2006 - trans fats, organics, state of origin labeling, HFCS, etc. - have really hit the spotlight in recent years. What to Swallow is about prescient in that respect. I am and so glad I read this volume, and one change I'g planning on making in my family'due south food consumption habit is to look more than closely at the labels of boxed cereals. I didn't realize how many cereals that I considered NON-"saccharide" cereals (like Rice Krispies), actually have sugar as 1 of their main ingredients.
The mixture of common sense, logic, nutritional science, and hard information make WHAT TO Eat an eye-opening one fourth dimension read also as a handy reference volume. Even the introduction (an easily digestible fifteen pages) serves equally a wake-upwardly telephone call well-nigh the state of food choices in America and should be required reading for every consumer before taking another trip to the supermarket. I had quite a fleck of fun with this volume and found it to exist more whimsical and interactive than I had expected. A number of paragraphs had me running to bank check food labels on items in my pantry and observe out what I was really eating. The book is divided by food blazon into a number of different sections. The sections period well from topic to topic and are generally self-contained, making it easy for the reader to skip around and focus on topics of particular interest. The title WHAT TO EAT is somewhat of a misnomer, and the author admits to this early on in the book. Rather than authoritatively commanding "Eat A, B, and C, just never eat X, Y, and Z", this book provides the reader with detailed information about possible food options, thus enabling the reader to make their ain choices about what they eat. When laying out the array of choices, Nestle includes both quantitative tables of information and qualitative personal considerations to aid the reader in rumination. Those who read this book hoping to uncover the Holy Grail of diets may detect the title misleading; personally I found the approach to be informative, engaging, and empowering. Nestle'south writing is never demanding or heavy-handed, instead letting nutrient choices speak for themselves. For example, if your 2 options are "organic milk produced in your ain country" versus "hormone- and antibiotic-laced milk from cows halfway across the country", it becomes difficult to imagine what informed consumer would choose the latter. All that being said, the gist of WHAT TO EAT can really be boiled downwardly into two words: "information" & "choice". Unfortunately, as Nestle astutely explains, there are a number of interested parties who strive to disseminate dubious information and exert undue influence over the choices we make. I don't get the impression that Nestle set out to write a political book, just in her try to delve into nutrient culture she is forced to face a simple fact: that much of what we swallow is influenced heavily past the American political organisation. The governmental bodies--namely the FDA, the USDA, and the The states Congress--that oversee what we eat owe their livelihood [via political contributions] to lobbying firms which represent food, pesticide, and drug producers. With lobbyists in control of our decision making bodies, the government provides corporations with subsidies, tax breaks, free advert, and favorable inquiry findings. In the terminate, these corrupts bargains get out consumers stranded in a market where they can purchase a colossal-sized bag of chemically-processed "Cheeze Doodles" for 99 cents, but a ruby pepper costs 4 dollars. WHAT TO Eat is never biting or preachy nearly this situation, simply quietly alerts its readers that a modify of national food priorities is desperately needed.
A downwards-to-earth, excellently researched look at your local supermarket, aisle by aisle, without any of the preaching y'all've come up to look from nutritionists. Certain, Nestle's got opinions, but they're the opinions of your grandmother who lives in New York and who wants you to eat, to enjoy what's on your plate to to give everything a taste before you turn upward your olfactory organ. And like your sensible grandmother, Nestle's concludes that real, minimally processed foods are better for yous than nigh of what's out there. She disdains marketing tricks and corporate bullying of the USDA; she doesn't care for anything that pretends to be good for you when information technology's really but a dessert in disguise (see her have on the super-sweet yogurts heavily marketed towards dieters and children). Nestle would much rather come across yous put a dollop of butter on your food than hem and haw on which faker-than-faux low-no-less-than-before selection awaits yous in the dairy isle this week. Though a nutritionist by training Nestle has the soul of an investigative journalist, using her scientific background to read through the conflicting (and frequently corporately-funded) research that'south out there. When she comes to the conclusion that the organic vegetables in the freezer section are better tasting (and amend for you) than the so-chosen "fresh" conventional veggies in the produce section, it's simply after she's taken you through her analysis of the literature. Nor is she shy about busting the prolific and questionable health claims on food packaging: there is, for example, no reason to claim your vegetable oil is cholesterol free (of class it is: all vegetable products are cholesterol complimentary) or the chickens who laid your eggs weren't treated with hormones (no chickens are treated with hormones -- cattle may be, but not chickens). Though a good deal of this information may not be new to a reader who's attentive to food and nutrition, this is still an first-class resource for deciphering the greyness areas and learning more nearly the USDA and FDA'southward role (or lack thereof) in determining what makes it to the supermarket shelves and what claims can be emblazoned across the packaging.
Loved this book. It'due south substantially a reference guide to shopping and eating that's been broken downwardly by food category, so when I got information technology in the mail and saw how HUGE information technology is (600+ pages) I thought I'd merely end up reading the capacity on food topics that involvement me. I ended up reading the entire thing - even the sections on foods that I don't eat or intendance well-nigh (two chapters just nearly margarine?!?). Nestle is an bookish and a nutritionist, just also (thankfully) a not bad author. She writes intelligently simply accessibly nearly a broad range of topics, starting with the nutritional components/value of each food but also covering relevant issues surrounding its industry'south history, regulation past the USDA or FDA, marketing strategies, etc. I learned so much nearly what is in our food supply and WHY, in improver to getting enough of common sense communication about which products to buy and eat and which to avoid. Nestle is very sensible - she isn't into nutrient fads, diets, or phenomenon foods, just does voice her opinions freely and shares her own buying/eating practices concerning each nutrient she writes most. In short, I call back I institute WHAT TO Consume so valuable considering information technology is so difficult nowadays to find honest, informed data well-nigh food - we are bombarded with health claims ("Green tea prevents cancer!") and warnings ("Aspartame will kill you!"), but this overload of information is usually manipulative spin generated past someone wanting to make a buck off of the states. I found myself trusting Nestle and wanting to hear what she had to say about salmon farming, yogurt, children'south cereals, off-white trade coffee, organic chicken, vitamin water, baby formula, and dozens of other topics. In the finish though, her advice is simple: inform yourself virtually the food that's available to you and make sensible choices. Consume what you like, but not also much (and if you lot like fake foods or junk foods, eat them sparingly). Highly recommended reading!
I call up that this was just the wrong kind of food book for me to read. I am more than of a "live to swallow" type person and this is definitely a "eat to live" kind of volume. Each affiliate in this book covers a different nutrient: bottled h2o, seafood, baby food, etc and the writer talks well-nigh the environmental and health benefits/drawbacks. I found the coverage spotty and the organization confusing - some information is repeated over and over while some stuff is never mentioned. For case - the chapter on bottled water doesn't mention the environmental impact of all those plastic bottles. Also, I found some of the writer's editorializing obnoxious. Clearly a rich person living in Manhattan who assumes all of her readers are in the same boat. Some of her suggestions just aren't realistic - only purchase bread baked by hand in artisan bakeries. Really? There was some useful information though - specially about things like which seafood is safe to eat. I read this book considering I kind of felt like I should. I remember next I'll need some MFK Fisher to detox - now THAT'south my kind of food writing. :)
Nestle explains not just the nutritional scientific discipline behind making good for you nutrient choices, simply besides explores the political, economic, and ecology considerations. I was looking for nutritional advice, so I skimmed many pages that dealt with the other issues. However, I did find the data on food marketing interesting. Nestle summarizes the scientific research, presents several options, and then makes recommendations. At that place are a few special topics at the end, including infant food, which I haven't seen in the other nutrition books I've read. Nestle'southward nutritional guidelines are unproblematic: select unprocessed or minimally processed foods; eat vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, and whole grains. Meat isn't necessary, just yous can consume lean meats, poultry, fish, and eggs in moderation. Dairy isn't necessary, simply depression-fatty dairy tin can fit into a healthy diet. I had heard this volume referenced in several other nutrition books and articles, and it was recommended past Michael Pollan. Notes Wax on produce isn't harmful. People who eat 5+ servings/day of fruits and veggies take half cancer hazard of those who eat 2. Dairy Those who eat more plants may need less calcium than those who consume more poly peptide and sodium. Saturated fat raises hazard of eye disease, and 60%+ of fat in milk is saturated. "If you beverage milk at all, the lower its fatty content, the better … Nonfat milk retains nigh of the nutrients of whole milk." It'southward inconclusive whether dairy causes centre illness and cancer. Hormones in milk are in amounts and then small they don't seem to affect people. If milk increases health risks, they're small risks. Limit cheese, since it's high in saturated fatty. Frozen yogurt doesn't take many alive bacteria. There'south minimal evidence for the benefits of probiotic bacteria in yogurt. Dairy Substitutes Palm fruit oil is l% saturated; palm kernel oil is eighty%+. Meat Meat may increment risk of heart illness and cancer. Reduce cancer take chances of red meat by choosing leaner cuts, eating smaller portions, or choosing craven, fish, beans. Fish "Methylmercury does not seem harmful for adults at electric current levels of intake, but information technology is demonstrably bad for early fetal evolution." Canned chunk or light tuna (not albacore or white) is the tuna lowest in mercury. To avoid or reduce PCBs, remove fish peel and avoid farmed salmon. Choose wild, not farmed salmon. Farmed contains PCBs, PBDEs, dioxins, and is carcinogenic. Exception: salmon from Chile, Washington Country. Absurd and Frozen Diets (including depression-carb diets) only work by helping you reduce calorie intake. Well-nigh all Americans get more than than enough protein, even vegetarians. Candy Whole potatoes with skins are nutritious. The fibrous skin reduces the starchy within'southward effect on blood sugar. Fats, best to worst: monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, saturated, trans. Fats that are solid at room temperature have more saturated fat than those that are liquid. Oil labeled as "vegetable oil" is from soybeans. Olive and canola oils have the about monounsaturated fat (good). Other fine oils: peanut, sesame, corn, soy (vegetable), safflower. Beverages Supplements Few Americans have nutrient deficiencies, except for some fe deficiency in young children and women of child-bearing age. "It is difficult to argue against" multivitamins; "they might practise some proficient." Supplements other than vitamins and minerals are probably non beneficial. Nestle (author) takes no supplements other than an occasional multivitamin if she has a string of unhealthy meals. ConsumerLab and Consumer Reports test supplements.
Produce
Scientists can't quantify the caste of damage caused by ingested pesticides, but organic produce will reduce the amount of pesticides you consume.
Countries with low dairy intake and less than half calcium intake recommended in US have less osteoporosis and fewer fractures than US.
Avoid margarine because it contains trans fat and artificial additives. Instead, utilise butter, sparingly.
Meat isn't necessary; yous can get plenty protein from dairy, fish, eggs, even grains and beans.
Fish aren't essential. you can become omega-3s from craven, eggs, institute foods (especially cooking oil from seeds, like flax and canola), or fish oil supplements.
The American Heart Association says to eat at near 1 egg/day, and on days yous exercise, avoid other sources of cholesterol.
Carbohydrate(s) are indicated past ingredients ending with "syrup" or "-ose." Honey and fruit concentrates are also sugars.
In that location hasn't been plenty testing to testify artificial sweeteners are safe, but they may be, because of their pocket-size amounts. Natural carbohydrate(due south) may exist better because they're metabolized by body.
Clinical trials rarely show much benefit from supplements.
I read selected capacity of this book. There is quite a bit of adept information in here. This is not a "food fad" book. Marion Nestle seems to exist fairy traditional about what is expert for you and what is bad for you (in other words, stay on a depression fat diet, but I know there's been recent research on that topic that states otherwise). At that place is and then much conflicting data about food out there in books and on the web. I've been trying to navigate my mode around all of this information so I can brand reasonable choices as to what I consume. Personally, I call back eggs are skillful for y'all and swallow a lot more of them than she recommends. But I did like the affiliate on eggs. ******** Looking at some of the other reviews, I realize that since I only read chapters on the topics that interested me (eggs, oils, etc.) I totally missed the political aspect of her book. And then I can't comment on that, but now I'one thousand thinking I should become skim this book once more and encounter what got some people riled upwardly.
This volume is awesome. What an fantabulous resource. Marion Nestle, a nutritionist, walks y'all through a supermarket, alley by aisle. She talks virtually organics vs. nonorganics, farmed vs. wild seafood, hormones and antibiotics in meat, high fructose corn syrup, processed foods, etc. Yous proper noun it- she covers it. Lots of really interesting info and I found it admittedly fascinating. Would love to read her older book "Food Politics" likewise. It'south long- over 500 pages- only a neat reference guide.
If y'all're contemplating reading this book, I'd say skip it and find one more contempo with up-to-date information and research. At the fourth dimension of publication this may accept been revolutionary, only now it seems outdated and filled with common noesis. Misleading health claims are abundant downward every nutrient aisle, and I appreciate Marion Nestle'due south focus on this topic. Statements that some cereals "promote middle health" and sugary yogurts "promote bowel health" mean much less when you know the inquiry was sponsored by the brand itself. The wealth these companies have accumulated allows them to bend the rules and regulations for their benefit. One recurrent problem I had was with her stance on organics. She speaks a lot about the deceitful marketing and lack of proper regulations on non-organic foods, but at that place is increasing evidence that organic foods share the verbal same problems. She states that if you don't want big levels of pesticides in your diet, organics are the way to go. Except now at that place is enquiry stating organically grown foods often contain college levels of pesticides, due to organic pesticides being less efficient. Perhaps this was non known at the time of this guide, but information technology's still ineffective to repeatedly claim organics equally the solution to health concerns. This volume mainly increased my pessimism as I am still left with uncertainty about daily food decisions. Her advice is the typical "consume unprocessed & organic foods, lots of fruit and vegetables, junk food in moderation" which you lot could learn through a quick google search. It sounds like the just solution to false ad and the disregard for public health is to exist aware of it. I wanted answers, or at least alternatives that the everyday lower-income individual could achieve. If you aren't wealthy, the suggested alternatives and ideas seem out of reach. Fresh artisan bread and organic meats are not an option for everyone. And that's without even mentioning food deserts and the unequal access to nutritional affordable options. I think this book overlooks many variables, and mainly applies to the more than advantaged individuals. If that were the target audience, it would be constructive, even so I was under the assumption information technology was aimed to be a comprehensive guidebook for the everyday consumer. Some of the less familiar topics were interesting, such equally ad aimed at children, only this book works only as a brief introduction. If this guide provided me with anything, it was a few random food facts and a desire to larn more than.
While I've read many many books on nutrition over the years, none gave a comprehensive expect at every food type (meats, dairy, prepared foods, fish, wheat, h2o, produce, eggs etc...) as this book. Focusing on each section of a grocery shop, Marion Nestle, a nutritionist and writer, discusses issues apropos marketing, politics, our health and environment. I especially liked her opinions on the difference between farmed fish and wild fish, which I had not previous read in any book before, also as her analysis of the furnishings of genetically modified organism and organic foods on the foods nutrition content. While this book discusses food and politics in the United States in the years 2004-2005, a lot of these concerns are still relevant today. I was surprised to read her recommendations in the decision of the book in which she recommends fast-food companies put calories on their menu boards. I guess nosotros are seeing progress, though it is irresolute ever so slowly!
Ever the bemused skeptic, Marion Nestle has a mission, her own manner, and a wry sense of sense of humour.
Perhaps only the most nutrient obsessed volition truly appreciate this tome of everything nutrition, just it is well worth wading into, because readers will be amazed at what they acquire about the system, civilization, and business of food in our country. An enormous undertaking- taking on the entire American supermarket row by row and breaking down every conceivable food option and what she recommends and why- Nestle is a powerhouse of food information.
Informative, powerful, makes y'all rethink your everyday choices.
Difficult to believe that such a comprehensive review of the nutritional value of mod food choices could be such a fun and interesting read!
Definitely not an easy read (it's more of a textbook than annihilation else), this was nevertheless both an interesting and disturbing book. Nestle (no relation to the Swiss company and her name is actually pronounced "nes-sel") is a nutritionist and writer who pulls no punches and thoroughly researched every aspect of the nutrient industry. The subtitle of the book, "An Alley-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Skilful Eating," adequately explains what the book is all about. The disturbing office all the same is -- of class -- what she reveals about the food industry and how much we are harmed by their greed and lack of concern for our wellness, all the while spewing marketing slogans that would have us think otherwise. Ane of the things I sort of knew but hadn't been willing to face in my own life, is the corporeality of added sugar in nearly everything, and how when nosotros as a nation began eating more and more processed (read: lots of added saccharide) food, our obesity epidemic began. I used to purchase cereal I thought was salubrious, until Nestle pointed out how few dry cereals do not comprise massive amounts of sugar. Boy, does that fact reduce the number of cereal choices from which I now select! Another fact that truly hurt: what I learned about freshly caught fish. When I was a kid, my mom and dad and I took just one kind of vacation: we went fishing. About often in northern Wisconsin, but occasionally in Minnesota and for one utterly glorious week, to an isle in Ontario, Canada. On the U.S. fishing trips, my dad would often go upwardly before dawn and quietly head out to fish before my mom and I got up. We'd awaken to the smell of fresh fish cooking on the stove, which we'd eat for breakfast along with the fresh hash brown potatoes my dad also made. My favorite fish then -- and now -- was walleye and on those vacations, I couldn't get plenty of information technology. After breakfast, my dad would take a nap, then nosotros'd eat dejeuner, and later lunch he and I would head out in the gunkhole to fish. He and I spent many happy hours, sitting together silently with our lines in the h2o, just the audio of the h2o gently lapping against the metal boat and the soft breeze singing in the trees at the shoreline. So it was with great sadness that I read the following in Nestle's volume: "As for recreational fishing, the EPA announced in Baronial of 2004 that virtually all sports fish are so contaminated with methylmercury that 40-eight states (exceptions: Wyoming and Alaska) have issued advisory warnings to residents not to consume fish from certain waters." Then-EPA administrator Michael Leavitt, told the New York Times, "Mercury is everywhere." Nestle flatly states, "...you should non let your kids each much sports fish, if whatsoever." So those fondly remembered fishing trips with my parents are more than gone; they are now impossible. We ate fish pretty much every unmarried day on those trips. Good thing it was before our government ceased to prevent companies from polluting our waterways. I hateful, actually, it'south a chip hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that ALL of the continental U.S. waterways are polluted, to one extent or another. If you're interested in becoming a more than savvy grocery store customer and are willing to face some extremely difficult truths, I would highly recommend this book -- information technology truly is one of the best of its kind.
The writer takes yous on a tour of your local supermarket as she discusses many problems pertinent to the health and safe of nutrient. This is not junk science, but rather a well-researched (50+ pages of footnotes) examination of a multitude of political, environmental, and health problems surrounding food. Prepare to be at the least surprised (and frankly I was astounded) at some of the data. For case, one-third (!) of all vegetables eaten in the US are in 3 forms - french chips, spud fries, and iceberg lettuce. What!! 2 forms of murphy and the wimpiest of all lettuce (at to the lowest degree in terms of diet) - yikes! Where are broccoli and carrots and apples? The political machinations behind food are also centre-opening. The writer attempts to explain such diverse items as the food pyramid, subsidies, and tiffin programs - and Hint: they're generally almost the industry and less about the science and what is all-time for Americans. She looks at supplements - and every bit a chemist, I know that what she's presenting hither is pretty accurate. Supplements are a crap shoot - she notes that no bureau tin can assure y'all that the supplements you lot buy are every bit advertised. And the FDA is hard put to become many of these off the market. Her view is that a multivitamin is generally harmless merely that many of the other supplements are only effective at reducing your wallet. Her view is "Existent foods are health foods and practise non need to be made functional to be good for you lot. They are functional just the mode they are." While this is mostly virtually supermarkets and other purveyors of foods (bakers, butchers, etc), she speaks a fiddling near restaurants. Since many people eat out on a more than or less routine basis, it is germane to the discussion. I totally agree with her view that it'south time for restaurants to offer better choices - light entrees, reasonable sizes. It would exist nice to at to the lowest degree offering half portions of some of the ginormous entrees and sandwiches. I ordered a chicken wrap recently at a eating place while traveling and it would have taken 2 people to eat them (there were 4 one-half wraps on the plate - basically 2 huge wraps cut in half), even without the fries on the side. Basically, the writer's view is that there are 4 concepts for adept diet - eat less, motility more than, eats lots of fruits and vegetables, and go easy on the junk food. Simply Big Nutrient corporations (not to mention federal agencies, lobbyists, and a host of other players) are heavily invested in the boilerplate person doing the opposite. They use aggressive marketing and subtle messages to convince the average consumer that information technology'due south okay to eat ---- (you lot fill in the blank)----, whether or not information technology'southward backed upwards past annihilation really resembling scientific inquiry. There are enough of issues and she calls for activeness - and in the last assay, you can influence Large Food by voting with your fork.
This book sets out with a lot of ground to encompass. Marion Nestle, an accomplished professor of nutrition, takes the reader on an aisle by aisle trip through the grocery store. She touches on every major food group and attempts to answer the question: Why is it and then confusing and overwhelming to go grocery shopping? She breaks the book downward in sections according to food topic, such equally staff of life, milk, seafood, java, etc. There are a lot of details squeezed into each section, simply for topics of less involvement to you lot, information technology is very easy to skim sections. I found myself skimming a few sections I wasn't equally interested in and was even so able to follow the narrative. It helps that prominent facts are in bold and highlighted at a rate of about ane fact every three pages. This layout as well makes the volume handy every bit a reference tool. Although at that place is a lot of information crammed into each section, it is impossible to cover every topic she attempts to in depth. As a upshot, Ms. Nestle tends to focus on a few specific focal points she finds specific to each food grouping. Sometimes it may be politics or animal welfare, but for the about part the meat is in the nutrient contents of the food and how agribusiness and food companies try to marketplace to the consumer. If you feel overwhelmed in the grocery shop by all your options and the claims on products- light, non-fatty, whole grain, high in poly peptide, etc. - then this book is a proficient place to go to figure out what'southward behind some of these health claims. I feel like a accept a trivial more than agreement and therefor command of my grocery shopping later reading this volume. And then if I could get that out of it I'thousand sure other readers would benefit as well.
This examination of food labels, enquiry and diet feels like a magnum opus of modernistic grocery shopping. 600 pages feels appropriate given the breadth of food options and topics. I am glad I bought the softcover book considering it is a handy reference for activism and health and I programme to keep it. If you want someone to create a list of brands and food to eat, this is not your volume. If you lot want to know more than virtually how to read labels and what to apply equally determination criteria when shopping, then this is your volume. Marion Nestle investigated multiple grocery stores, reading labels, questioning proprietors, questioning producers and reviewing scientific studies. She explains when and where common claims are bogus or accept merit. She consistently states to whom one should write messages or talk to to better different bug in food safety and availability. My takeaways were the major food safety concerns, Americans eat fashion likewise much protein and end upward at college risk for middle disease. Glycemic index varies with food combination, but glycemic load is of import. Highly candy food, such as refined grains, should exist minimal. Vegetables are great and organic is a bonus. Organic meat is best, and pay attending to specific claims on natural.
It took me a while to go through this-- 524 pages of debate and studies on food, marketing, regime, and supermarket tactics-- only it was Then fascinating. She tackles foods one by 1, progressing in the order one encounters in a regular supermarket. She talks about the studies and debates about the nutrient (instance: eggs. good for you or not? is muzzle free important? what should laying hens eat? is is important to get eggs from flaxseed fed hens for the college Omega-3 content? and and then forth.) A lot of the data about how grocery stores and food companies operate is kind of appalling, simply if y'all stop to call back near information technology (or in this case, read about information technology) it all makes sense in a sort of evil mode. She's and then sensible and straight forward (she says that everyone has been saying that y'all should swallow fruits and vegetables, and cut dorsum on junk food for years just that this obvious respond gets lost in the anarchy of dietary advice) that she makes regular diet books seem kind of stupid.
Afterward reading this book, I had the pleasure of coming together Marion Nestle. The company I was working for at the time filmed her in a segment where she walked usa through a NY grocery shop and helped u.s. figure out "What to Eat". I was disappointed at the selections she made - she was far too forgiving and didn't seem to adhere at all to the principles she outlined in her book. She had an opportunity to brand an example out of this grocery store, just instead kept saying "they're doing the all-time they can." I don't want to give too much particular considering I can't disclose the company this was for or the actual segment. So...I guess my criticism is less with the volume and more with Marion Nestle not putting her own words into practice. As for the book, I struggled to get through it and establish it very dry but nonetheless informative.
I wanted to like this book, every bit I do respect Marion Nestle's identify in the modern food motility pushing dorsum against some of the marketing and corporate interests -- but I couldn't. I felt that she was trying to be fair and thorough, but when faced with difficult or conflicting information, she did what most of us practice -- fall back on pat answers and unconscious biases. For example, in her production comparisons, she never questions the 'saturated fat is evil' premise, and ofttimes uses it as a final deciding cistron. Her overall communication is sensible -- don't get pushed effectually past reductionism and worry most any individual food too much -- but I wasn't thrilled with the overall quality vs. quantity of her writing.
A governmental bureaucrat who exhibits his government licenses to back up dubious data. A precise case of entreatment to authority. And the result is simply small corrective changes to the orthodoxy promoted by the same governments: anything is good if it helps the lobbies. Hence the demand for corn in every meal. To make things worse, Nestle, by holding all those positions can't make a stride outside the orthodoxy and he will do anything to support the status quo and his appointments.
I have a tremendous corporeality of respect for Marion Nestle, and I retrieve I'd like to own this volume primarily considering while it's jam-packed total of interesting, useful data, information technology'south non the most engaging read. I think I'd like having this on the coffee table for casual perusing - rather than as a library book, where I was nether time pressure level to finish.
I think that her heart is in the right place, and I hold with her political opinion. Nevertheless, I don't sympathize why Nestle continues to insist that a calorie is merely a calorie when information technology pretty much flies in the face of modern science. I recommend why we go fat over this volume. Marion needs to get with information technology and acknowledge the hormone cistron in obesity
Still not certain Afterward reading this doorstop of a volume I'thousand nevertheless not sure "What To Eat". The volume is structured as a trip through the grocery store. Each lengthy essay details the trouble with every single thing we eat. Simply at that place's no resolution. No guidance on how to fix our broken system.
There are so many things messed upwardly about the food industry, I call back I demand to purchase this as a reference. I say this not to affright, only more as a realization that food choices throughout my life volition exist laden with compromises, and it's better to be informed.
Everything of import in this book could have fit on a brochure. Every bit a brochure, it would have been fantastic. Every bit a book, it was like building a sandcastle also close to the water - any postitives were immediately eroded by the fluff.
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Source: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/268963
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