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Title: Food Fight : The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America's Obesity Crisis, and What We Can Do About It by Kelly D. Brownell, Katherine Battle Horgen ISBN: 0-07-140250-0 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 07 August, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (9 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: What About the Diet Industry?
Comment: Do any of these people live in California?!! Is this being done in some Mc Donalds heavy midwestern back water? Because this is not my reality! I literally cannot turn on the t.v. without hearing about how fat Americans are intercut by endless lengthly ads for designer drugs for weight control (if not others ethereally and cheerfully explaining why ritalin is such an uplifiting and caring solution for grade schoolers!), Jenny Craig, "Carb Options" what have you. If we have learned anything in the 80s and 90s it's that obsessing about food causes eating disorders-be it anorexia or binge eating-they are opposite sides of the same coin! I would hope the diet industry is receiving just as much consternation from the author as the soda industry. Many an average weight, moderate eating american has gone on a diet-fitness rutine- (Your Dean Ornish-ish eating less, moving more, hit the unrepentent fat americans over the head rutine) simply becuase in recent years, for example a 22 year old sadly, self-rejectingly and almost mysteriously feels she's fat and wishes she could get down to the 90 lbs. she weighed at 12-only to ultimately down the road actually become overweight, in absolutely worse shape, AND uncontrollably obsessed with food. A lot of shortsighted Amercans are to blame-if not out of greed, certainly out of being inadequately informed-not just the politically incorrect ones.
We're only now seeing the disasterous results of the low fat high carb craze-yes a craze believe it or not where people were eating less (maybe a desciplined once a day binge -and the periodic rejoicing at contracting an appetite surpressing flu. Throwing bitter recriminations at themselves for ever actually needing to eat at all! A way of life where one desperately tries to survive on fake food and cut back on meat-anything with fat-who knew there were good and bad fats- struggling through workouts with-surprise!-no energy or motivation. This is what so many Americans do because they feel bad about eating at all-esp. the previously filling staples that now induce guilt-like red meat, thinking they are failures for not being able to fill up on those unsustaining but politically correct "grains." Where-oh where-has this anorexic thinking author been?! AND yes I am in walking distance from gyms, juice bars, and of course every 3 blocks Starbucks-b/c now they are finding that completely cutting out fat causes stimant dependence. (Anyone notice the rise in Starbucks coincides with the low-fat eat less-eat more cheap earth sustaining carbs craze?!!)
Yes I should read the book-but I can't avoid hearing the same old clueless crap regardless-so is there truly a need? Time to move my fat @$$ off the computer and walk-yes I walk-to Jamba Juice (who knew the fructose in healthy juice was fattening?). Hopefully I won't be killed by an SUV along the way. No I will see few soda vendor machines along the way either-kinda went the way of cigarette machines. But hight strung joggers who act like there on speed and make me feel fat and high in body fat percentages regardless of how I look-there are always plenty of those.
Rating: 5
Summary: Passionate Crusader, Excellent Book
Comment: Dr. Kelly Brownell has spent much of his career fighting the food industry's attempts to make us all fat. He brings a crusader's passion and a scientist's accuracy and thoroughness to "Food Fight". He and co-author Katherine Horgen see obesity as a public health crisis like smoking or drunk driving. They take the social movement against smoking as a model and call on us all to get involved, for our own sake and our children's.
This book is extremely well-referenced, drawing on scientific articles, popular journalism and books like Fast Food Nation. Brownell and Horgen reveal the huge scope of America's problem with weight and tell how the problem is spreading all over the world. They show how the food industry has penetrated schools, government agencies, and entertainment media to market sugary, fatty foods to adults and children.
Brownell is especially concerned about children, who lack the power to defend themselves against food advertising and easily available sweets. He demolishes the "personal responsibility" argument used by the calorie pushers. How can children be expected to say "no" to food that tastes good, is readily available in their schools and communities, is recommended by their favorite media characters or sports stars, and which nobody is warning them against?
The authors give dozens of suggestions for social changes that could increase physical activity (ex. bike paths), reduce soft drink consumption (ex a small tax that would go to fund nutrition education and provision of healthy school lunches), and make healthy food more available (a problem for a very large number of people in America.) They also have lots of good suggestions for political activism.
What "Food Fight" does not include is strategies for individuals and families to protect themselves and live healthier lives. That's not what the book is about - it's about the politics of food, and how we can change the environment so that healthy living becomes easier.
The writing style is clear, although not especially entertaining. But there is some humor, such as a subheading on the huge size of restaurant portions: "Nelson, party of four: your muffin is ready."
Food Fight is a political manifesto by a crusader who has already been attacked repeatedly by the food industry. He makes a strong case, one I will use in my upcoming book, "The Politics of Diabetes." I encourage readers to support Dr. Brownell and Horgen's cause.
David Spero RN, author of The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness (Hunter House 2002) www.DavidSperoRN.com
Rating: 4
Summary: Bite-Sized Solutions to a Big Problem
Comment: After reading the first few chapters of Food Fight, I thought "same old stuff." Americans are too fat, eat a poor diet, don't get enough exercise, what else is new.
After a few more chapters, I became overwhelmed with the magnitude of the problem. The fast food companies and agribusiness corporations are too powerful, health care organizations are not really interested in solving the problem, and even the schools are inundated with Channel One advertising and contracts from soft drink companies. How on earth can we even begin to address this problem? Is there any hope?
Then Brownell gets into solutions. Of course the individual needs to take responsibility and eat less, eat better, and exercise more. But communities need to demand changes, such as limits on what kind of advertising the kids see while they are in school, classes (for kids and adults) on nutrition and exercise, neighborhood walking and bicycle paths in safe places. And governments should be involved as well, providing national ad spots about health and fitness, perhaps using the anti-tobacco campaigns as a guideline.
Brownell discusses the solutions in the last part of the book, then ends with a handy summary of recommended actions. What starts as a rather depressing book turns out to be a positive, optimistic look at what we can do at different levels to tackle a growing problem.
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Title: Food Politics : How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health by Marion Nestle ISBN: 0520240677 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser ISBN: 0618164723 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 14 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin by Ellen Ruppel Shell ISBN: 0871138565 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser ISBN: 0060938455 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 08 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating by Walter C. Willett, P. J. Skerrett ISBN: 0743223225 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 06 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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