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A review by dar_muzz
The Anatomy of Bibliomania by Holbrook Jackson
4.0
Nestle (no relation) proves that Big Food is just as bad as Big Tobacco and Big Pharma.
The author speaks for population health - what is best for the majority. She takes exception with the notion that all foods are good foods and moderation is the key. Knowing that most people consume the Standard American Diet and should reduce saturated fats and added sugars, she criticizes beef and dairy lobbyists as well as fast food, soft drink and candy makers. (She doesn't support low-fat processed foods or artificial sweeteners either). While she doesn't recommend eliminating these foods, she doesn't like their influence on government policy and public education, in the forms of funding political candidates and creating public campaigns against government regulation. As with all other consumer issues, the industries complain about "the nanny state" and how regulations take away freedoms.
American food education, marketing, lobbying and legislation of the 1990s are analyzed in detail. It now reads as history. I remember all the issues and campaigns cited, such as efforts to improve school lunches and get sugary soft drinks out of schools, efforts to reduce the advertising of junk food to children, the introduction of fat substitute Olestra to the market, the right of processed food makers to put nutrition claims on their products, the right of supplement makers not to have to establish that their products work, the influence of "big agriculture" on the food pyramid, the influence of corporate funding on dieticians' research, and so on. A preface and afterword to the 10th anniversary edition provide updates and context.
Anyone who has a keen interest in food and was around long enough to follow these U.S. stories in the 90s might enjoy the book; I did. Readers under 40 will want to look for another source!
The author speaks for population health - what is best for the majority. She takes exception with the notion that all foods are good foods and moderation is the key. Knowing that most people consume the Standard American Diet and should reduce saturated fats and added sugars, she criticizes beef and dairy lobbyists as well as fast food, soft drink and candy makers. (She doesn't support low-fat processed foods or artificial sweeteners either). While she doesn't recommend eliminating these foods, she doesn't like their influence on government policy and public education, in the forms of funding political candidates and creating public campaigns against government regulation. As with all other consumer issues, the industries complain about "the nanny state" and how regulations take away freedoms.
American food education, marketing, lobbying and legislation of the 1990s are analyzed in detail. It now reads as history. I remember all the issues and campaigns cited, such as efforts to improve school lunches and get sugary soft drinks out of schools, efforts to reduce the advertising of junk food to children, the introduction of fat substitute Olestra to the market, the right of processed food makers to put nutrition claims on their products, the right of supplement makers not to have to establish that their products work, the influence of "big agriculture" on the food pyramid, the influence of corporate funding on dieticians' research, and so on. A preface and afterword to the 10th anniversary edition provide updates and context.
Anyone who has a keen interest in food and was around long enough to follow these U.S. stories in the 90s might enjoy the book; I did. Readers under 40 will want to look for another source!