Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

 

Van Telleken looks at the food we eat through the lenses of economics, public and individual health, and planet health or sustainability. He observes that we basically eat what is marketed to us. The poorer we are, the better the marketing works because ultra-processed food (UPF) is much cheaper than actual food.

Ultra-processed food is refined, bleached, deodorized, modified, hydrogenated, interesterified, and perhaps most importantly, aggressively marketed. There are ingredients, such as dimethylpolysiloxane and polysorbate 80, that we consume with little to no basic understanding of their effects on the human body.

The ingredients in ultra-processed foods are there for several reasons: 1) to save money (as opposed to using costly whole food), 2) to extend shelf life, 3) to allow for wide distribution - ease of transport, and 4) to promote excess consumption.

The purpose of UPF's is to create highly profitable, convenient, hyper-palatable foods that do a pretty decent job nourishing the portfolios of shareholders, but leave consumers malnourished. It is this lack of essential nutrients that, in turn, causes people who consume these substances to overeat. The human body has evolved to eat until it has consumed what it needs.

This book is on the hefty side. Some people will find it fascinating, and some might find it overwhelming. If you read only a few chapters or pages of this, it would still be a worthwhile effort. If thick books are unpalatable, just turn the packages over and read the ingredient list. That's the gist of the book.

Metabolical by Robert Lustig

 

Since cell biology is a mysterious, complicated subject for most of us, this book is definitely not an easy read. It is, however, a very worthwhile read. For me, this book tied together and explained some information that floats around the culture and almost never seems perfectly clear.  We hear that certain things are bad for us, or we suspect on our own that something is harmful; and all of this bad news causes us to second guess ourselves. Who or what should we believe? Are we paranoid or just cautious?

Lustig does a very thorough job of explaining what goes on in our cells when we ingest certain common substances in our environment. Plastics, preservatives, Teflon coating, the myriad items we see on food labels - we know something is  worrisome about all of these things, but it is often hard to access the specifics. The author explains in detail precisely what happens to us on a cellular level  when we eat things that aren't food..

This isn't a beach read kind of book, but I'm also pretty sure you won't be able to put it down. It is true that health is wealth, and work like this makes it possible for everyone to share in that wealth.

Save the Males:A Kitchen Survival Cookbook

I have posted about this book on my personal Facebook page a couple of times, but I have not yet included it on my Reading List blog. Full Disclosure: Chef Gordon is a long time friend of ours and we have known him since the very early 80's when he first began talking and joking about his Save the Males campaign. He explains this bit of fun in the opening pages.

Save the Males is decidedly geared toward the single male audience, but there is no doubt that many married men who would like to do a bit more of the food prep than throwing burgers on the grill would find this guide highly readable and tremendously informative. It is a nicely designed, no nonsense cookbook with a good balance of basic information, recipes, and advice. Most of the advice is technical and food related, but Chef Gordon sees the culinary arts as closely related to the art of romance, so there is a bit of advice along that line as well.

There are several charts and graphs and tables contained in this cookbook that a cooking novice, as well as seasoned cooks will find useful. Young men are, for the most part, much more likely than their baby boomer fathers to participate in food preparation in a very meaningful way. This would be a great read for any of them, no matter how far along they are in developing their chef skills, and who can't use a little advice about romance?

The book is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You can also search for "Save the Males Cookbook" on Facebook and you will get a page that allows you to buy the book, as well as see a few cooking videos and recipes. It's important to add "kitchen" or "cookbook" to your search because there is also another Save the Males book out there, and I can't vouch for that one.

Not Cookbooks

Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden
French Country Cooking by Mimi Thorisson
Gather by Gill Meller

It is not entirely true to say these are not cookbooks, but they could be also be considered inspirational reading and viewing for cooks or diners. What I like most in any cookbook is photographs, and these three are spectacular. The subtitle of Joshua McFadden's book is: A New Way with Vegetables, and "new way" is the essence of all three of these. Sometimes, a cook is looking for a different way of seeing the same produce.

Generally speaking, the meat, vegetables, spices and condiments, and staples that we use vary only slightly. Because of clever packaging and marketing, it sometimes seems as though there is an infinite list of foodstuffs, but mostly the same things are prepared, packaged, and marketed in myriad ways. Because these three books all focus on the artistic aspects of food, the beauty of a food on its own rather than as an ingredient is an eye opener.

It is often said that we eat with our eyes first. These are books that show us that we should perhaps be taking a little longer to eat with our eyes and focus less on the fast food, 3o minute, quick, and instant approaches to eating. One way to monitor our intake of food is to slow down and really appreciate the things we eat. (If you missed Slow Food and Why French Women Don't Get Fat, it's not too late. they are both still in print!)

Cooks who savor the appearance and quality of food enjoy cooking more. If we want mechanization that can churn out formulaic foodstuffs in 30 minutes or less, we have that in abundance. The problems associated with that approach is well documented, but once we recognize the flaws in the factory food world, we need a place to turn in order to start over.

Even if you are not a cook, browsing these volumes will help you to eat with new eyes, and your tastebuds won't complain either!

Judge This Book By Its Cover

 

I'm an Abel James fan, and his newest book is part cookbook, part nutrition and fitness advice and mostly just good reminders to look to nature for your food. I am not a collector of print cookbooks any longer, and the few that I do keep around are mainly exquisite picture books, so I am making a bit of an exception for this volume. It does have a few excellent photographs and the meal prep ideas are quite good; Abel and his wife/cohort have kept the layout simple and it's pretty easy to find some new inspiration here.

Everyone who has even the slightest interest in a healthier lifestyle is on the lookout for menus to replace the ones that got us into our current situation. This cheery book will help you add to your repertoire of new food. By wild, he simply means 'real.' It's not a cookbook about eating squirrels or insects, in case you were worried.

I also highly recommend his podcast: Fat Burning Man. He has a terrific on air personality and a really intelligent show. And the best voice anywhere!

The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz

Nina Teicholz’s book is nearly 500 pages and has at least that many references; it is, indeed, a fat book. And the conclusions that she reaches after a decade of research and reading might be a bit of a surprise to some. 

“Every reliable indicator of good health is worsened by a low fat diet.” That’s it in a nutshell.

Teicholz looks at over one hundred years of research and clinical practice and what she exposes is science at its most shabby. Under investigation are influence peddling, professional jealousy and corporate greed and cover up. The science around food is just as bad, if not worse, than you always suspected it was.

Granted, nutrition studies are difficult to do because they involve humans and there are limitations, but that hardly justifies influential scientists jettisoning whole collections of data because the information does not agree with the hypothesis. There are undoubtedly elementary school science fairs where the experimenters are held to more stringent practices than some of those described by Teicholz.

This book is a 2014 publication, which makes it as current as you can get. If you have already read Grain Brain, Wheat Belly, and The Great Cholesterol Myth, these findings will not shock you, but you will be horrified by the commercial interests that dominate the information highway in our country. You will want to erect monuments to those battle weary individuals who dare to contradict the power brokers in the scientific and business communities.

Now go eat some cheese, or bacon, or a steak.

A Conversation with Nina Teicholz 

Fat Chance by Robert Lustig

Anyone even mildly interested in food and nutrition probably saw the 80 minute YouTube video, called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” given by Robert Lustig which has been around for about five years. This book came out in 2013, but will likely enjoy a resurgence because of the recently released documentary called Fed Up, produced by Katie Couric and featuring Lustig among many other scientists and physicians who are sounding the alarm on the standard American diet.

As a wannabe nutritionist, I admit to being somewhat of a glutton for books on food and nutrition. The dogma in this field is changing rapidly, and this book is packed with up to date and verifiable facts.  Lustig has a unique and highly informed perspective on both the history and the science of the nutritional advice we have been following as a nation, and have begun to export worldwide, to the detriment of the whole human race. Shockingly, he reports that more people now suffer from the ill effects of obesity and diabetes than suffer from malnutrition.

The first nine chapters are fairly technical, although he does a good job of translating microbiology and biochemistry into everyday language, to the extent that that’s possible. If the science is a deal breaker for you, begin at Chapter 10 and read to the end. The utterly fascinating and highly practical information contained therein might well convince you to go back and muddle through the scientific explanations.

One of my very favorite aspects of this book is that he states over and over, “Correlation is not causation.” The confusion in the mind of the public over this relatively simple concept results in a great deal of misguided leaping to erroneous conclusions. I cannot think of a single person or category of persons who would not benefit from a thorough reading of this book. If you’re not inclined to read it, you might want to hang out with folks who have so you can pick up a few life saving tips!

Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It

This is a highly readable book, which is fortunate as Gary Taubes knows a great deal about topics that most of us care about. I will confess that I have not yet gotten through his tome, Good Calories, Bad Calories. I get by with this omission because I read a dozens of books written by people who have read it.

Modern problems like metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance run so counter to natural science that they can be daunting to understand, This is, however, the world we have created for ourselves, so understanding what we have wrought brings some peace of mind.

No time to read the whole book?
In a nutshell: You can totally wreck your regulatory hormones by ingesting sugar and highly processed food. To heal your own biology, eat real food. Eliminate sugar, most grains, and processed seed oils.

The Great Cholesterol Myth

Authors Stephen Sinatra and Jonny Bowden make a compelling case for ditching the statin drugs. The book presents an ocean of evidence that theses drugs are being sold to the general public for no reason except to increase the profits of major pharmaceutical companies. They contend (and they are by no means alone in this) that the evidence used to connect cholesterol to diet and to connect cholesterol to heart disease is shaky at best. At worst, it is down right fraudulent.

This is a well organized and fairly easy to read book. If there are statins or cholesterol threats looming anywhere in your life, this is a good book.

Too busy to read the book?
In a nutshell: Don't take statins. Eat plenty of vegetables and good quality meats. Ditch the grains and added sugars and get some exercise. For a more complete explanation, you'll have to read at least a few chapters.

Michael Pollan

Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
This book reads more like a suspense novel than a nonfiction book. I couldn’t put it down. Everything you ever wanted – or more likely, didn’t want – to know about the food you eat. Update note: His newest book is In Defense of Food. It’s terrific.

Post Script: Omnivore's Dilemma was released in April of 2006. I read it shortly after that, sitting on the back porch, letting my end of school year work pile up all around me because I simply couldn't put the book down. I knew I should have waited for my summer break, but this was as much a page turner as any mystery I have ever read. Not only did it change my life, I'm pretty sure he changed the world with this book. There are a great many themes about food and food production that have become part of our modern consciousness that can be traced to this book.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
A follow up to The Omnivore’s Dilemma and just as good. the premise of the book is summed up in his quip, "Eat food, mostly plants, not too much." That seems obvious enough until one realizes that there is startlingly widespread confusion about what food actually is. And that is precisely what the book is all about.