I am a great admirer of Robert Paarlberg, but I did NOT expect to like this book, The United States of Excess. Yes, it is about obesity and gluttony. It appears to blame the person for becoming fat, but more blame seems to be placed on the food available, particularly processed food. The book is so much more than a blame game, however. It is … Continue reading The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism

We live in a society that is overweight and getting heavier. Weight-loss diets are a way of life in American culture. They are so ingrained in our way of life that diet no longer refers to what we eat but we do not eat. This month I have presented the perspective of an academic and a practitioner on why we are so heavy and how … Continue reading Making Sense out of Obesity and Diets to Prevent It

Last week I went to a birthday party. Andrew, the birthday boy, shared that he’d been on the ketogenic diet for 3 months. He’d lost 10 pounds and felt great. The party food was fatty and delicious–we dined on jalapeno poppers with cheddar cheese and bacon, made our own beef and pork tacos with shredded cheese, bell peppers, and onion in lettuce wraps, and at … Continue reading Eat Fat to Burn Fat? The Skinny on the Ketogenic Diet

From an academic view of diets and obesity last week, we proceed to a solution offered by a physician in the trenches intervening in cases of overweight and obese individuals. Yoni Freedhoff gives us a very different perspective on the topic in The Diet Fix. First, he doesn’t believe in diets designed for weight loss. They may work for a time, but in the end … Continue reading The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work

In honor of January—the month of resolutions and diets I present two recent books on obesity and dieting in our society. I start with the perspective of an academic with a food science background who provides an overview of obesity and diets. In Ever Seen a Fat Fox? Mike Gibney puts the issues in the perspective of humans and their place in nature. His ideal is … Continue reading Ever Seen a Fat Fox? Human Obesity Explored

2018 was an interesting year for this blog. It has been accessed by 2,731 visitors for a total of 4,603 views. The top three posts viewed were Beware of bejeweled watches (and GMO labels) Food waste from two different perspectives, and My review of Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry At the end of the year there are … Continue reading Food bits and pieces as we move into 2019

Around 2017, Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency craze exploded across the internet and popular media. At its core, cryptocurrency promised a new and decentralized financial system that could exist without banks, governance, or other entities keeping track of transactions. While cryptocurrency in itself is rather interesting, what has really begun to tickle our fancy is the technology that actually enables cryptocurrency: blockchain. Block-whatnow? A blockchain is…just … Continue reading Bite coin? How blockchain can help us keep track of food from the farm to your plate by Lily Yang and Matt Teegarden

It has a been a long-standing understanding and belief by the consumer and public in general that laws and regulations are based on sound science. This has been especially true in safeguarding the safety of food. The public has generally been very positive that the work of the Federal Food and Drug Administration has ensured that food is not only safe and healthy but also … Continue reading What happened to public trust in science? Is this a crisis for the food system? by Daryl Lund

They have taken on mythic proportions in the American culture, but do we really understand the implications of expiration dates? Nicola Temple describes the contribution of expiration dates to increasing food waste in Best Before as has Tristram Stuart in Waste. Do these dates serve a useful purpose or do they do more harm than good? One perspective is offered by the comedian Jerry Seinfeld. … Continue reading Expiration dates and how they are misunderstood

After so many popular books that take the food industry and the processed food to task, it is nice to read one that approaches the topic from a rational viewpoint. In Best Before Nicola Temple presents a much more balanced view than most contemporary books on food. Many of her points are easy for defenders of processed food like me to embrace. As expected, there … Continue reading Best Before: The Evolution and Future of Processed Food