Salt Sugar Fat

Most of us would think that food that came from lab would be disgusting, and yet we eat it anyway. Jello, Lays potato chips, sodas, and nearly all pre-packaged convenience foods are made this way. The book Salt, Sugar, Fat is all about How the Food Giants Hooked Us.

Michael Moss explores the big business of food. There are a lot of interesting tidbits on how these companies conduct food tasting experiments to discover how much salt, sugar, and/or fat a consumer can tolerate. Even more interesting is they also look to see what makes us crave more. They then manipulate their food products to not only satisfy us, but to get us to buy more. At other times food scientists try to solve a problem to make a food more convenient or less expensive. Jello and pudding are two examples of a food product designed to create an instant food that use to take much more time to prepare. Other products have a constant shifting of ingredients depending on the price of food commodities available.

Michael Moss provides an expose of several food products and and food giants, which is very interesting. He suggests one real solution to the problem. The power is in the consumer to buy or not buy. If we don't buy a product, the food giants will change their product until we do. We are starting to see a backlash against this kind of food production. MacDonald's sales are down. Other food companies are removing high-fructose corn syrup and using "real" sugar (though even this is highly suspect)*. There is growth in organic and natural products. Vigilance on the part of the consumer is important because these changes may not always mean what we assume.

The book is a worthwhile read and will make you think twice about shopping the aisles of a grocery store.

Book Rating: 4 stars

*I recently bought a can of Betty Crocker frosting that proudly claim to have removed high-fructose corn syrup. But if you read the ingredients, it still contains corn syrup, which is misleading.

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Kerry : Agent Orange and an American Family

Agent Orange. A substance many modern Americans know little about and how it devastated an entire generation. This true story by Clifford Linedecker relates the story of Kerry, the daughter of Michael and Maureen Ryan. Kerry was born shortly after Michael returned from Vietnam. She was born with over 22 major birth defects and deformities. The cause - Michael's exposure to Agent Orange while in Vietnam.

Agent Orange was a substance sprayed on the jungles surrounding military bases and battle areas in order to defoliate the plants. And it worked amazingly well. The soldiers were told the substance was harmless to humans. They did not wear protective gear and even worse, they bathed in and drank contaminated water. The most highly exposed soldiers died shortly after returning from Vietnam. Others were periodically sick as the toxin slowly released in their system. Even today, Vietnam veterans are dying of aggressive cancers or suffering from lingering health problems. The people who live in defoliated areas of Vietnam are still suffering today, unable to use their land for food production and dying of cancers.

And the story gets even sadder as we learn that the children of Vietnam veterans are suffering from this toxic exposure. Kerry somehow managed to survive despite enormous challenges, living until 2006. Doctors could not explain how one child could be born with some many problems. As the Ryan's tried to help their daughter, they began to put the pieces together. Other Vets were also dying or sick. They were having children with unexplained birth defects and problems. And soon it became clear that Agent Orange was the likely source. Soon the Ryans became the center of the Agent Orange story and testified before Congress in the hopes that Vietnam Veterans and their families could get the help they needed.

Their efforts were not entirely in vain. Many veterans are getting helped, but the bureaucracy of the Veteran's Administration is still a major roadblock. And even all these years later, Vietnam Veterans are being denied treatment either out right or through delayed appointments and bureaucratic nightmares.

This story is important because it tells us what our government did to our soldiers. We don't know what lingering effect and how long this toxic exposure will last. What damage has been and will be passed from one generation to the next? We don't really know and it seems, sadly, that very few care.

Book Rating: 5 stars

This book is now out of print, but is available at nominal cost from third-party sellers on Amazon or at a public library.

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Life is your best medicine

In life we are constantly bombarded with things. Stress, lack of sleep, poor nutrition wear us down. Women are particularly vulnerable to these problems and our state of health shows it. Dr. Low Dog takes a different approach to medicine. She wants us to love our life and to nurture our minds and bodies - thus living life as we should becomes our best medicine.

The medical advice in this book is rather simple and straight forward. There are various tips dropped along the way that can help us achieve better health. Dr. Low Dog practices medicine from a different perspective than most doctors. She is a fully trained, in the conventional way, physician. And yet, she believes in treating the root cause of disease and promotes healthy life styles through nutrition. She prefers this over pharmaceuticals, which are only prescribed if there is no other choice. She wants to help you in the least damaging way.

For me, the book is more than that. Dr. Low Dog shares her journey in life, and specifically what drove her to study medicine. This is an inspiring story of a woman who has suffered poverty and loss and searched for that peace and happiness we all desire. She worked as a massage therapist and herbalist only to realize she didn't know enough. This was the turning point that motivated her to go to medical school. She not only wanted to know more but she also wanted to change medicine. Through her work with Dr. Weil, Dr. Low Dog is influencing future doctors with her experience and wisdom.

The medical advice offered in the book is pretty common sense. Wrapping the advice around Dr. Low Dog's story is what makes this book special.

Book Rating: 4 stars.


The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Life and death in Shanghai

The history books in my high school and college both dedicated a mere 1-2 paragraphs to the Cultural Revolution in China during the 1960s. I was not a History major in college, so I just read the general world history text that skimmed a lot of major world events. It is unfortunate because I really had no idea what the Cultural Revolution was, what it did to China or its people until I read this book. Nien Cheng recounts her life during the Cultural Revolution in her autobiography Life and Death in Shanghai.

Nien Cheng's husband worked for the Shell Corporation in China. His job was to ensure that Shell followed Chinese laws. Nien's husband unexpectedly passed away and Nien assumed her husband's job. She was very good at ensuring compliance with Chinese law, a stressful and difficult job. She loved China and she fully supported her communist government. But very quickly things changed.

Nien worked for a foreign government. She and her husband had travelled the world. They owned very beautiful things and lived in a nice home. As the Cultural Revolution kicked into gear, Nien became a target. Because of her economic standing and employment she was interrogated multiple times and pressed to confess her capitalist sins. Revolutionaries came and destroyed her home. Her daughter was forced to participate in revolutionary activities. And finally, Nien was jailed - locked in a solitary cell for years. She was brought out routinely to be interrogated and asked to confess.

Despite experiencing so much, Nien never confessed wrong doing. Eventually Nien was freed and assigned to live in an apartment not far from her previous home. She finds herself in a changed China. While things appear to have improved on the surface, she senses the same political rumblings. Always looking over her shoulder Nien wonders if her neighbors spy on her in exchange for favors. Very carefully, Nien leaves China and comes to the U.S. - heartbroken and sad for the country and people she so loved but hopeful for freedom.

I read this book cover to cover. I was impressed with Nien's integrity and endurance. Some passages were very long and I wondered how she could survive through so much tragedy. How could anyone? And yet she did. This is an important story. It's one of hope and survival. It's about the truth of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. It's a must read.

Book Rating: 5 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.