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The book is a short, well written argument against the kind of manufactured food that the US is now sending around the world. It's full of footnotes and experts, but the writing is accessible and meant for a general audience.
He gives a little history lesson, covering the last 100 years or so. "Nutritionism" is how the manufacturing process makes its way into your food. Scientists do studies that identify specific nutrients and vitamins that are healthy. That gives agri-business a target to efficiently chase, to the exclusion of all the other benefits of whole food that didn't fit into the study.
He comments that if anything in the store is touting health benefits on it's package, you shouldn't buy it. The reason being that in order to get the desired level of nutrients, as given by the scientific studies, the food is stripped of all the other nutritional benefits during it's processing.
He points the finger at business, gov, and science for our current problems. In my mind business is the main culprit for bribing/corrupting the other two, though the government and scientific communities aren't blameless.
Whenever I try to summarize a book I like, I always want to add a statement at the end. Something like "Please don't let my sloppy writing or inelegant arguments get in the way of you looking at this book."
Scientists do studies that identify specific nutrients and vitamins that are healthy. That gives agri-business a target to efficiently chase, to the exclusion of all the other benefits of whole food that didn't fit into the study.
If only that, but I'm afraid the order is reversed ; the industry asks for "this food is healthy" studies to use as marketing. See Popeye produced by the Spinach industry, or the "discovery" that wine is healthy... Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
"Please don't let my sloppy writing or inelegant arguments get in the way of you looking at this book."
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