BIOLOGY 300 BOOK REVIEW CHOICES

SPRING 2010

1 Barrett, Deirdre (2007) Waistland: The (R) Evolutionary Science behind Our Weight and Fitness Crisis.  Norton. Barrett looks into why we find maintaining a healthy weight so difficult. She discusses the reason behind exaggerate weight loss techniques and behind the key to a healthy life style.

2 Belasco, Warren (2006) Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food. University of California Press. In this book Belasco looks into the earth’s energy and mineral resources and the populations that consume food that is produced. He takes a look into what the future holds for food production and consumption with our population constantly increasing.

3 Berkson, D. Lindsey. (2002). Hormone deception: How everyday foods and products are disrupting your hormones. Contemporary Books. Dust we track home, steam from showers and dishwashers, and plastic wrappings for meat and cheese all send manmade hormone-disrupting chemicals into our bodies. Evidence suggests this may be responsible for recent worldwide increases in health problems, including breast cancer and declining sperm counts. Berkson provides background on how hormones work in our bodies, discusses the known and suspected effects of hormone-disrupting chemicals, and offers practical advice on avoiding exposure and on detoxifying oneself.

4 Brownell, K. D. (2003). Food Fight: The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America’s Obesity Crisis, and What We Can Do About It. McGraw-Hill. This book argues that the war against obesity must go beyond personal responsibility and will power to encompass a mass movement against a food industry intent on fattening us. The worst villain of the book is the politically powerful food industry, which, the authors say, plies us with cheap fat and sugar while keeping healthier foods scarce and expensive. The result is an "epidemic" of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and low self-esteem.

5 Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. (1989). Fasting girls: the emergence of anorexia nervosa as a modern disease. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Author Joan Brumberg traces the history of anorexia nervosa from medieval times, through Victorian times until today. She explores the role of doctors, scientists, and society in trying to explain this condition which doesn’t fit neatly into the category of disease or psychological disorder.

6 Charles, D. (2002). Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food. Perseus Books Group. Genetic engineering of plants is a big business that is changing the face of modern agriculture. GM plants promise great benefits: better health for consumers, more productive agriculture, even an end to world hunger. In Lords of the Harvest, Daniel Charles takes us deep inside research labs, farm sheds, and corporate boardrooms to reveal the hidden story behind this agricultural revolution.

7 Critser, G. (2003). Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. Houghton Mifflin. In this book, Critser investigates the many factors of American life -- from super size to Super Mario, from high-fructose corn syrup to the high cost of physical education in schools -- that have conspired to make us some of the fattest people on the planet. He also explains why pediatricians are treating conditions rarely before noticed in children, why Type 2 diabetes is on the rise, and how agribusiness has unwittingly altered the American diet.

8 Ettlinger, Steve (2007) Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients found in Processed Foods are Grown, Mined (yes, mined) and Manipulated into What American Eats. Hudson Street Press. Ever wonder why some processed foods never seem to go bad. Ettlinger looks into the chemistry that makes up the beloved Twinkie. Ettlinger looks into the ingredient list of the Twinkie and tackles the creamy filling and the “butter” flavor.

9 Fromartz, Samuel (2006). Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew. Harcourt. In the era we are in, organic foods are making more of a market for themselves. Fromartz analyzes the catalysts that propelled the organic food industry into a major market. Fromartz explains why this new market is becoming so appealing to today’s buyers.

10 Gluckman, Peter and Mark Hanson (2006). Mismatch: Why Our World No Longer Fits Our Bodies. Oxford University Press. It was through the saying survival of the fittest that our world has got to where it is today. Mismatch takes a look into the foods that are shaping our world and applying the theory that the foods we eat are either going to keep us going or fade us off the earth.

11 Imhoff, Daniel. (2007) Food Fight. The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill.  University of California Press. Have you ever thought about the farms that your food comes from and what enables the farmers to have their rights? A Farm Bill is perhaps one of the most important pieces of documentation which shape our agriculture. This book offers a look into the legislations that shape our food systems and basically run the food industry.

12 Kingsolver, Barbara (2007) Animal, vegetable, miracle: a year of food life .Harper Collins. Kingsolver takes us on a journey as her family moves from a super market city to a family farm, where they are able to grow their own crops, support local farmers and truly appreciate the fruits of their labor.

13 Leon, Warren. (2002). Is Our Food Safe? A Consumer’s Guide to Protecting Your Health and the Environment. New York: Three Rivers Press. This book educates the consumer on topics of food-borne illnesses, how our food choices affect the environment, and basic nutrition. Symptoms of illnesses caused by food contaminants are described, as well as how these contaminants get into our food supplies. Guidelines are given for shopping, and food preparation in order to avoid bacterial infections, exposure to pesticides and other harmful contaminants.

14 Lurquin, Paul F. (2002) High Tech Harvest: Understanding Genetically Modified Food Plants. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. The author is a biologist who has written this book about the scientific issues of genetic engineering in today’s food supply. He tells the story of how humans have manipulated agricultural products for tens of thousands of years by cross breeding grains, the discoveries of Gregor Mendel, and the consequent development of genetic engineering of food plants to make them better able to feed the world.

15 Martineau, B. (2001). First Fruit: The Creation of the Flavr Savr Tomato and the Birth of Biotech Foods. New York: McGraw-Hill. Martineau, a Calgene scientist who helped develop the first genetically altered produce, gives a look into the world of science, agriculture, and economics. In this book, she gives the story of the Flavr Savr Tomato, and the data to back it up.

16 McHugen, Alan. (2000). Pandora’s Picnic Basket: The Potential and Hazards of Genetically Modified Food. New York: Oxford University Press. McHughen’s book is an examination of some of the basic scientific issues involved in whether genetic modification may turn out to yield harmful (or, conversely, beneficial) results. He suggests that while GM production is likely to be a good thing, particularly in areas of the world where agricultural yields are low, there may yet be unanticipated risks involved.

17 Mindell, Earl. (2002). Dr. Earl Mindell’s Unsafe at Any Meal. Contemporary Books. This book warns of the hidden hazards to be found in our food, water and medicines. Mindell describes topics such as food industry cover-ups, misleading labeling, genetically modified foods, and products such as cholesterol-lowering margarines.

18 Morris, Robert D. (2007) The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink. HarperCollins. Have you ever thought about the future of the water you drink? With microbes and the threat of bioterrorism, drinking water may be a threat to many Americans in the years to come. Morris looks at the history of water problems from the past and offers suggestions for safer water in the future.

19 Nabhan, G. P. (2004) Why Some Like it Hot: Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity. Island Press. The author reports that genes that influence the effects of foods and beverages can help or hurt us. He spells out “dynamic connections” between our culinary predilections and the diets of our ancestors and suggests that people could be healthier if they understood the diets that best suit their backgrounds.

20 Nestle, Marion. (2002). Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. Berkeley: University of California Press. This book takes a close look at how the food industry uses lobbying, advertising, and even contracts with schools to affect the nutritional information we get as consumers. Although controversial, it has been praised by reviews in the Library Journal, and The New England Journal of Medicine.

21 Nestle, M. (2003). Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism. Univ. of California Pr. Marion Nestle argues that ensuring safe food involves more than washing hands or cooking food to higher temperatures. It involves politics. Who decides when a food is safe? She demonstrates how powerful food industries oppose safety regulations, deny accountability, and blame consumers when something goes wrong, and how century-old laws for ensuring food safety no longer protect our food supply.

22 Nestle, Marion (2006) What To Eat. North Point Press. As a nation we are being enveloped by the food that surrounds us. Nestle takes us through the grocery store in sections giving us information about label decoding and the nutritional information that we should concern ourselves with.

23 Okie, S. (2005). Fed Up! Winning the War Against Childhood Obesity. National Academy Press. This book seeks to explain why today’s young people are, on average, the fattest in history. This generation is plagued by serious medical conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, which were once found only in adults. The author blames both nature and nurture and offers many methods for combating weight gain in children.

24 Parsons, Russ. (2001). How to Read a French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. This book describes the science of cooking. It explores such topics as why it is possible to put one’s hand in a 500 degree oven, but not in boiling water. Interspersed between the lessons are a variety of recipes.

25 Pollan, Michael. (2007) In Defense of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating. Penguin Pollan looks into the definition of food in this book. We know that we should be eating healthy, not too much and mostly plants. But the view of food has changed into a large money making business. Read through his discussions in a joyful manner.

26 Pollan, Michael (2006). The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Penguin Press. Pollan takes his readers on a journey tracing back the origins of four meals. He gives us an entertaining look at the impact that industrial farming, organic farming, hunting and foraging have on our world. He convinces us that eating can become more pleasurable if we factor in the cost of food to ourselves and the ecosystems that help us survive.

27 Pringle, P. (2003). Food, Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto-The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest. Simon & Schuster. Pringle paints a troubling picture of the world's food supply. Scientists, he says, have been remarkably inventive in their endeavors to improve the food we eat by creating GM products. Unfortunately large corporations have squandered the public's good will toward GM products by rushing so-called "Frankenfoods" into stores without adequate testing. His main story is of an industry with great potential for feeding starving millions and reducing our reliance on chemical pesticides, but that has instead created a global mess.

28 Russell, S. (2005). Hunger: An Unnatural History. Perseus Books. This book takes a look at how hunger affects the human body and how the drive to satiate it shapes everything from interpersonal relationships to whole societies. The author reveals the body’s amazing adaptations to starvation, whether voluntary or during a famine. She also details how societies can collapse during famines and gives a picture of the ways that the quest of food shapes our lives.

29 Satin, Morton (2007) Death in the Pot: The Impact of Food Poisoning on History. Prometheus. Satin, a molecular biologist and food-safety expert looks into the history of food born illness that has occurred. Satin discusses the steps that the modern day governments are taking to ensure the safety of our food supply. He looks into problems which have occurred in both, and some that we may be presented with in the future.

30 Schlosser, E. (2002). Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Harper Collins. The fast food industry's drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in destructive ways. In this book, you find out why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world's largest flavor company) and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns." Eaters beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there are--literally--feces in your meat.

31 Shell, Ellen Ruppel. (2002). The Hungry Gene: The Science Of Fat And The Future Of Thin. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. This author uses science, history, and people’s stories to entertain and educate her readers as she delves into the complexities of obesity in our world. She gives the reader a thorough understanding of genetic, behavioral, and environmental causes of obesity, as well as exploring the extremes to which people go in order to lose weight. She looks at many issues surrounding this epidemic, including the politics of pharmaceutical companies, and the important role the food industry has played.

32 Smith, Alisa and J.B. MacKinnon. (2007) Plenty:One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally.  Harmony Books. The book takes you on a journey through the experience of these two authors who learn about exactly what they are eating. For one year the eat foods within a 100-mile radius, learning about the foods they are eating along the way.

33 Taubes, Gary. (2007) Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease. Knopf. Ever wonder where the guidelines behind healthy eating came from? Taubes discusses the issues behind dieting and how certain diets may be responsible for the prevalence of diabetes, heart disease and high cholesterol. He also discusses the idea behind the source of the food being the effectors on weight rather than the calorie intake.

34 Traynor, J. (2002). Honey – The Gourmet Medicine. Kovak Books. Numerous studies document honey's medicinal properties providing ample supporting evidence for anecdotal claims. Honey is an effective treatment for a variety of ailments. This book summarizes the medicinal value of honey and explores honey as a gastronomic treat.

35 Vileisis, Ann (2007) Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get it Back. Island Press. Have you ever wondered where the food in the super market comes from? Vileisis describes how we have lost the knowledge of where or food has come from and how we rely on the advertising and nutrition labels to help us pick out our menus, and helps us take a look into the resurgence of organic foods.

36 Wanjek, C. (2002). Bad Medicine: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed from Distance Healing to Vitamin O. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Science writer Wanjek offers a summary of controversial or completely wrong medical notions, both current and from the past. Topics include what makes milk hard to digest, radiation, organic food, herbal medicines, questionable scientific studies, and questionable reporting on America's health. Bad Medicine sets the record straight by debunking widely held yet incorrect notions of how the body works, from cold cures to vaccination fears.

37 Wolke. R. L. (2002). What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained. W.W. Norton. Bad puns and lots of enjoyable explanations of the science behind foods and cooking.

38 Wolke, R.L. and Parrish, Marlene (2005) What Einstein Told His Cook 2: The Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science. W.W. Norton. In this second volume are answers to new questions, debunking of myths not addressed by the first book, and 35 recipes from food-critic Parrish.