BIOLOGY 300 BOOK REVIEW CHOICES

SPRING 2006

1 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.

2 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.

3 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.

4 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.

5 Collman, James. (2001). Naturally Dangerous: Surprising Facts about Food, Health & the Environment. Sausalito, Calif.: University Science Books. Collman address the myths as well as the facts surrounding the hidden risks of chemicals in everyday life. He not only breaks down the fallacies of many common fears, but also points out where fears should not be.

6 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.

7 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.

8 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.

9 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.

10 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.

11 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.

12 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.

13 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.

14 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.

15 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, that were once found only in adults. The author blames both nature and nurture and offers many methods for combating weight gain in children.

16 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.

17 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.

18 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.

19 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.

20 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.

21 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.

22 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.

23 Wolever, T. (1999). The Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index-The Groundbreaking Medical Discovery. New York: Marlowe and Co. In this book, the authors explain how all carbohydrates are not the metabolized the same way by your body, and why some carbohydrates give you longer lasting energy than others. The first part of the book gives an explanation of theories, while the second part of the book gives guidelines for people looking to lose weight or for athletes who are looking for the best way to fuel their bodies.

24 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.

25 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 volumn are answers to new questions, debunking of myths not addressed by the first book, and 35 recipes from food-critic Parrish.