Rating: Summary: Compelling, but check the facts first... Review: Update August 2003: In all honesty, I will leave the original review in its entirety, in an attempt to show how persuasive the book can be to someone who is enironmentally and humanely aware... We're omnivores again, and a lot of that had to do with the difficulty of eating vegan and a look into the anthropological and nutritional evidence that we do indeed need animal products. I am so much happier as a meat eater. My biggest reason for turning vegan was the ethical implications of factory farming and environmental devastation. I think supporting humane, organic, and environmentally conscious livestock producers is more effective.Original review (2001): My wife and I were borderline vegetarians, cutting out (most) of our meat. I thought if I bought free range chicken everything would be okay... but the health section sold me on the benefits of cutting out all animal products. Without actually stating that eating animals is immoral per se, as many hardline vegans do, Robbins gives just the facts of the meat and dairy industries, of their almost unavoidable, inherent cruelty, of which I cannot take a part of any longer. My wife didn't want to give up fish tacos, but after she read it, her and I are vegan for good.
Rating: Summary: The Truth Exists Review: Ignorance can no longer be your excuse after you digest this extremely readable and well documented book. There's hardly an arguement left for the "Standard American Diet" after you consider virtually every reason for going veggie/vegan. It's all here folks: The health reasons, the environmental ramifications, the morality of it, everything.
Rating: Summary: Must read! Review: I've read all of John's books and I have to say this one seems to be the best researched and most disturbing. 'A Diet for a New America' was beneficial in turning my vegetarianism to veganism. 'Reclaiming Our Health' was an inspiring read. 'The Food Revolution' keeps me up at night and gives me the incentive to take more action. This is a must read for anyone who cares about any living creatures (human and non-human), anyone who wonders about GMO safety (or food safety in general), anyone who is skeptical about the high protein fad diets, etc. As a parent, I hope this book does cause a food revolution...for the sake of my son and his entire generation and those to come.
Rating: Summary: Know your food Review: Even having read "Diet for A New America", John Robbin's new book "The Food Revolution" BLEW me away. I believe that we should all be aware of what goes into our food and make our choices knowing all the facts. If you want to eat meat, fine, but know what goes on before it's on your table. It is our responsibility, but boy is being aware a hard thing when you realize the depths industries will go through to hide it! But after reading this book, even if only half of what he says is right (and I'm not saying only half of it is), you will gladly and easily make different food choices. Reasons why this book is so good: 1. The book does not fingerpoint at you the consumer. Rather, he traces the issues back to the industry and government factors which allow for extraordinarily unhealthy practices so that you can make informed choices. 2. He shows a lot of compassion, when compassion is the last thing you feel. 3. He seems to have good research to back him up. I was amazed at the conclusions that the big disease research societies came to (Cancer, Diabetic, and Heart Associations) and how this does not get filtered down to the public. I was amazed at how little we are told about real nutrition and disease prevention. He also uses many comments from research scientists who are speaking out against subjects that one would think they would be in favor of. The piece on Breast Cancer had an especially strong affect on me. 4. The book is well laid out. 5. He doesn't get into the ethical right and wrong so much. Rather, he lays out the backgrounds of different subjects (Antibiotics in cattle, hormones in milk, Genetic engineering of food, etc), presents what the industry says versus what a variety of research and scientific commentary and history says, and then gives you his opinion in a non-preachy way. You will be changed after reading this, and I think in a good way.
Rating: Summary: Don't just stand there, buy the book! Review: If you like any of John's books, your sure to love this one. Don't waste any more time, just buy the book! All the other reviews are good, I just wanted to add a few points, and a few very minor nit-picks. First, a critic might want to call the book a "rehash" of Diet for a New America. And there would be some justification to that. It covers essentially the same ground with mostly the same arguments. I think a better title would have been Diet for a New America Revisited. I would have expected the publisher to want to capitialize on the "Diet for a New America" name for marketing reasons as well, as that book clearly has a lot of name recognition. But while it in many ways could be called a "rehash" of Diet for a New America, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The original was a great book, and John has been needing to update the book with current information for some time. So I'm very glad to see that John has done so. Now for a few other minor nits. John recalls a story where he received annonymous transcripts from a dairy vendor's board meetings. Personally, I don't doubt the story is true. But it isn't verifiable. And I think someone reading it might feel that the story smacks of "conspiracy theory," so I think the story should have been left out. John provides plenty of references as usual, but I did notice on occasion, John provided some statistic or information for which he did not provide a footnote. I think John should have made sure that EVERY statistic provided have some reference. Also, in John's overall completely accurate refutation of some of the current fad diets, like Atkins, Sears (Zone Diet) and the Eat Right for Your Type Diet, he provided a probability statistic that is incorrect. Well, actually, the statistic is actually correct, but the calculation is based on already knowing that the Eat Right for Your Type Diet is rubish. Yes, the diet is rubish, but you can't first assume it is rubish, make a calculation, and then claim that the calculation proves your point. That is circular logic. It is a fine point, but it could be used by someone who wants to discredit John to show that John "just doesn't understand math." Remember, I completely agree with EVERYTHING else John said about the fad diets, and I'm only complaining about one tiny little probablilty calculation he did. But you must understand math if you are going to use math to support your thesis. Now I'd like to take exception to something in the Library Journal's review. That review says "Robbins's zealous advocacy of plant-based nutrition and his refusal to consider the need for animal products in human nutrition throws his book off balance." That is a false assertion. While it is true that John does stongly believe vegetarian nutrition is quite healthy, John never says that he believes everyone should turn completely vegetarian. On the contrary, he indicates that animal husbandry of 100 years ago was reasonably ecologically sound and provided more nutritious food. For example, John indicates that eggs produced from true "free range" chickens contains 6 times as much essential fatty acids (good fats) as factory-farmed eggs. I feel the Library Journal's reviewer is revealing his own bias against vegetarianism rather than reading what John actually said. I did find a few tiny little nits to pick, but don't let that deter you from buying the book. Just do it!
Rating: Summary: Extremely important book! Review: I have read all of John Robbins books, beginning with "Diet for a New America" when it came out years ago. I hesitated to order this book, wondering what more there was to be written on the immense benefits of a plant based diet. I have to admit that I originally bought it more to support John Robbins becaause I gained so much from his other books. But so much has happened in a few years! Genetically engineered foods and Mad Cow Disease were virtually unknown to most people when the first books were written. There is so much more information in this book, both about these new issues and building on the issues addressed in his first books. I spent hours reading this book last night and can't wait to get back to it tonight. This is a must-read for you and everyone you care about.
Rating: Summary: This book will save many lives Review: Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines revolution as a fundamental change in the way of thinking about something. The title for John Robbins new book is very aptly named. This book will change not only the way you think about food -- it will change the way you eat. Twenty chapters, with over nine-hundred footnotes, track the studies and statements of top researchers from around the world as they respond to the public relation claims of the meat and dairy industry. When we see the industry claims refuted, time and again by the best minds in the diet and environmental community, we start to see why there is a revolution going on. I cannot count the number of times I have been asked to provide the study that supports the facts I use. The Food Revolution provides a convenient method of proving issues that the majority of Americans have never realized to be true. It is not what we know that is the problem; it is what we know that isn't so, that is the problem. The Food Revolution will shine light on those "facts" that industry hopes you won't believe. Interesting facts such as: half of all the fish caught in the world are fed to livestock or that 2.5 acres of crop land can produce enough vegetables for twenty people, enough grain for fifteen people, enough chicken for two people or enough beef for one. These revelations really make you stop and think about how we are using our resources. Dr. Patricia Griffin, a government official, from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention states, "It is reasonable that if a consumer undercooks a hamburger that their three-year-old dies?" Placing the total responsibility on the shoulders of the consumers for food safety explains why USDA would accept test results indicating that 89% of hamburger tested containing E.coli 0157:H7 to be accepted as normal. This bacterium is known to kill young children. If your main interest is the environment, The Food Revolution has something for you. For instance cattlemen claim that global warming evidence is inconclusive while at the same time forty -nine Nobel Prize winners, in a letter to the President, stated that it is the most serious environmental threat of the 21st century. We must educate ourselves and as the Prizewinners state, " Only by taking action now can we insure that future generations will not be put at risk." John's first book, Diet for A New America, changed the way many folks were eating. The Food Revolution will give those who are still eating the standard American diet documented facts about their junk food addiction while there is time for a change. John Robbins has written a book that can save more people from an early death than were saved by the use of penicillin. Do yourself a favor and read, The Food Revolution and pass it on to someone you love before it's too late.
Rating: Summary: Disturbing, provocative, and well worth your time! Review: I picked this book by chance browsing through several "healthy food titles". I got it and read it all within 3 days -- not something I usually do considering my outrageous schedule. But I could not stop reading it. It was at times difficult to read -- almost too incredible to be true, and being the researcher I am I even logged into several sites and cross-checked the facts in the book. I guess I could not possibly believe what information "an informed consumer" (or so I thought) like myself did not know. At times I grabbed the nearest family member or co-worker to become victims of my reading aloud passages of the book -- "can you believe they did that or can you believe they don't tell us that?" always followed my little narrations. This book has had an impact on my choices without a doubt and I truly hope that for my sake and everyone else's that it impacts many of our choices. Changes are necessary. Life isn't fair, but I would at least like to have the real facts as a consumer an fellow inhabitant of this planet. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be or considers themselves "an informed consumer". Our choices are our only power -- they speak volumes about us individually and as a society.
Rating: Summary: A fascinating, immensely readable book Review: Within a week of its arrival, my copy of "The Food Revolution" was dogeared and coffee-stained. Such is the fate of a book kept at hand and read and re-read. I pick it up often, opening it to random pages, and find myself instantly absorbed in the powerful telling of how we can save ourselves and our planet by making saner choices at the supermarket. As in his earlier bestseller, "Diet For a New America," the facts are meticulously researched and the conclusions are undeniable - the way we eat can either save or destroy our own lives and the world we live in. But "The Food Revolution" is no dry, scolding compendium of facts. It's an immensely readable book that leaves the reader both sobered and inspired. Robbins empowers us to take control of our lives and our health and our environment. Heady stuff, indeed.
Rating: Summary: The best book I've ever read in my life (and I've read alot) Review: I read Robbins' Diet For A New America some years ago. Over the years since then, I've wondered what he would have to say about current issues such as genetic engineering, mad cow disease, and the many dietary approaches that have become popular in recent years (Sears, Atkins, D'Adamo, etc.). Well, The Food Revolution certainly answers such questions, and much much more. It really put a lot of things together for me, and without being for a second preachy or fanatical, both informed and inspired me. In my opinion, this is a truly life-giving book. I felt so whole in my heart and soul after I finished it. I believe that this book will be immensely helpful to anyone wanting to live a healthier life. There are a lot of things that make this book special. I can't get over how beautifully Robbins writes, and what a fine human being he is. There is so much human depth and understanding, as well as important information, on every page. His many stories about his life and learnings are marvelous. Reading The Food Revolution is a way of being in the presence of a wonderfully compassionate and loving person. Some people who know a lot transmit their knowledge, and somehow I feel burdened or cluttered by it. Robbins has a way of putting things in context so that he imparts important information in a way that makes you feel uplifted and strengthened. To say The Food Revolution is motivating would be a total understatement. It is incredibly compelling. Once I started reading it, I was completely enthralled. I've read many many books over the years (I'm in my sixties, and I read a lot), and I have enjoyed and benefitted from many of them. But I am delighted to say that The Food Revolution is the best book I've ever read in my entire life. I wish I could tell you how much value I have gotten from the experience that I had reading this book. I wish I had words to express it. Robbins is a national treasure, with extraordinary integrity, who walked away from the Baskin Robbins fortune. With The Food Revolution, he has given us a truly fabulous gift. If you want to do something good for your body, heart and soul, read The Food Revolution. And then share it with as many people as you can.
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