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Summary: Used to be a vegan...
Review: Although I've been a vegetarian nearly all my life, and read Robbin's book when it first came out, I must warn potential readers that it is highly slanted and biased, having chosen or ignored evidence that fits which his thesis, to present what is really a somewhat dishonest book of half-truths. For example: he'll never mention that primitive meat-eating tribes around the world, or archeological evidence of past tribes, reveals that they never had cavities, teeth problems, or osteoporosis, - but when tribes changed to a farming culture, they suddenly began to the same teeth and bone problems that we can today. (Or that I, a long-time vegetarian, have. I'm now in the process of introducing more dairy, and perhaps meats, into my diet.) for a starting page in getting another viewpoint, go to the WestonAPrice site. Weston A. Price is one of the foremost writers on this.
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Summary: This was the book that finally changed me.
Review: Diet For A New America is a brutally honest trek into the brutality of todays meat industry. It also makes you aware of the type of toxins and poisons we have been allowed to put into our bodies. This book shows that ignorance is not bliss, it is dangerous-not only to ourselves, but to other living things.
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Summary: This book should be required reading for all!
Review: Diet for a New America is a truly amazing book. Actually, I am only halfway through it so far, but it is one of the most eye-opening and life-changing books I have ever read. John Robbins uncovers the evils of the meat and dairy industries and shows the horrible suffering the poor animals go through just so we can have a 'tasty' meal. But he writes in such a compassionate way, totally devoid of the angsty quality that we often hear from activists. The book is extremely well-researched and Robbins is obviously very intelligent. I had just recently become vegetarian (lacto-ovo) before buying this book and was looking for supplemental information to justify my choice (besides the fact that I just didn't like meat). This book definitely provided it! Not only does it justify my being a vegetarian, but now I'm seriously pursuing an entirely animal-free, vegan diet. Robbins gives us the information to help save countless animal lives... and also our own lives!! I would recommend this book to anyone. (Check out his website too...)
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Summary: Greed in America food industry
Review: Eventhough I'm only half-way through the book, it has already impacted my life in so many ways. For startes, I have vowed to stop eating all red meat. The only thing I am still consuming is fish . . . not a lot. Hopefully with time, I can abstain from that too. But what really tick me is the greed in the beef/poultry industries! I can tell you more, but I think it is more effective if you read this book. The truth in this book will waken the humanity in you, at the very least.
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Summary: Well written, maybe biased on some facts
Review: I have read this book for the first time in 1992. It instantly converted me to be a vegetarian till this day.
A well written book, it shows how cruel we are treating the rest of the living creatures on this planet. And at a cost to our own health too.
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Summary: Thinking about becoming a vegetarian? Start with this video.
Review: I watched this video in 1997 and haven't consumed meat since. John Robbins provides an excellent introduction to the health, humane and environmental reasons for becoming a vegetarian. Initially I was most persuaded by the humane reasons, but having been a vegetarian for seven years, I am also convinced of the health benefits. John Robbins presents a very gentle and positive introduction to the benefits of a plant-based diet.
Some of the reviewers have argued that people need to eat meat to stay healthy. This is a preposterous assertion which is clearly rebutted by millions of healthy vegetarians, including many world-class athletes. Numerous studies have shown that vegetarians have longer life expectancies than their meat-eating counterparts (try Googling "vegetarian life expectancy").
Another good source of information on the topic eating meat (and why not to) is "Mad Cowboy" by Howard Lyman, a former cattle rancher. For a philosophical treatment of the subject see Peter Singer's classic book "Animal Liberation." Peter Singer is a professor of philosophy at Princeton University.
I highly recommend this video.
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Summary: Tremendous book
Review: John Robbins is my new hero... after first reading "Reclaiming Our Health", I was so influenced by Robbins that I purchased "Diet for a New America" and read it in two days.I must say, these two books have done a great deal to change the way I look at my diet, my health, my life and preventing disease in the future. I can truthfully say that each chapter is a series of new revelations for me... from the horrific treatment of the animals we eat, to studies of how animal products affect our health (and it's not good), how are diets are irrefutably linked to cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, osteoporosis, diabetes and and *host* of other ailments - basically, how WE are causing disease in ourselves, and how we can reverse it. If you really want to know the truth behind such institutions as the Dairy Council, the Beef Association, the Cancer Institute, the American Medical Association and many other industry interest groups and how they control policy in this country, and how it affects your health - read this book & "Reclaiming our Health". Though some of the info is stuff you probably already know - you *will* learn something new, I promise. If you don't learn something & you're not shocked/disgusted/amazed at the information in this book... then I will assume you are actually doing something positive in this world. If not, then I just don't understand what will move you.
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Summary: please, please, please read this book
Review: This book addresses an issue that no one in America likes to face: where our meat really comes from. It's certainly worse than I ever imagined. I'm one of those people who doesn't even like to recognize that a hamburger is ground-up cow: the idea makes me lose my appetite every time. But this book is one that everyone who eats meat needs to read, even people as squeamish as me. Because by eating meat, we all encourage the current meat production system to continue. We should at least know what it is that we're encouraging. No wonder this book gains so many converts to vegetarianism. Although Robbins' book is filled with strong adjectives and a definite bias in favor of vegetarianism, his book is anything but a piece of propaganda. Filled with footnotes and a very impressive list of sources, he has the facts to back up every seemingly exagerrated statement he makes. He thoroughly covers every side of the meat-eating issue, beginning with explaining how similar/superior(?) animals are to us in their ability to love unconditionally. He then describes the way these sensitive creatures are raised for meat in America, showing beyond any doubt that their lives are hell from the day they are born: death is a blessed end to suffering for these creatures. Robbins then explains the connections between a diet high in meat and dairy and virtually every major disease threatening Americans. He ends by thoroughly explaining how reducing our consumption of animal products can also solve many supposedly unrelated issues facing our nation: deforestation, war, pollution, and energy consumption. Please read this book: you will be surprised by the things you didn't know.
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Summary: A classic of environment-friendly literature
Review: This is a radical polemic with a clear intention: to increase the number of vegans in the world. In a way it is a throwback--with similar effect--to Upton Sinclair's famous novel, The Jungle, about the filth in the Chicago stockyards, except that it is non-fiction (mostly, anyway). John Robbins wants to rub our nose in the filth, neglect and cruelty characteristic of the meat and poultry industries. He wants an end to the mass production and consumption of animal foods.
He begins with some amazing and heart-warming stories about the courage and selflessness of animals and how much they do for us. Then he turns his focus to the way we treat the animals we use for food. It is difficult to read this part of the book, and indeed I confess that I skipped ahead. I already know about those appalling conditions having seen them on TV. Next he argues that we need less protein than the "protein empire" wants us to believe. He goes on to show how we can get all the protein our bodies require through a vegan diet. Then he argues that many cancers can be prevented with a proper diet that excludes animal products while implicating the products of the meat and poultry industries in the development of many diseases, especially the chronic diseases epidemic in the Western world. He concludes with a general manifesto in favor of an agrarian kind of heaven on earth.
I am sorry to report, as other reviews have, that there are many errors and misconceptions in the book. In a minor error on page 176, for example, Robbins writes that "wheat...is 17% protein." Actually (as the USDA chart on the next page shows) 17% of the calories from wheat are in the form of protein, which is decidedly not the same thing. That chart also shows that 49% of the calories from spinach come from protein, but this does not mean that if you ate a pound of spinach you would eat almost half a pound of protein. Spinach is not 49% protein. It has water and fiber, etc. and it doesn't have a lot of calories.
More important than the outright errors are the misrepresentations in the way Robbins sometimes presents his facts. For example on pages 266-267 he writes that instances of cervical cancer are "highest among women who consume diets high in fat, particularly animal fat." He adds that "cervical cancer in women in developing countries who began intercourse before age seventeen is two to three times higher than for those who began later." What he doesn't say (and probably didn't know) is that cervical cancer is caused by a papillomavirus and as such is a sexually transmitted disease.
He also writes about the deforestation of America. The rate he gives from 1967 to 1986 when he wrote the first edition of this book is "one acre every five seconds." (p. 361) Actually, the amount of forested lands in the United States has increased by quite a bit since 1967 and some of that increase was during the years in question.
I mention these shortcomings because I want to be fair, even though I realize that Robbins is more intent on serving his cause than being fair. I can put that aside because I believe that Robbins has done a fine public service in writing this book because it is a much-needed counterpoint to the billions of dollars worth of pro-meat and poultry industry propaganda and advertising that is constantly intruding upon our lives.
Bottom line: for all its faults this is a classic of environmentalist literature and an extraordinary book that changed the lives of untold thousands of people by persuading them to adopt a more environment-friendly diet. However I wish that there was an updated edition (instead of just a reprint of the edition of 1987) that corrects some of the errors and takes cognizance of what has happened since then.
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Summary: Used to be a vegan...
Review: When I first read this book over a decade ago, I was convinced. I turned to vegetarianism and then veganism for about 4 years. I began looking sallow, unhealthy and started losing my hair. Then someone told me about the work of Weston Price and Francis Pottenger who studied primitive tribes in the 30's that ate mostly meat and dairy along with minimal fruits and vegetables and almost no grains. I immediately rebounded in health and look and feel 10 x better.
I have no problem with most of Robbins' assertions in this book, but feel that what it really portrays is the corporatization of food manufacturing. It is possible to shop and buy naturally and humanely raised meat and dairy products, just as one would buy organic fruits and vegetables. Therein lies the difference for me, that animals raised unnaturally become sick, require more antibiotics, and generally are much fatter and unhealthier than those that are fed their normal diet (i.e., grass for cows). So to eat an unhealthy animal is unwise in the first place.
A good reference book is "Why Grassfed is Best" by Jo Robinson.
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