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CONSUMED

WHY AMERICANS LOVE, HATE, AND FEAR FOOD

Stacey, a magazine journalist, contends that Americans have become paranoid about food, especially about fat, and that our fears have taken the pleasure out of eating. To support this contention, she marshals Julia Child, who complains about our ``fear of food,'' and chef and cookbook author Jacques PÇpin, who claims that we are ``berserk about food.'' Stacey thinks we might be ``surprised'' to learn of similar anxieties felt by diet reformists of 100 years ago. We're not, if we've kept up with other popular food histories of recent years. Nor is her closing recommendation, for moderation and emulation of traditional diets, so different from that of the nutrition-minded authorities she scorns. She certainly exaggerates the ``paranoia,'' pretty much ignores its objective causes other than the fat factor, and sometimes backs down on that, conceding in places that too much fat is ``not good for anyone.'' Her opinionated assertions and assumptions can be annoying to readers who can't answer back. Still, she writes well and has an intelligent grasp of her material, and the heart of the book is meatier than the bracketing position papers. Her chapter on the case against fat gives a fair and succinct review of major studies. Other chapters based on interviews report on the problems of the product Simplesse and other fake fats in getting the taste and texture just right; the failure of Quaker Oats to hop off the oat bran wave before it crashed; and the ongoing research into and development of ``nutraceuticals'' (probably destined for pill form) and ``designer foods'' such as anti-cancer juice drinks (with concentrations of, say, beta-carotene) and bread made with flaxseed (high in heart- healthy omega-three fatty acids and other disease-fighting nutrients). Without thumping, Stacey touches on the practical and philosophical, not to mention aesthetic and culinary, questions these endeavors suggest. She also casts a cool and knowing eye on eating disorders and on overzealous restaurant-goers, though these chapters are less informative. In all, provocative and accomplished.

Pub Date: April 14, 1994

ISBN: 0-671-76754-2

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994

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WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...

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A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.

Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”

A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6

Page Count: 248

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015

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GOOD ECONOMICS FOR HARD TIMES

Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.

“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.

It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.

Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.

Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0

Page Count: 432

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019

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