YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT: A Common-Sense Guide to the Modern American Diet

Gilbert's second-person lecture on ""your"" yucky, unnourishing diet (""You may think you know what's good for you, but you really don't"") might well put off readers who resent being associated with the ""typical"" teenager of survey reports. Others, who need an easy overview of the American diet and its ramifications, will be alerted to some of its hazards and deficiencies, to the role of agribusiness in determining what we eat (and what we like), to the limitations of federal regulatory agencies, and briefly, to the changes we will have to make in response to world food shortages. There is no rigorous analysis here, social, chemical or otherwise, and Gilbert's parting diet tips (""Treat yourself to an ice cream bar or yogurt on a stick instead of a frozen sugar-water pop"") are just as undemanding.