ali
Level 7 Valued Member
If I may offer up a recent book for digestion:
The Angry Chef: Bad Science and the Truth about Healthy Eating by Anthony Warner
This is so long overdue. The anger of the angry chef is directed at the pernicious psycho-babble and nutri-bollocks seeping into our lives.
He has a blog and some of the writings are in the book but he is a whole lot less angry and less sweary here. His blogs are full of fun-poking profanity towards the clean eating brigade led by the high priestesses Gywnnie Paltrow and Deliciously Ella. This is an altogether more reasoned, balanced and stimulating tour into the psychology of false beliefs, behavioural economics and the scientific method. Paleo, coconut oil, gluten-free, detoxing, sugar free, fat free, alkaline diet, gaps and any fad/restrictive diet, all get a good roasting. It may well be an uncomfortable read for some. The mocking of kale smoothies, and the humour aside, is muted by the impassioned and serious tone. It isn't a nutrition or recipe book, in fact the only advice he gives is to eat a lot of different things in moderation, with maybe a bit of oily fish here and there and to move more. He's a chef, a very humble one at that and maybe learning to cook is not a bad idea. That is it. The rest of the book is devoted to refuting any claims to the contrary, that they are unproven, doubtful, in some cases plain wrong and potentially harmful. On detox, he summed up how I have felt about the diet - therapy crossover on many occasions:
…on writing about kale, quinoa, super foods etc on their ability to detox, as is often spouted: "That is not to say they are not good for you, just that they cannot unpoison you, especially when you haven't been poisoned"……and " It has been said that the energy required to refute bullshit is many times required to produce it".
It's an effing good read. We have to try to stop the bullshit octopus……I hope in a small way I'm doing that by suggesting this book!
The Angry Chef: Bad Science and the Truth about Healthy Eating by Anthony Warner
This is so long overdue. The anger of the angry chef is directed at the pernicious psycho-babble and nutri-bollocks seeping into our lives.
He has a blog and some of the writings are in the book but he is a whole lot less angry and less sweary here. His blogs are full of fun-poking profanity towards the clean eating brigade led by the high priestesses Gywnnie Paltrow and Deliciously Ella. This is an altogether more reasoned, balanced and stimulating tour into the psychology of false beliefs, behavioural economics and the scientific method. Paleo, coconut oil, gluten-free, detoxing, sugar free, fat free, alkaline diet, gaps and any fad/restrictive diet, all get a good roasting. It may well be an uncomfortable read for some. The mocking of kale smoothies, and the humour aside, is muted by the impassioned and serious tone. It isn't a nutrition or recipe book, in fact the only advice he gives is to eat a lot of different things in moderation, with maybe a bit of oily fish here and there and to move more. He's a chef, a very humble one at that and maybe learning to cook is not a bad idea. That is it. The rest of the book is devoted to refuting any claims to the contrary, that they are unproven, doubtful, in some cases plain wrong and potentially harmful. On detox, he summed up how I have felt about the diet - therapy crossover on many occasions:
…on writing about kale, quinoa, super foods etc on their ability to detox, as is often spouted: "That is not to say they are not good for you, just that they cannot unpoison you, especially when you haven't been poisoned"……and " It has been said that the energy required to refute bullshit is many times required to produce it".
It's an effing good read. We have to try to stop the bullshit octopus……I hope in a small way I'm doing that by suggesting this book!
