Page 93 - Spring2018

All Thumbs Book Reviews

The Dorito Effect: The Surprising have actually declined in many foods. Julia
New Truth about Food and Flavor Child lived through that period of nutrition
By Mark Schatzker and taste decline and commented that really
Simon & Schuster Paperbacks good chicken shouldn't need all kinds of spices,
seasonings and sauces. Good chicken should
Since the 1960s, Americans have spent a lot stand on its own, but modern chicken tastes like
of time and money on weight loss. Between 1989 teddy bear stuffing. I have noticed that smaller
and 2012, we spent around one trillion dollars. fruits do taste better than bigger versions. For
So...how are we doing? Well, obesity is up fifty a long time I thought it was just some personal
percent. Extreme obesity has doubled. It's going delusion, but this book confirms my impression.
about as well as the wars on cancer, drugs and Second, with a food supply now pumped up
poverty. We are not just losing the battle, we're with tasteless water and carbs, the food industry
getting our increasingly bulbous butts kicked. had to fix the flavor problem. Technology, of
One particularly vexing issue is that people course, is the answer. That's the American way.
are not only making bad food choices, many This book explains the huge effort, genius and
are gorging themselves even when they are not technology behind artificial flavors. They can
hungry. There may have been isolated cases of actually make the bland slop grown on factory
this in history but never on the scale we see now. farms taste good. This may be a great technical
People have always liked to eat, but they stopped achievement, but it has created new problems.
when they were full. Now, many don't. What Eating and digestion involve a complex
happened? Why can't we eat just one potato chip, sequence of interactions and feedback loops
Dorito or Twinkie? Why do we slam down a that depend on specific food ingredients to
half-gallon of Häagen-Dazs in twenty minutes? work correctly. When those ingredients are not
Various nutritional villains have played there, it shouldn't be a huge shock that things go
musical chairs over the years. Saturated fat, wrong. How do we fix that? The answer is more This book
polyunsaturated fat and sugar have all been technology. Synthetic vitamins, fake fat. Yum! explains the
popular scapegoats. Each has taken the lead at The book makes an interesting counterintuitive
different times until more science comes along observation about people who have all they huge effort,
to restart the musical chair chorus. This book could ever want to eat. It turns out that endless genius and
takes a close look at a couple of factors that have indulgence in your favorite food does not lead technology
been lurking just outside of popular scrutiny. to happiness but to misery.
First, food production has been taken over I have this crazy idea (and Schatzker seems behind
by corporations that care more about making to agree) that going back to real food might be artificial
money than anything else. How do you make a better answer. Personally, I find Doritos to be flavors.
more money producing chickens, tomatoes, the most revolting, disgusting and nasty food-
apples and grapes? Make bigger chickens, like substance on this planet. Obviously a lot of They can
tomatoes, apples and grapes. Producers have people disagree. Be that as it may, the book's actually
succeeded at that in a big way. The chicken of title is catchy and amusing. Schatzker's skilled make the
the twenty-first century is a bloated behemoth writing holds a reader's attention even when he
compared to the chicken of one hundred years is explaining a long and complex history. I don't bland slop
ago. The same is true for many other foods. recommend the book for detailed nutritional grown on
While size has expanded impressively, taste advice, but it covers the topic of counterfeit food factory farms
and nutrition have not. Nutrition and taste are extremely well and I give it a thumbs UP.
closely related, so it is not surprising that both Review by Tim Boyd taste good.

SPRING 2018 Wise Traditions 91