Caffeine by Michael Pollan

Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't quit caffeine to test out what Pollan is saying, but I did drink extra coffee while listening to this audiobook and I just remembered another study that said that coffee makes you extra-persuadable... hmm. Well, I enjoyed the book and I am persuaded. Nonetheless, I am going to keep drinking coffee because I'm addicted and I choose to cherry-pick the evidence of longer-lived coffee drinkers.

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Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison

Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating by Christy Harrison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the one hand, yes, (1) I see all her social justice points. Very well done. (2) I agree with the culture being a diet-culture complete mess. (3) I agree it helps the diet industry. (4) I agree it's a life-thief. I'm definitely glad I read the book.

On the other hand, (1) I'm not 100% convinced about the health benefits or drawbacks to her position. Even if I take her point that the research is unclear, well, it's still unclear. When I was pregnant with my first child I was very heavy and that was no fun at all. It was tough going up the stairs. I don't relish ever returning to that number on the scale because it had consequences even though I was "healthy" because my body was doing what it was supposed to be doing- growing a human life and building up fat to feed the baby. (2) My personal experience with long periods of intuitive eating is that I just gain and gain weight and never plateau. I don't think I'm alone in this. (3) My only periods of weight maintenance have been while I am dieting. And my current diet doesn't benefit the diet industry because while I don't deny myself any foods I do try to eat more fruits and veggies and eat in a certain time frame. It doesn't cost more money because eating less food and less food at restaurants is costing me less money. Finally, (4) let's not pretend that her position doesn't benefit the food industry. As a former employee of the food industry, this is the exact kind of book they would love to champion. For an obvious example, soda is trash food. Sure you can have it as an occasional treat; nothing really needs to be off the menu. But if you're having soda every day, I promise you that's harming your health. There are a million studies about this.

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1HI1...

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Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An impressively profane and funny memoir about life in restaurant kitchens. You can tell from his language and allusions that he's been hyper-educated (not just in food) though tries to put forward a bad-boy chef persona. I read this after Bourdain died and so there were some passages I found chilling and nearly prescient, but I can't make sense of his suicide at all.

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Why Diets Make Us Fat by Sandra Aamodt

Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss by Sandra Aamodt
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This strikes me as an irresponsible title and first few chapters. The author has clearly looked at a lot of weight studies, though she’s often drawn aggressive conclusions that all diets make you gain weight. Some of the diets aren’t even diets but actual periods of starvation that caused food-related psychological issues.

As the author herself states, there are numerous reasons why people gain weight, not just as the first few chapters suggest, the actual act of dieting. By Chapter 9, she’s listing people who can’t lose weight through intuitive eating. By Chapter 10, she’s discussing how the food environment is itself a huge factor in causing weight gain.

She’s also underplayed the importance of achieving a lower weight- even temporarily- to lifespan.

Maybe start with Chapter 11, and read chapters 1-10 in backward order.


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Wasted by Marya Hornbacher

Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Riveting memoir with very interesting insights into family, psychology, loneliness, and life in general. Kindle and Goodreads tell me that I highlighted 49 sentences or passages, which should give you an idea of how much I valued this writing. A lot of people are overly focused on the fact that the memoir is about the author's struggle with anorexia, but to me, the part I valued most was the author's honest and brilliantly written struggle with despair, depression, and just life itself. It is a bit lopsided because she discusses her pseudo-recoveries after her first two hospitalizations but not after the third, but perhaps her next memoir, which I plan to read, covers that more.

As I said, I highlighted many sentences in the memoir, but this one is so me, haha: "I was my parents' only child, which is unfortunate because you are their pride and joy and the bane of their existence all at once."

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This Blessed Earth by Ted Genoways

This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm by Ted Genoways
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am perhaps more interested in this topic than the average reader. I moved to Nebraska about 6 months ago, and I've been trying to read more about Nebraska in general. Being fairly proximate to the farms (actually, I was close to farms in Long Island too) I'm especially interested in Nebraskan farming, and American farming in general. I'm especially disturbed by corporate ownership of seeds and specific plant genetic-variations.

Right when we moved here, our government started a trade war with China, which resulted in difficulty selling Nebraskan soybeans at good prices. The book ends right at about that point, and I'm interested in how that problem has developed.

Even with my very specific interest in this topic though, I felt like the book progressed slowly. Also, there was only one family member that I felt was sufficiently developed/described for me to take an interest in.

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