The Dorito Effect by Mark Schatzker

The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Surprisingly good thesis about the cause of the obesity epidemic. The premise is that human (and animals) recognize and crave the nutrients they need by recognizing the appropriate flavors. So for example, strawberries have countless things we need. Therefore, they taste delicious to us. Many plants also have toxins that we tolerate well in low doses, but once we start to consume too much of the toxins our bodies tell us we're full or we stop desiring to eat that particular plant.

However, in the modern era, healthy foods have been bred for mass production and these foods have become less and less tasty. This is an accurate sign that they are also less nutritious now. We mask the lack of flavor with artificial flavors. Sometimes we add vitamins or minerals to things but it's not in the efficient balance nature provides such as in low-calorie nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables, and meats.

So on the one hand, we wrecked the healthy foods- making them less healthy and less tasty. On the other hand, we made delicious unhealthy foods like the book's namesake Doritos. Our instincts tell us tasty = healthy. But now our instinct are wrong. Since our nutritional needs are not properly or completely being met we eat more and more delicious things to fill this nutritional void. But it doesn't work because the tasty things (junk food) don't contain nutrition- in fact, they make us feel worse. Also, they don't contain any of the chemicals or toxins that other foods do that signal our bodies to stop eating.

Most of this is backed up with animal and plant studies, though the author frequently states the need for more research into the science of the link between flavor and nutrition. I especially found this argument interesting because it's a partial rejection of the pure calories theory of weight gain and obesity.



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Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I feel like this is the part where I have to defend why I liked this so much. But no. It was a very enjoyable book. It was bad ass. It was feminist. I might even read it again one day. I liked the journey itself, I liked her writing, I liked the people she met, I liked all of it.

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H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Helen Macdonald writes beautifully. I am touched by the sorrow of her losing her father. I lost my father too and made me (more) crazy for years. I can relate.

BUT this book feels like a talented writer sat down to complete a book by adding things for word count related to: 1) the incredibly difficult task of training a a huge goshawk, 2) her father's death, 3) her father's photography (small amount), 4) T.H. White's book The Goshawk, 5) the diaries of T.H. White, 6) T.H. White's other writings, 7) T.H. White's homosexuality even though this is barely related to his goshawk training and in no way has anything to do with her sexuality or her father's.

Also, these topics appear to be in no chronological order or any other logical order. It's so random. It doesn't come together for me. And despite all this craziness, the book is exceptionally dull. So boring. I just forced myself through it out of sheer stubbornness.

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The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm of a very mixed mind about this book. I'll break it down by what I liked and what I didn't like.

What I liked:

Weisman covers the past, present and future of the planet- if in the future humans are extinct.

He gives a lot of background about how humans have damaged the planet and caused the extinction of species from our very earliest history.

Weisman does a pretty good job of highlighting how complicated and awful the things that we're doing to the planet are. These things are harming animals (and presumably us) and might ultimately lead to the extinction or aggressive evolution of many species.

In the future, our extinction, whether or not caused by this damage (probably not- our extinction is unlikely because we're basically cockroaches of survival) will not fully heal the planet. In fact, some of what we do is monitor our own damage by fighting invasive species or keeping the nuclear facilities/gas refineries/other scary factories from melting down.

He also discusses the benefits of population control.

Terrifying.

What I didn't like:

This book is super disorganized and boring. The three parts and chapter headings claim a certain organization that doesn't hold up as you read. The effect is that you feel like you're just reading a bunch of examples of awful things we've done, and how this might play out in a humanless future. I think this is because the idea for the book/title was a gimmick for sales.

His discussion of population control is very irreverent and doesn't seem very professional.

Here's an important thing he didn't discuss. What if we don't all disappear (unlikely) and in a more plausible situation a huge number of us die of a modern epidemic. How do the survivors take care of and protect all the nuclear facilities/gas refineries/other scary factories from melting down? How do we avoid some terrifying doomsday political takeover? How do we simply deal with all the bodies and trash that's left behind?

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