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auntieannie

auntieannie

Currently reading

Paddy's Lament, Ireland 1846-1847: Prelude to Hatred
Thomas Gallagher
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Jenny K. Blake
When in French: Love in a Second Language
Lauren Collins
Beyond the Job Description: How Managers and Employees Can Navigate the True Demands of the Job
Jesse Sostrin
Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing
David Hubel, Margaret S. Livingstone
Achieving Your Potential As A Photographer: A Creative Companion and Workbook
Harold Davis
Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age
Sherry Turkle
Picture Perfect Practice: A Self-Training Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Taking World-Class Photographs (Voices That Matter)
Roberto Valenzuela
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl, Harold S. Kushner
Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection
Jacob Silverman

What to Eat

What to Eat - Marion Nestle More about what not to eat than what to eat. Lenny recommended I read this after I read In Defense of Food. I think In Defense of Food covers what to eat, while it draws heavily on the information presented in this book. Very interesting reading about the background of how decisions are made by the FDA, the USDA, grocery stores, food manufacturers, etc. Really convinces me to try to get as much locally, from sources that I know, with as little processing as possible. The testing and quality checks are highly suspect and political. Nestle has a unique voice, and a bit of humor / arch tone. She is very knowledgeable, but doesn't seem too uptight about it all -- a good balance,and probably a hard one to achieve for most people. But she admits to occasional junk food weaknesses, such as Oreos. On the other hand, together with Pollan, I've been convinced to go back to regular butter instead of the margarine type substances that have been passing as health foods.I'll probably read her Food Politics at some point. At this time, I'm more interested in Diet for a small planet, macrobiotics, ph, etc, after spending quite a lot of time reading this book, which is fairly thick.She basically goes through the supermarket, aisle by aisle, critiquing the safety, nutritional value and cost of the products by category. She gives you some guidelines for choices in her summary of each section. But she'd help more by telling you to go beyond the supermarket, buy from farmer's markets, csa's, grow your own, etc. In terms of "taking action", she advises over and over to contact your government representatives, but she gives me so little confidence that this would accomplish anything in the face of the massive lobbying and special interest groups, that it was discouraging. It was much more encouraging to read Pollan and hear Frances Moore Lappe. So, Nestle's book is good background information, but needs to be coupled with something else to form an action plan.