Book Review - Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

by Denise Minger

Rating  ***** (5 Stars)

Death by Food Pyramidis an unbiased nutrition book. By this I mean that the author does not start the book with a particular food slant. That is not to say that the author does not have a history with food. It is her own malnutrition eating vegetarian that lead her to research what research has actually told us about food. Ultimatly this book is about the disconnect between research and education.

When working with humans, and specifically the diet of humans, it is difficult to have a true research experiment. Which is why a lot of the research has been observational research. No cause and effect can be drawn from these studies, however they still can provide a lot of interesting information which can lead to future research studies. Death by Food Pyramidgoes into a variety of research, and does a great job explaining how to interpret the data, and apply it to our own diet.

The second aspect of the book is exploring the education of nutrition. This is what is being taught to students, and what is being disseminated to the general publication. Do you remember learning about the food pyramid in elementary school? I bet they forgot to mention that it was mostly created by lobbying and who had the most financial pull. It is completely disconnected from the science of nutrition.

My favorite aspect of the book is that the reference section is about a third of the book. If a book is trying to say something, and it does not cite its sources, then do not listen. If it does cite its sources, then use them to further explore the topic.

This is a must addition to any library on nutrition.