Green Goes with Everything : Researching and writing this book became a mission of Sloan Barnett after rushing her three-year old son to a hospital emergency room and having his condition diagnosed as a form of asthma. Since neither she nor her husband had any family history of asthma, going back for four generations, they concluded the cause of his attack was environmental. She dived right in and began researching, and it didn’t take long for her to discover that the United States is in the midst of an asthma epidemic. This led her to six well-designed epidemiological studies with one answer–a strong link between certain cleaning products and asthma. She was horrified to discover she could have been the cause of her son’s asthma, that she may have been poisoning her own son. To read the full book review, go here
Food Matters: Nationally known cooking authority, Mark Bittman, follows his best selling, How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, in his new book, Food Matters (2009) acknowledging the threat that carbon emissions pose to our ozone layer and the extent to which our consumption of meat contributes to global warming. He has has grown a plan for “responsible eating that is as good for the planet as it is for your weight and your health.” More than 50% of it is devoted to pantry-stocking and recipes. Bittman considers many his recipes “basic”–all with enough variations that you can change the flavor profile of just about anything you cook without much effort. To read the full book review, go here.
Diet for a Hot Planet: Anna Lappe’s Diet for a Hot Planet does for the present generation what her mother’s classic Diet for a Small Planet did for the last: It empowers us to think in a new way about how food affects our own health as well as that of the planet. Anna’s book may be the most important book published in 2010. This past summer rising oceans buried New Moore Island, a tiny island in the Bay of Bengal that India and Bangladesh fought over for nearly 30 years. Closer to home, Massachusetts suffered ”two 50-year storms in the course of two or three weeks” according to Governor Deval Patrick. That’s a reality check that the climate crisis has already caused tangible effects on our planet, with much more to come.
Anna Lappe holds an MA from Columbia’s school of International & Public Affairs. In 2002 she received the Bioneers Youth Award which honors effective and innovative social and environmental activists. She comes to her subject with extensive exposure in understanding the food systems in the U.S. and in countries around the world. In 2001 she and her mother had discussions with her brother, Anthony, re ideas for the creation of “Hope’s Edge”. For this book Anna and her mother would journey to five continents and nine countries and write this book for us to see the world with their eyes—and in it they would also offer “the next diet for a small planet”–recipes included.
“If we are serious about the climate crisis”, Anna says, “we have to talk about food.” In Diet for a Hot Planet she critiques industrial farming and its carbon costs as she exposes the interests resisting this conversation and the spin-tactics that companies are employing to defuse the heat. To read the full book review, go here.
Eternity Soup: In 2010 two acclaimed science writers published their take on the exploding multibillion dollar anti-aging industry within a month of each other. Greg Critser’s Eternity Soup arrived first; so it will be reviewed first. Here we have a mix of the latest and most rigorous scientific researching, old-fashioned entrepreneurship, and the ancient human desire to find that fountain of youth. Critser examines the origin and teachings of “longevity science”, its relationship with medical science, and the impact it will have on our thinking about our bodies.
He begins by visiting the second international meeting of the Calorie Restricted Society (“CR”= the science of caloric restriction in medical literature) in Tucson, Arizona. This group claims that mild sustained starvation leads to an increased life span. And where did they get this idea? This dates back to the 16th century. Here Critzer presents his delightful history of Liugi Coronado, a Renaissance humanist and businessman, born in Venice in 1484. After making his fortune and partying until he was 35, his physician told him he would not make it to his next birthday. Coronado did an about face and followed his physician’s advice. He learned to eat only what agreed with him and–most important—to stop eating before he was satisfied. He died at 83. To read the full book review, go here.
The Youth Pill: David Stipp is an ideal ambassador to the sometimes surreal landscape of life extension. He is a former senior writer for Fortune and a former staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal where he covered science, medicine and technology. Perhaps it was his experiences thereby which seem to have blessed him with a singular style, crafting complex explanations of scientific successes (and failures) into eminently enjoyable reading.
In 2006 he wrote the front page story for The Wall Street Journal that broke the news that resveratrol—a chemical with anti-oxidant properties found in red wine—resulted in anti-aging effects in mice. His book, “The Youth Pill”, is a well-written, entertaining, and documented journey through all the theories, animal studies and human observations since the 1900s about the attempts to find the fountain of youth. It makes that research come alive by his telling stories about the people involved, the failures and setbacks, and the agonizingly slow process of teasing out the truth. You can see many ideas get tied together in this informative, enjoyable read. To read the full book review, go here.