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The Dorito Effect Spiral-Bound | 2016-03-15

Mark Schatzker

★★★★☆+ from 1,001 to 10,000 ratings

$18.69 - Free Shipping
A lively argument from an award-winning journalist proving that the key to reversing America’s health crisis lies in the overlooked link between nutrition and flavor: “The Dorito Effect is one of the most important health and food books I have read” (Dr. David B. Agus, New York Times bestselling author).

We are in the grip of a food crisis. Obesity has become a leading cause of preventable death, after only smoking. For nearly half a century we’ve been trying to pin the blame somewhere—fat, carbs, sugar, wheat, high-fructose corn syrup. But that search has been in vain, because the food problem that’s killing us is not a nutrient problem. It’s a behavioral problem, and it’s caused by the changing flavor of the food we eat.

Ever since the 1940s, with the rise of industrialized food production, we have been gradually leeching the taste out of what we grow. Simultaneously, we have taken great leaps forward in technology, creating a flavor industry, worth billions annually, in an attempt to put back the tastes we’ve engineered out of our food. The result is a national cuisine that increasingly resembles the paragon of flavor manipulation: Doritos. As food—all food—becomes increasingly bland, we dress it up with calories and flavor chemicals to make it delicious again. We have rewired our palates and our brains, and the results are making us sick and killing us.

With in-depth historical and scientific research, The Dorito Effect casts the food crisis in a fascinating new light, weaving an enthralling tale of how we got to this point and where we are headed. We’ve been telling ourselves that our addiction to flavor is the problem, but it is actually the solution. We are on the cusp of a new revolution in agriculture that will allow us to eat healthier and live longer by enjoying flavor the way nature intended.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 272 pages
ISBN-10: 1476724237
Item Weight: 0.5 lbs
Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.4 inches
Customer Reviews: 4 out of 5 stars 1,001 to 10,000 ratings
Illuminating and radical."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"Mark Schatzker's book comes at a time when healthful eating and sustainability are increasingly on everyone's minds. The Dorito Effect is a quick, engaging read that examines the essential role that flavor plays in the way we eat today. As a chef, I know that people want to eat delicious food, but Schatzker goes further and investigates how we engage with flavor to address the growing health crisis."
-- Daniel Boulud, Chef/Owner, The Dinex Group

"Mark Schatzker has done something monumental in The Dorito Effect, he explained how the American food industry has interfered with our body's conversation with itself. The use of flavor to change this conversation is one of the major reasons for the decline in the American diet leading to major health issues. The Dorito Effect is one of the most important health and food books I have read."
-- David B. Agus, M.D., author of The End of Illness and A Short Guide to a Long Life

"In The Dorito Effect Mark Schatzker explores a novel - and to my mind, key - theory to explain our increasing consumption of the low-quality food that is undermining health. Modern food production has made much of what we eat flavorless, and a multibillion dollar flavor industry has stepped in to fool our senses, leaving us unsatisfied and craving more and more. I strongly agree with his advice to go back to eating real food."
-- Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. New York Times bestselling author of Healthy Aging

"I don't know when this much science has been this fun to read. Brilliant."
-- Joel Salatin, author of Folks, This Ain't Normal and farmer at Polyface Farm

Mark Schatzker is an award-winning writer based in Toronto. He is a writer-in-residence at the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center at Yale University, and a frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Condé Nast Traveler, and Bloomberg Pursuits. He is the author of The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor and Steak: One Man's Search for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef.