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(13 reviews)
Editorial Review: Advance Praise for Food Fight
"This is a fascinating, empowering book must-read filled with practical ways to take action" -- Shape Magazine
“Food Fight is a blueprint for the nation taking action on the obesity crisis. In his analysis, Brownell is balanced but bold, courageous and creative. A public health landmark.” --David A. Kessler, M.D., Dean, Yale School of Medicine, Former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
“We are indeed involved in a food fight. It is a fight for the health of America---especially our children. This book provides much of the necessary ammunition to win this fight.” --David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., former Surgeon General, Director of the National Center for Primary Care, Morehouse School of Medicine
“Provides a compelling approach to reverse the obesity epidemic now gripping our nation. Anyone concerned about this crisis, and that should include all Americans...
Customer Reviews:
0 of 6 found this review helpful:
It's not my fault, save the children and other clichés, 2005-10-13
I've read both the book and the reviews, and it's funny how saving the children is the "it's not my fault" finger-pointing device du jour. I don't purport to be a cross-section of America, but I have no problems getting my toddlers out of a grocery store without their Sponge-Bob cereal (my wife is a different story...she loves the stuff) and can drive by a McDonalds while ignoring the shrieks of "we want a happy meal!"
However, I am overweight. I don't blame Kraft or McDonalds (although I wouldn't mind getting in on that cash cow once the lawsuits hit), I can perfectly well on my own decide to down the entire bag of Oreos without a 30-second ad telling me to.
Mr. Brownell's anecdotal descriptions of the effects of advertising on obesity do not create any link. As a matter of fact (forget citation of study...but could look it up if anyone wants it) the amount of calories consumed by the average person has increased about 1% over the last 20 years, while the obesity rate has soared. So...somehow the food industry has been plotting against my children by adding 400% more calories into that 1%? It doesn't make sense, as do most of the arguments in the book.
6 of 15 found this review helpful:
Weak Argument, 2005-03-22
Yes, fast food is everywhere. No, Americans don't eat enough "real" food (that is, food which was prepared from fresh, natural ingredients). Yes, if we ate more real food and less fast food, we'd be healthier.
But here's where Dr. Brownell goes wrong. He pushes the popular myth (already rejected by cooler heads within the medical profession) that if we were healthier, we'd automatically be *slimmer.* As others have mentioned, he doesn't take individual choice into account. Nor does he so much as mention the ill effects of dieting; from a researcher of eating disorders, such an oversight seems huge.
It has also already been said that Dr. Brownell--also the author of several weight-loss books--is himself a fat man. Does this mean that he *himself* follows an unhealthy lifestyle rather than heeding his own advice to others...and is therefore no better off than anyone *else* his size? Or does it mean that weight loss is *not,* in fact, always a health solution or even a likelihood--and that he is therefore a living flaw in his own argument? Let the reader be the judge.
7 of 9 found this review helpful:
Not an entirely satisfying read, 2004-11-12
This book hopes to explain why the world is currently facing a childhood obesity crsis. It places blame on multimedia and national apathy, rather than on individual action. While most of the authors points are well made and researched, the book covers material that has been widely available to most North Americans. Solutions are suggested, but some are not well thought out, and perpetuate other social and global concerns such as child labour in third world countries. While educational, this is not an entirely satisfying read.
17 of 20 found this review helpful:
Eye popping look at America's march to obesity!, 2004-08-03
Yowsa! This is a well researched account of how the food manufacturers are luring Americans into obesity beginning with our children.
Companies use product placement, product endorsement, product sizing and other factors to lure us into purchasing items that are not always the best for our health. By starting with our children, these manufacturers can capture a market and make profits for life.
Take soft drinks for example. Through active promotion, soda companies have encouraged greater consumption. According to Brownell, soda consumption in the eleven through seventeen age group has doubled within the past 20 years. Stores like 7-Eleven have increased the large size of pop from 16 oz to a 64 oz Double Gulp. Celebrities are used to push pop and brand name bottles show up on popular television shows.A twenty ounce bottle of a typical soft drink has 15 teaspoons of sugar. Is it any wonder that soda is the number one cause of obesity in children?
Brownell walks you through shocking examples of how Disney and other characters that are plastered on boxes of usually processed food items capture the child's desire. How sports heros like Michael Jordan (McDonald's) and entertainers like Garth Brooks (Dr. Pepper) are used to sell foods many of which are not in the consumers best interest.
Different manufactureres are out there lobbying to get your dollars and they are not thinking of your expanding girth or health. The sugar industry, for example, encourages the addition of sugar to everything from peanut butter to cereal to condiments to increase their bottomline (Americans consume 152 pounds per person per year).
The idea of MORE FOOD equals value is also covered. Why buy 1 taco at 89cents when you can have two for only a few cents more. Again encouraging consumption. Yes you can upgrade from that minibon to a classic cinnabon for only 48cents. But that 48cents will buy you 370 extra un-needed calories!
Brownell shares in depth the temptation our schools are facing. Many schools are selling out to pizza and soda companies. These rich producers offer millions of dollars to the educational system in exchange for brand placement. The schools eager to supplement their meager resources are loathe to turn it down.
Brownell also gives information on what we can do to stem the tide of the unhealthy food that is being foisted on us. He gives a number of suggestions including incentives for purchasing healthy foods, taxes on non-nutritious food, greater access and lower prices on real food and much more.
Most of us recognize that we are being targeted by the food producers. But as you read through this 358 page book you will realize just how far reaching the problem is. An excellent read for parents who are having a hard time resisting the call of "Blues Clues" fruit treats and for the eater who wonders why they just sucked in a muffin that could easily feed 4.
Excellent information and resource!
Lee Mellott
26 of 58 found this review helpful:
Being overweight isn't your fault, he says, 2004-07-22
Wow, what a depressing book Kelly Brownell has written. Agribusiness is apparently creating a "toxic environment" for us, especially children, and that environment makes it IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to choose foods wisely.
As social science goes, this is garbage. As for even remotely enlightened insight into how any business works, it's one of the stupidest books I've ever read.
To begin with, Mr. Brownell is obese himself, which is rather shocking from the director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders. Like Dr. Phil McGraw, he has ZERO business writing a book about obesity.
This topic is absolutely, concretely germane to his work. After all, a constant theme in the book is that Big Scary Food Companies have Big Scary Vested Interests in producing "toxic" foods. Wouldn't a fat person have a vested interest in writing a book blaming his fatness on anything other than himself?
Where to begin with the distortions here? My favorite, which is an overarching narrative throughout Food Fight: It's apparently cheaper to eat junk food, according to Brownell, which is why the poor are so much more likely to be obese than the rest of the population.
As someone who made his way through grad school on a weekly food budget of about $25, I'm here to tell you that black beans, brown rice and non-exotic fruits/vegetables bought in season are MUCH cheaper than a $5 trip to McDonald's or Taco Bell three times a day. And the beans/rice/vegetables diet has the added advantage of being nutritionally dense instead of calorically so.
Poor people also smoke, drink alcohol and do drugs at much higher rates than the general population. Is this because ciggies are cheaper than air, gin cheaper than water and drugs cheaper than jogging for endorphins? Does Mr. Brownell not understand that the same people who make poor money/employment/education choices often make poor dietary/substance consumption choices as well? But because he, an important Yale faculty member, is obese, he cannot see the general impulse-control problems that rule poor people's lives.
Brownell is right that we're genetically programmed to want high concentrations of calories. Where he's so wrong it hurts is that he believes the producers, not the consumers, are at fault when eaters overindulge. Again, being obese himself, he probably really believes that he's not in control when he's stuffing Malomars down his gullet.
Bottom line to Kelly Brownell's "science:" People are so dad-blamed stupid that they eat whatever's advertised on TV. They're just zombies with a taste for Big Macs instead of human flesh. Parents are powerless to refuse their children's demands for Ding Dongs and Frosted Flakes. Food companies must quit selling the high-calorie items that are their most popular, or governments must start suing them, a la the tobacco industry.
Moronic. Mr. Brownell needs to start where the real responsibility lies: In his own (obese) mouth.
