Panic on a Plate: How Society Developed an Eating Disorder [Paperback]

Read the customer reviews on the amazon.uk site for more insightful reviews of this book than PeterD offers: readers give it 4-1/2 stars.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panic-Plate-Developed-Disorder-Societas/dp/1845402162

This book provides a welcome push back against the food police and alarmists who are so determined to use government to interfere with our right to make choices as individuals about what we eat. As one UK Amazon reviewer put it: "As with so many "public panics", the hysteria over diet is shown to be a mix of vastly exaggerated risks and over-politicising of Health and safety issues which inevitably leads to distortions of the science and the growth of entire industries with a vested interest in keeping the panic going."

PeterD gives this book only one star with a recommendation that it not be read. He is focused on something quite different from the author's purpose: an expose of the way nanny staters and government busybodies use misinformation, exaggeration, and fear-mongering to get their way, without regard for what you might decide is best for yourself. They are trying to force us all into a one-size-fits-all diet, without regard for broad variation in body metabolism, health and disease status, and individual preference. What's good nutrition for one person may be quite inappropriate for another.

Assaults on our intellect, our lifestyles, and our freedoms are coming at us from many different directions these days: energy policy, climate, food, airport security, well, the list is growing all the time. All of these efforts to control us, to force us to follow someone else's decisions about their idea of the one right way to live use the same tactics of force that all totalitarians employ.

You may be interested in reading "The Art of Suppression" by Chris Snowden. A good review of this book was posted by British blogger Dick Puddlecote at <...>
"Bullying of politicians; the default, and false, demonisation of industry to avoid debate; the level playing field as a tool for authoritarianism; misrepresentation of societal indicators; manipulation of the press; pinning of their particular grouse to a populist (and often racist) scare; the use of taxation as a cover for prohibition; lying (a biggie in the snus debate); science by press release; incubation of irrational moral panic; and the bastardisation of science and education for ideological ends. All have their roots in history. All are still used today. All are still swallowed by an unquestioning public. All lead to outcomes which make little difference - or sometimes increase the danger - to the substance or practice which is being targeted."

Rob Lyons's "Panic on a Plate" explains how the same bad tactics that were used in the Prohibition era are now being applied to American food choices. Think it's all an overblown issue? It's reached the point where government apparatchiks now search children's lunchboxes for compliance with Big Nanny's rules. Just recently a 4-year-old was forced to eat an unhealthy school lunch instead of the more wholesome lunch her mother packed for her lunch. You can read a mother's view on this story at the following post: <...>

Rob Lyons knows absolutely nothing about nutrition or health. He actually seems to believe that if you get the RDA for each nutrient, you will be healthy! Any one who knows anything about health knows that the RDAs are vastly inadequate, in some cases suggesting only .001% of what you should have to be healthy. There are good books about health out there. Don't waste your time on this piece of trash.