Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Slightly naff title but a superb exposé of the poor quality of our food!, 18 Jun 2007
I would offer this as being pretty much a required book for anyone at all interested in the quality of the food that they are feeding themselves and their children.
Harvey's book is both well written and (it seems to me at least) very well researched. In essence, he offers evidence that modern industrial farming techniques are robbing foodstuffs of a high proportion of important nutrients - minerals, fatty acids and others. He links this in with the rise in rates of so-called diseases of affluence, which has been done to an extent by others, but goes further to suggest that illnesses such as dementia and behavioural difficulties may in no small way be linked to a deficient diet.
Harvey examines the ways in which nutritional balance could be returned to foods and how the production of even "organic" foods has been grossly compromised by the application of industrial farming techniques and a stretching of the definition of "organic."
Harvey provides plenty of reference to research in his text, but also includes considerable anecdotal evidence: if I have a criticism of the work it is that sometimes it is difficult to see where the hard science ends and the anecdote begins, but in general he does a good job in separating fact from speculation.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in farming, food production and, indeed, what they are putting into their mouths.
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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally: all of the pieces of the puzzle, 7 Mar 2006
By A Customer
This is a book whose time has come! Nothing else in the UK comes close at the moment to explaining the full extent of the problem of food with inadequate nutrition. Consumers are affected, even if they do seek out whole foods, by the lack of minerals and other nutrients stemming from deficient soil. Producers are squeezed by the relentless drive to produce food at the cheapest possible price without concern for quality or sustainable farming. How wonderful also to find that the author references the work of Weston A Price and the Weston A Price Foundation whose findings present the only truly sustainable path back to robust good health for citizens and economic prosperity for rural farming communities. Outstanding health does not come from chemical vitamins, low fat slimming plans or even vegetarianism. Rich full fat dairy products, especially golden yellow butter, from cattle on pastures for most of their lives, high quality meat for those who chose to eat it, again from pastured animals, and organic grains, vegetables and fruits bursting with nutrients are the cornerstones of vitality and longevity. These foods will not keep for years on a supermarket shelf and cannot be produced at the lowest possible cost: they require thoughtful farming with great attention to the health of the livestock and the productivity of the soil in future generations. It is possible to find supremely health foods with persistence and ingenuity, although it is difficult for those with time or budgetary constraints. It is my fervent hope that this book may create a groundswell of consumer demand for truly healthy nutrient dense foods produced with care. I am encouraged that we seem to be moving in the right direction: the Jamie Oliver campaign to improve the quality of school dinners, recognition of the dangers of hydrogenated fats by leading food companies and the Food Standards Agency, increasing sales of whole foods in supermarkets. We still have a long way to go however. This book will hopefully take things up to the next level.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential, gripping reading, 8 Jul 2006
If you read nothing else this year, read this book. It will open your eyes to the staggering effects on our health of the foods that we all consume. It is very well researched, and draws in many of the author's personal experiences of farming and food of the forties, fifties and sixties. Although anecdotal, these are strongly relevant and will be identified with by anyone who has lived in those decades or earlier. If you were born since those times, it is even more important that you see what Graham Harvey is showing us, because our lives, literally, depend on it.
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by Joanna Blythman
by Joanna Blythman
by John Humphrys
by Graham Harvey
