BOOK REVIEW - The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children
By Carol Simontacchi
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2008, $14.95
Originally published in 2000 by clinical nutritionist Simontacchi, The Crazy Makers is both a study of the American food industry and how it has changed our eating habits, as well as a hard-science primer on how to combat this attack on our health and well-being. Although some things have changed in the last few years - the disappearance of vending machines from school lunchrooms, for example - the McDonald's fast-food chain continues to take over hospital cafeterias, and 50 percent of Americans eat frozen, packaged, or take-out food for dinner. Simontacchi's impeccable research points out that the food industry "wantonly" destroys bodies and brains "in the name of profit."
Alzheimer's disease has doubled since 1980, and as many as one in every five children has a mental, behavioral, or emotional problem. Fast-food choices, says Simontacchi, are literally making us crazy. "Where the Western world has gone astray," she asserts, "is the most fundamental of life concerns: the quality of its food supply."
Full of jaw-dropping nutritional statistics and informative sidebars on American food culture and lore, The Crazy Makers offers advice and recipes for nourishing the infant brain, the child, the adolescent, the adult, and the person with autism. Possible causes for certain behaviors - such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders - are explored, and food to heal and boost health is generously served.
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2008, $14.95
Originally published in 2000 by clinical nutritionist Simontacchi, The Crazy Makers is both a study of the American food industry and how it has changed our eating habits, as well as a hard-science primer on how to combat this attack on our health and well-being. Although some things have changed in the last few years - the disappearance of vending machines from school lunchrooms, for example - the McDonald's fast-food chain continues to take over hospital cafeterias, and 50 percent of Americans eat frozen, packaged, or take-out food for dinner. Simontacchi's impeccable research points out that the food industry "wantonly" destroys bodies and brains "in the name of profit."
Alzheimer's disease has doubled since 1980, and as many as one in every five children has a mental, behavioral, or emotional problem. Fast-food choices, says Simontacchi, are literally making us crazy. "Where the Western world has gone astray," she asserts, "is the most fundamental of life concerns: the quality of its food supply."
Full of jaw-dropping nutritional statistics and informative sidebars on American food culture and lore, The Crazy Makers offers advice and recipes for nourishing the infant brain, the child, the adolescent, the adult, and the person with autism. Possible causes for certain behaviors - such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders - are explored, and food to heal and boost health is generously served.
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