Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser
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Book Reviews of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Book Review: Alarming!
Summary: 5 Stars
I could not put the book down. I found it so intriguing that I had to buy another copy to pass among my family and friends. I was, like the rest of the people who have read this, shocked to know exactly how the large agricultural companies operate and the feebleness with which the FDA and USDA operate.
Being a government employee myself I feel the massive budget cuts and have experienced the mounds of work displaced to employees already overwhelmed. There's no way to catch up or catch anything that is not a blatant violation. So, I'm not surprised to find out that the majority of the time the agricultural business is left to police itself.
I was skeptical by the amount of negative information in the book and wondered if this could indeed really be happening. The author, however, delivers facts and names which when investigated would have to be accurate for those details to be published -otherwise this book would have been shut down before publishing.
That said I feel the book must be on the mark. Knowing that I am more cautious, than ever, about where I purchase my food. I could not stand fast food before I read the book, which gave me relief that not eating junk food is sensible advice. Knowing what I know now I choose to cook more meals at home. I have banned the supermarket for most items that I can purchase locally -meats and vegetables. Trust in the man at Winn Dixie or Food Lion is gone.
My advice; educate yourself. Do not let this be the only source of information about the food industry. Buy locally if you can. Make a friend of your local butcher or farmer's market. Purchase in-season items -this reduces the miles your food has traveled which lessens the environmental impact of what you are eating. It'll guarantee a better quality product too. Know where your food is coming from.
Book Review: Corporate Evil Exposed
Summary: 5 Stars
It was astonishing to learn that the apparently inoffensive fast food industry is supposedly evil:
Children were easily induced by marketing campaigns through characters and restaurant features with infantile appeal. What seems to be an innocent and fair approach, was intended in fact to create a consuming habit that could make one forever emotionally dependent. Even school environments were not left behind as this promoted a favorable environment to target youngsters. Problem is that money matters sometimes could talk louder and schools allowed corporate interests to prevail over the main purpose of a school: educate children properly.
Meat packing and potatoes industries are quintessential examples of corporate practices to the max: exploratory and careless practices toward workers, who work too much even in the worst working conditions that are imaginable and get too little in return, subject to retaliation in case of dissatisfaction. Throughput and low cost is what matters, nothing else. Knowing that the meat we eat, the way it is produced, could easily be tainted with pathogens that may lead us to death just makes one wonder if it is still worth the risk, although sandwiches are made irresistibly delicious with a hand of the folks at the flavor industry, that have the ability to turn crap into the most tasteful piece of food ever.
Fast Food Nation unveils the mystery that maintains a chain of both fast food restaurants and related industries well and alive with our precious and honest aid. Despite of the title and regardless of whether the history is true or not, the main purpose of the book is focused on criticizing the corporate practices that can be in every business (not only fast food), promoting easy money returns and poor consideration to the human being.
Book Review: Wait... what's in my burger?
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading this book, it seems as if the fast food industry is the only industry that was able to slide through the civil rights revolution and the workers' rights campaign back in the 20th century. If you're munching on a burger from a fast food restaurant (or should I say, shack), please put it down for you're own health.
There are several things that might be in there that you wouldn't want to eat. You never know if you got the burger that has the severed remains of a worker's finger/arm/leg. Schlosser writes of how fast the assembly line is moving, putting pressure onto the workers, making them lose accuracy and precision in their jobs that they "trained" for (a few days watching a video). This loss of accuracy can lead to some unpleasant surprises when you bite into your burger.
But burgers aren't the only things that one must look out for; Schlosser also writes of an account in which a whole man fell like a vat of lard taht was still churning. Was the lard reclaimed? No. It was shipped out; the packing companies decided profit was much more valuable than honoring a man and his untimely death.
The disgusting facts don't even start at with the meat-packing industries! In the farms in where the cattle are raised, the calves are fed the remains of cows and other animals. Trash even. The unsanitary conditions also turns stomachs. If you were to take a tour in one of these facilities, the regular person is denied access to the killing level. Schlosser elucidates the scene: knee-deep in blood and feces.
Overall, this was a very well researched book. Even though I'm not an avid fast-food eater, this has still deterred me away from eating it unless I know what's in my food.
Book Review: A hard look at not only fast food, but the beef industry
Summary: 5 Stars
WOW...
And I don't say that so much because of the things this books brings to light about the fast food industry. I actually say it because of all the horrifying things I've learned about the BEEF industry! I never would have imagined what goes into raising cattle (the disgusting things they are fed), killing them and then turning them into meat. The dangers that these processes bring upon us as consumers of this beef (mad cow etc.) And the fact that the government is barely, if at all, regulating this?! Because they are "all in bed" with the beef industry! WOW. I am seriously considering from now on buying organic beef. I hope that in the next ten years that this government will start putting in place some better protection for us as beef consumers, at the time this book was written they were not allowed to re-call beef, nor were they able to inspect the factories....definitely a book worth reading and hopefully it continues to get noticed, make waves and bring upon some change.
As for the reading, it was dry at times, but for the most part interesting. I think it was very well written. It was helpful how it was broken down into chapters dealing with different aspects- made it easy to follow the argument and then grasp the sum-up of it all at the end, and how each part ties together. From the chapters on how fastfood/McDonalds got it's start, to the look at "why the fries taste so good", or what's in the beef, to the look at the meat processing plants...the author certainly seemed to do his homework, because he was nothing if not thorough. If Schlosser were to write a follow up, years down the road, I'd definitely read and will certainly recommend this to friends!
Book Review: Be Prepared for an Eye Opener
Summary: 5 Stars
Even a few years after it's release, Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" still sends a strong message to the reader and exposes the fast food industry for what it really is... a group of very large and very powerful marketing companies... not a purveyor of good food--or nutritious food for that matter.
For many years, food additives and techniques have been the dirty little secret of the industry, but not these things are starting to surface.
The book takes you through the processing warehouses and chemical plants that the industry uses to "make" the foods served at these restaurants. It opens your eyes to practices done to cut costs and sacrifice your health in the process.
I've recommended this book to many of my clients and many are reluctant to read it at all, probably because of the emotional attachment they have to their favorite fast food.
Since this book came out, there are so many more studies and reports on what is in the fast foods then there ever were before. Reports including additives, trans-fats and other inflammation causing ingredients are helping the industry clean up it's act.
This doesn't mean that fast food is good for you, it just means that Schlosser has done an excellent job at bringing attention to an industry that wasn't challenged as strongly as it should have been.
I personally haven't had fast food for over 5 years, but--even that far removed--as I was reading this I felt sick to my stomach.
Read this book and you'll never step foot in McDonalds again.
Kevin Gianni, NCSF-CPT
Author and Personal Trainer