This is probably the most important book that I read in 2024. When a book’s bibliography takes up 35% of the pages, it shows you how much of research the author has put in.
When we spent a few weeks in Coimbatore in September 2024, Saravanan, our dear friend suggested this book to me. I bought it immediately, but didnt start reading it till October last year. Once I started, I couldn’t bring myself to read more than a few pages each time because its lots of valuable information that I didnt want to miss.
Sixteen years back, our health saviour Dr. Vijaya Venkat told us never to eat anything that comes out of a “packet” ! Essentially “no” to processed food. Nancy Deville, just gives you proof of what happens when you do eat processed packaged food. The book does scare you because, the whole world seems to be following the American “diet”… junk food, sugary carbonated drinks and no understanding of REAL FOOD.
I can’t summarise this book… am going to be writing several blogs using every chapter in this book. It’s my “service” in stemming the tide of unhealthy food habits and the terrible habit of popping a pill for every symptom of illness.
Sharing some hard hitting excerpts here ….
“… The epidemic of obesity in the United States is as ominous as tornados ripping across Los Angeles. Americans are the fattest people walking the earth today. In a population of 300 million, 68 percent of our citizens are overweight or obese.”
India is not far behind …. 40% of India’s population is obese or overweight, especially the southern states :(.
“…Although factory foods promise good health, beauty and satisfaction, they lack life-sustaining nutrients necessary to maintain healthy metabolic processes and are mostly foreign and toxic to human physiology.”
“….Industrialised animal products (meat, dairy, fish, poultry, and eggs) that are produced in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) also contribute to obesity and ugly death. In CAFOs animals are deprived of sunlight, clean water, and space to move, swim, or lie down. They’re fed species inappropriate food (herbivores are fed soybeans and chicken poop for example) and are injected with hormones, and because of the depraved conditions in CAFOs, they must be given antibiotics and hundreds of drugs to keep them alive long enough to fatten for slaughter.”
If the above excerpt doesn’t make you sick, just reading it, then I don’t know what to say. Once again, India isn’t far behind. Most of the milk that we get is from cows that have been injected with a growth hormone. The beef industry in India is worse than CAFOs … I don’t want to go there. There is a craze for non-vegetarian food that’s bringing all of the above to our plates too. Emu’s are replacing chicken… if you see a poultry farm, you would never eat chicken again.
Do read an earlier blog of mine – Eating Our Way To Extinction 😳.
“……Nutrition as “standard of care” (accepted modes of medical care), which had been accepted doctrine from the time of Greek physician Hippocrates (the “father of medicine”, 460-377 B.C), was unilaterally rejected by modern medicine, which has virtually ignored the impact of nutrition on the building up or breaking down of the body and shifted its focus to treating disease after it occurs – primarily with drugs.”
“….. As we became a nation of drug takers following the advice of the medical community – which had shunned nutrition – the old wisdoms of food and nutrition were lost.”
India has an important gift to give to the world – Ayurveda !! The father of surgery is Maharishi Sushruta. His Sushruta Samhita and Acharya Charak’s Charak Samhita are goldmines of medical knowledge, but we call Ayurveda as alternative medicine … Can’t think of anything dumber than that. Ayurveda talks of prevention and modern medicine is all about treating a disease after it has occurred. 🙁
Nancy Deville goes on to talk about Sugar, refined grains, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, and the ubiquitous Aspartame. Will have to write about each of them as a separate blog. Cannot just share some excerpts.
The second half of the book is about the Pharma industry and new entrants into the “nutrition” market like Soy. The author also speaks about genetically modified crops …
“…. Meanwhile, as Europeans continue to fight genetic engineering of their food supply, U.S. Companies have succeeded in getting government approval for forty varieties of genetically engineered crops and putting these genetically modified mutations into 60 percent of the factory foods that American eat.”
Ok don’t reach for the anti-depressant in your medicine box, India has happily imported these Genetically Modified (GM) seeds. Thanks to the pesticides and GM seeds, we now have a cancer train that runs EVERYDAY between Bhatinda and Bikaner. Am sure other trains would be added from other states. 🤬
The subsequent chapters also speak about Milk, Fats, Oils and the World’s favourite lifestyle disease – Diabetes.
“…. Americans ‘Human Beings‘ direly need to eat as many raw and cooked organic non-starchy vegetables as humanly possible every day to obtain the micronutrients necessary to utilise proteins and fats.”
Oh, am actually tired of typing ! there is so much more to write about. Am just going to stop here and pick this up in subsequent blogs.
One line summary – Please read the book and get back to REAL FOOD, wherever you are in the world.
Note : The highlights are all mine and stuff in italics are my comments.
Closing with the universal prayer for well-being. 🙏🏿
ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः। सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः। सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु। मा कश्चित् दुःख भाग्भवेत्॥ ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः॥
May all beings be happy, May all beings be healthy, May everyone experience auspicious events and May no one witness sadness. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.
I live in the US of A, but have difficulty finding unadulterated food. It’s either factory farmed, genetically modified, packaged, or poisoned with pesticides, herbicides, or impure water sources. While no one has said this to me, I bieve Americans are obese and unhealthy because their diets don’t contain enough of the essential nutrients, so they overeat to obtain a minimum of essentials. I have lived many years and have gone through many nutritional habits, including cooking, gardening, and experimentation with ethnic variations, but lately, it seems the quality of all of it has gone down. Some have claimed the over-farming and grazing has depleted the soil. I don’t know. Maybe “Death by Supermarket” can help, but I don’t know if it can change very much of what is available at my grocery store.