The Angry Chef's Guide to Spotting Bullsh*t in the World of Food

by Anthony Warner

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Initial thoughts: This has got be one of the most refreshing books on food that I've read over the past couple of years. I appreciated Warner's breakdown of the scientific method to explain to readers how to filter information on food and nutrition. He had a lot of thoughts on how important that is as opposed to merely learning facts in school and I couldn't agree more. My education's been a lot about parsing out hypotheses, theories and facts and I've got to say, it's served me well.

Warner's takedown of unqualified health gurus, unqualified bloggers, the clean eating movement, paleo diet, and so forth was fascinating to say the least. When someone once referred me to Dr. Mercola's website, I was sceptical of several claims but wasn't sure how to go about expressing my discomfort and distrust. Maybe I should just thrust this book into their hands.

One chapter that particularly intrigued me was about the values we attach to food. He referred to veganism as an example, though I wish he had explored that a little more. He didn't seem quite so fond of letting our moral compass guide our food choices, which I didn't fully agree with. To be fair, I decided to try try vegetarianism this year, is I'm not unbiased either. I think it is important to consider our impact on the environment and do our best to have a balanced diet. I'm concerned with mercury and toxins that fish carry too, and am still trying to figure out if/how hormones fed to livestock can affect affect us when we eat meat.

In any case, The Angry Chef's Guide to Spotting Bullsh*t in the World of Food should be on your reading list if nutrition matters to you.