Play Book Tag discussion

The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker 5 stars.
This book is so good (the audio is very good, read by Chris Patton, won an earphones award). This book is about food and it is very interesting and based on real research. I had to get the book, because there is so much information and I wanted to gather some notes which isn’t easy to do when listening to an audio. The reader does read some of the footnotes but the back of the book there is the Bibliography, Notes and breaks that down by chapters siting articles that the author is using in his book and an index. So if you like food and are concerned about your food, as I am, then you will love this book. Well maybe that isn’t quite right. When I started reading this book I was so disheartened as it seemed like maybe it was a lost cause. Scientist and industry began changing our food in the forties. I was born in the fifties and am lucky to remember some of the great taste of foods but it was already changing. People of younger generations may never have tasted food that hasn’t been robbed of its flavors. The author looks at obesity and from a flavor stand point why obesity has risen in spite of all the great diets available. Flavors are very interesting things and this book is about flavor. This book is not all against science/industry and in fact acknowledges that we probably can’t afford to go back to a preindustrial food source nor is there land to do so but science can help provide solutions. It ends on an encouraging note however it is really up to consumers and that does still leave me feeling a bit pessimistic that food can achieve its former greatness.

I bought this a while ago but haven’t read it.

I find the subject fascinating as well as scary. I have experienced some things related to this first hand. When I lived in France, I can remember that the tomatoes were really great, but here in US , they were often mealy and lackluster. In investigating I figured out that in the US , the industrial-farmed tomatoes were over-watered.

JoLene wrote: "I bought this a while ago but haven’t read it.

I find the subject fascinating as well as scary. I have experienced some things related to this first hand. When I lived in France, I can remember th..."
It’s more than a dilution problem and the book discusses this and also mentions France.

Sounds like an interesting book Kristel. I've heard that growing your own veg is the only way to get flavourful food nowadays.

With regard to notes etc, I had a similar problem with a book I'm listening to at the moment. It's The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success It has lots of tables in it and it's hard to take in when the narrator reads our one row at a time of a large table. So I've just borrowed the hard copy from the library.

I noticed a personal trend last year for me that I would often get an alternate format from the library. I did this for my 2 science reads. I checked out the hardcover from library to look at the periodic table for The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements.

And now, I have a paperback copy of The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, but for an audio download from the library to switch back and forth.

I have the Dorito Effect as an audio so I will probably get a copy from library as well.

This sounds like something I would probably enjoy very much. Thanks

JoLene wrote: "I noticed a personal trend last year for me that I would often get an alternate format from the library. I did this for my 2 science reads. I checked out the hardcover from library to look at the p..."

Great idea JoLene. I have The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements on my TBR list, I thought to use my table to look at periodic table. My tablet often makes a valuable companion for my nonfiction reading. Yea tablet :-) Yet I see how a book format will be better as my table is on the smaller side and a book larger. Of course I could stilll use the tablet.
How grateful I am for personal devices, Makes learning new ideas far more bearable.

One of my late uncles told me that there was something added in the flavour categories that helped to make food more addictive--is that one of the things mentioned in this book? I think he mentioned McDonald's as being one of the companies that did that.

An aside, it always makes me chuckle with people leave a McDonald's burger open and point out that the bread must be rife with chemicals because there is no mould on it, but NO bread moulds if it is left uncovered and dries out first, even the most organic of all breads in the world would just dry out. Mould needs to have enough moisture. I can't speak for any of the other ingredients, though.

JoLene wrote: "I bought this a while ago but haven’t read it.

I find the subject fascinating as well as scary. I have experienced some things related to this first hand. When I lived in France, I can remember th..."

I don't like tomatoes at all unless cooked in a sauce (but it turns out I can't eat them anyway), but my family agrees. We have tomatoes in our garden every summer with lots of flavour. I have some organic, heirloom cherry tomatoes that self-sow every year if I let some fall to the ground and by taking care of them we get enough to even make soup, etc from it. I might not like to eat them, but I really enjoy tending tomato plants for some reason.

Karin wrote: "One of my late uncles told me that there was something added in the flavour categories that helped to make food more addictive--is that one of the things mentioned in this book? I think he mentione..."
The book refers to McDonalds as being the restaurant that uses the most flavorings (chemicals made in factories) above all other restaurants. The French fries alone are flavored with flour (so gluten free people can’t eat them) and beef flavoring (so Vegans can’t eat them). The book states that the flovorings we eat create a desire to eat and the food does not have any properties that provide with satiation because of their modifications that we can eat a whole bag of Dorito’s (etc) because we love the flavoring and we never feel satisfied. It does talk a great deal about eating and addictions.

Yes, and this just proves my point (not here, but how I shop IRL) about buying natural food that's actually natural (natural flavourings are not necessarily natural, just start with something natural). The term cannot be relied on!

My kids had to watch Food, Inc at school, which helped my cause to some degree but not completely. Teens are teens.

This sounds like something right up my alley! Thanks, Kristel!