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The Food Revolution: How your diet can help save your life and our world John Robbins and Dean Ornish $17.95 Conari Press
JOHN ROBBINS, an heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream fortune, turned his back on the frozen milk-fat industry. In 1987 he wrote Diet for a New America, an influential book that took the meat and dairy industries to task and promoted vegetarianism as an ethical, healthful and environmental practice.
Now he's back, beating the same drum in The Food Revolution. You won't read much here that you haven't already heard. Robbins argues that the modern meat and dairy industries are bad for animals, bad for people's health and bad for the planet.
He makes his case by outlining the often appalling conditions under which animals are raised and processed. Then he reviews the ill effects of too much animal fat in the diet. After a discussion on the environmental damage done when people raise meat instead of grain and vegetables, Robbins declares war on the meat and dairy public relations campaigns that seek to downplay these concerns.
But the book's tone is pious, its anecdotes lack punch and the name-dropping of vegetarian movie stars is annoying. In spite of this, the sheer good sense behind Robbins's arguments for a plant-based diet will have even confirmed meat eaters considering cutting back on animal flesh. And put that tub of ice cream away, right now.
The Food Revolution: How your diet can help save your life and our world John Robbins and Dean Ornish $17.95 Conari Press
JOHN ROBBINS, an heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream fortune, turned his back on the frozen milk-fat industry. In 1987 he wrote Diet for a New America, an influential book that took the meat and dairy industries to task and promoted vegetarianism as an ethical, healthful and environmental practice.
Now he's back, beating the same drum in The Food Revolution. You won't read much here that you haven't already heard. Robbins argues that the modern meat and dairy industries are bad for animals, bad for people's health and bad for the planet.
He makes his case by outlining the often appalling conditions under which animals are raised and processed. Then he reviews the ill effects of too much animal fat in the diet. After a discussion on the environmental damage done when people raise meat instead of grain and vegetables, Robbins declares war on the meat and dairy public relations campaigns that seek to downplay these concerns.
But the book's tone is pious, its anecdotes lack punch and the name-dropping of vegetarian movie stars is annoying. In spite of this, the sheer good sense behind Robbins's arguments for a plant-based diet will have even confirmed meat eaters considering cutting back on animal flesh. And put that tub of ice cream away, right now.