An Apple a Day: The Myths, Misconceptions, and Truths About the Foods We Eat
368An Apple a Day: The Myths, Misconceptions, and Truths About the Foods We Eat
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Overview
Forget your dinner jacket and put on your lab coat: you have to be a nutritional scientist these days before you sit down to eat—which is why we need Dr. Joe Schwarcz, the expert in connecting chemistry to everyday life. In An Apple a Day, he’s taken his thorough knowledge of food chemistry, applied it to today’s top food fears, trends, and questions, and leavened it with his trademark lighthearted approach. The result is both an entertaining revelation of the miracles of science happening in our bodies every time we bite into a morsel of food, and a telling exploration of the myths, claims, and misconceptions surrounding our obsession with diets, nutrition, and weight.
Looking first at how food affects our health, Dr. Joe examines what’s in tomatoes, soy, and broccoli that can keep us healthy and how the hundreds of compounds in a single food react when they hit our bodies. Then he investigates how we manipulate our food supply, delving into the science of food additives and what benefits we might realize from adding bacteria to certain foods. He clears up the confusion about contaminants, examining everything from pesticide residues, remnants of antibiotics, the dreaded trans fats, and chemicals that may leach from cookware. And he takes a studied look at the science of calories and weighs in on popular diets.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781590514580 |
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Publisher: | Other Press, LLC |
Publication date: | 12/28/2010 |
Pages: | 368 |
Product dimensions: | 6.96(w) x 11.34(h) x 1.08(d) |
About the Author
Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society in Montreal. He teaches courses on nutrition and the applications of chemistry to everyday life. His informative and entertaining public lectures range from nutritional controversies to the chemistry of love. Schwarcz has received numerous awards, including the Royal Society of Canada's McNeil Award, and is the only non-American to win the American Chemical Society's prestigious Grady-Stack Award. He is the author of six books, including Let Them Eat Flax. He was also the chief consultant for the blockbuster titles Foods That Harm, Foods That Heal and The Healing Power of Vitamins, Minerals and Herbs. A regular guest on Canadian television, and the host of weekly radio shows in Toronto and Montreal, Schwarcz also writes a weekly column for The Gazette in Montreal, where he lives. Visit him at www.joeschwarcz.ca.
Read an Excerpt
Is there a better subject with which to begin a discussion of the relationship between food and health than apples? After all, doesn’t “an apple a day keep the doctor away”? Maybe it does, if you throw it at her! There are no single foods that have magical health properties. There are good diets and there are bad diets. It is certainly possible to have a good diet and never eat apples, just as it is possible to gorge on apples and have a horrible diet. What really matters in terms of nutrition is the net effect produced by all of the chemicals that wend their way into our bodies from the food we eat. Yes, chemicals. I can practically see those eyebrows being raised. It may seem unusual to see the word “chemical” without an adjective like “poisonous,” in front of it. Actually, without appropriate context, “toxic chemical” is a meaningless term. . . . Everything in the world is made of chemicals, and if you restricted yourself to a diet free of chemicals, you would be dining in a vacuum! With that in mind, let’s investigate the chemicals in an apple. So tell me, would you like some nail polish remover in your diet? Or rubbing alcohol? Then have an apple! Yes, all apples contain acetone and isopropanol. And if these don’t sound toxic enough, you can throw in some cyanide. It’s there too. Added by nature, not by humans! Should you then be worried about eating apples? Of course not! The amounts of these chemicals are too small to be of any consequence. Apples, as already mentioned, contain over 300 naturally occurring compounds, and whatever effect the fruit has on our health is a reflection of all of these.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part 1 Naturally Occurring Substances in our Food Supply
An Apple a Day 7
Tomatoes and Lycopene 12
Cranberries and Procyanidins 18
Grapefruit and Furanocoumarins 22
Blueberries, Anthocyanins, and Pterostilbene 26
Citrus Fruits and Super Flavonoids 29
Acai Berries and Antioxidant Potential 33
Fish and Omega-3 Fats 37
Flax, Omega-3 Fats, and Lignans 44
Canola and Alpha-Linolenic Acid 48
Olive Oil and Oleic Acid 51
Soy Protein and Soy Isoflavones 55
Whole Grains and Insoluble Fiber 61
Oats and Soluble Fiber 64
Beans and Inositol Pentakisphosphate 68
Cabbage and Indoles 71
Broccoli and Sulforaphane 75
Spinach, Corn, Squash, and Lutein 80
Curry and Curcumin 83
Chocolate and Flavanols 87
Coffee Beans and Caffeine 91
Grapes and Resveratrol 97
Wheat and Gluten 104
Cinnamon and Methylhydroxychalcone 108
Vegetables and Salicylic Acid 112
Carrots and Carotenoids 115
Vitamins from A to K 119
Spinach and the B Vitamins 122
Oils, Nuts, Whole Grains, and Vitamin E 127
Cod Liver Oil and Vitamin D 133
Milk and Calcium 137
Part 2 Manipulating Our Food Supply
Fortifying with Iron 145
Flavoring with Salt 149
Enhancing Taste with Monosodium Glutamate 153
Sweetening with Sugar and High-Fructose Corn Syrup 158
Cutting Calories with "Non-nutritional" Natural Sweeteners 163
Cutting Calories with "Non-nutritional" Artificial Sweeteners 171
Improving Taste with Artificial Flavors 188
Preventing Botulism with Nitrites 192
Preserving with Sulphites and Propionates 196
Preserving with Viruses 200
Preserving with Radiation 204
Coloring with Food Dyes 208
Improving Health with Bacteria 212
Boosting Immunity with Glutathione 217
Adding Fluoride to Water 223
Supplementing with Vitamins 230
Manipulating Genes in Our Food 237
Farming Organically 241
Part 3 Contaminants in Our Food Supply
Pesticide Concerns 247
Acrylamide in Fried and Baked Foods 252
Antibiotic Residues 256
Hormones in Meat 260
PCBs in Fish 263
Trans Fats 267
Benzene in Beverages 274
Trans-4-Hydroxynonenal in Fried Foods 278
Substances Leaching from Plastics 281
The Bisphenol A Issue 288
Dioxins 296
Part 4 Tough to Swallow
The Miracle of Goji Juice? 301
Kosher Food Hype 304
The Questionable Health Properties of DHEA 307
Alkaline Nonsense 310
Losing Weight with Green Tea? 314
The Myth of "Detox" 318
Whom to Believe? 322
Conclusion: Is There a Solution to the Confusion? 327
Index 331