Hard to Swallow: A Brief History of Food [Hardcover]

Richard W. Lacey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 1994

Award-winning microbiologist and food safety expert, Richard Lacey, sweeps away the mystery surrounding this subject and provides the reader with a fascinating and readable account of the truth about the food we eat. He takes the reader on an eye-opening trip from farm to store to kitchen, exposing in detail how livestock is raised, what goes into its feed, how dried and packaged foods are processed, what germs and additives can be found in food, what to look for and what to avoid in supermarkets, how best to prepare food for safety and nutrition, and how to begin to solve some of the many pressing problems arising from modern food production and consumption patterns. He explains the specific dangers to the consumer from modern factory farming methods, the nutritional differences between wild and farmed fish, the environmental consequences of maintaining a meat-eating society, and responsible ways to make food more delicious, healthy, and enjoyable.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Lacey, a microbiologist at Leeds University and a popular media critic on food issues, has assembled a hodge-podge of undocumented fact, prejudice, opinion, and speculation covering the "history" of food, the food industry and processing, shopping for food, and the ideal diet. Unfortunately, his chatty, personal style is inappropriate to the subject matter. While Lacey has important points to make about the intensive farming of food animals and the insipid character of much fast food, his ideal diet recommendations fall short of the "five a day" servings of fruit or vegetables now recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Not recommended.
- Carol Cubberley, Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Charming, delightful, often richly depressing survey about what we eat, by Lacey (Medical Microbiology/Leeds;Unsafe for Human Consumption--not reviewed). Yes, Dr. Lacey is down on cholesterol, but more down on drugs, diet and lifestyle, saturated animal fats and hydrogenated oils. His message is simple: ``Ignore the cholesterol propaganda, don't have your blood tested for cholesterol and eat an enjoyable and varied diet as suggested here. The real difficulty is to get the amount of food you need right.'' Lacey begins, logically, with a history of foods, our first crops, wild meat, then intensively farmed meat and salmon (farmed fish fats have changed for the worse), with the thought that changes in food production over the past 70-80 years ``have been much more dramatic than the previous 30 million.'' He describes the present uses and consumption of cereals, potatoes, nuts, sugar, fruits and vegetables (the disaster fallen upon tomatoes, now dull, thick-skinned, tasteless), mushrooms, peas, beans, and seeds yielding vegetable oil. He also sighs over the debasing of pizza, problem bacteria in moist processed foods and canned and vacuum-packed foods, the fact that irradiating salmonella in fowls may only allow other dangerous types that can survive irradiation great encouragement ``by removing the competition''--so do not stuff chickens! Meanwhile, total confusion reigns about additives. As for bread?--``Let us be quite clear. Real bread, like real ale, is brown.'' Lacey suggests the ideal diet, even gives recipes, and ends with ideas for cleaning up poultry and eggs, reducing world hunger, and avoiding the sheer inefficiency of feeding cereals to mammals and birds instead of eating the cereals directly. Is such sapience hard to swallow? With the expanding world population, yes. British by birth but quite adaptable to American readers. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 25, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521440017
• ISBN-13: 978-0521440011
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,349,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.