The Hundred-Year Lie: How Food and Medicine Are Destroying Your Health (Hardcover)

by Randall Fitzgerald (Author) "About the size of a magazine, the sign has black lettering on a white background and can be found posted at eye level just inches..." (more)
Key Phrases: toxic synergies, synthetics paradigm, new synthetic chemicals, United States, American Medical Association, National Academy of Sciences (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This provocative and frightening look at the synthetic chemicals used by the processed foods, pharmaceutical and chemical industries delivers an excellent, up-to-date summary of "what is really in our food, water, vitamins, prescription drugs, childhood vaccines, cosmetics, and in our homes." Former Wall Street Journal investigative journalist Fitzgerald (Mugged by the State) takes aim at the belief that "lab-created synthetics are as benign as—and more effective than—naturally occurring foods and medicines." The "hundred-year lie" dates from 1906, the year Congress enacted the Pure Food and Drug Act. Utilizing a range of articles from science journals and government reports, along with interviews with scientists and environmentalists, Fitzgerald looks at synthetic chemicals—from artificial sweeteners to antidepressants—that are diminishing our health. Throughout, Fitzgerald explodes various myths such as that one right dose of a particular drug works for everyone and that all food additives have been tested for safety. Still, Fitzgerald's faith in Eastern and other natural healing processes will not convince everyone. The author concludes with practical steps for "choosing a diet of pure foods and a lifestyle free of synthetics." (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
A frightening wake-up call . . . if Fast Food Nation made you consider some serious lifestyle changes, The Hundred-Year Lie will inspire you to go ten steps farther. -- Boston Herald

Exhaustively researched . . . a useful addition to your library. -- Salon.com

Provocative and frightening . . . excellent. -- Publishers Weekly --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; 1 edition (June 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525949518
• ISBN-13: 978-0826335531
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #56,611 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #6 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Nutrition > Food Additives
  #36 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Bioengineering > Biotechnology
  #72 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Agricultural Sciences > Food Sciences

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sobering look at the dire consequences of the highly toxic world we have created in just the past century. , April 2, 2007

By	Paul Tognetti "The real world is so much more... (Cranston, RI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Just over a century ago, the Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. According to author Randall Fitzgerald it was this legislation that reassured the American public that the food and medicines they were consuming had been thoroughly tested and were safe to use. As it turns out nothing could be further from the truth! "The Hundred Year Lie" tells the sordid story of a century of deception and irresponsibility by the companies who process our food and manufacture the drugs and chemicals we use everyday. Indeed, the promise of "a better life through chemistry" is a notion we all need to examine and seriously reconsider.
At a bare minimum, reading "The One Hundred Year Lie" will make you stop in your tracks and think about all of the different chemicals you are ingesting and coming into contact with every day. It is not just the voluminous amounts of additives in your food that you must worry about. Stop and consider all of the personal care products you use on a daily basis. Add to that the over-the-counter and prescription drugs you may be taking and all of the household cleaning products that you employ. Then think about all of the chemicals that are applied to our clothing, our bedding and to our furniture. Next, you might want to consider the flouride in your municipal water supply and maybe the highly toxic arsenic in all of that pressure treated lumber around your property. Now if you are a pretty unscientific sort like me you will then appreciate Randall Fitzgerald's attempt to explain the concept of "synergy". Most people just take it for granted that the products they use must have been thoroughly tested and deemed completely safe to use. It is when you discover that the scientific community, the manufacturers themselves and various government regulators really have absolutely no idea how these different chemical concoctions are going react with each other in the real world that you just might become a bit concerned. On many different levels "The Hundred Year Lie" challenges the way we live our lives today and implores each of us as individuals and society in general to make the necessary changes before more damage is done. I simply cannot imagine that anyone who reads this book will not feel compelled to make some significant changes in his or her own lifestyle. In our never-ending quest for comfort and convenience we have done considerable damage to our our own personal well-being and to our environment. Some say the damage may be irreparable. This is a fascinating and well written book that is certainly worth your time and attention.
Highly recommended!

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "If there was any danger, someone would tell us!", December 31, 2006

By	John Morley (La Canada, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As Al Gore's movie makes "inconvenient truths" about global warming more understandable, this book will open your eyes to the unintended damage being done to you, those you love and and every other creature on the planet.

In a story that makes clear the need for this book, the author stands outside a Wal*Mart. Shoppers are rushing past a state-mandated sign that warns of chemicals inside that are "known...to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm." He stops a shopper to ask if she had thought about the sign. She brushes past with the dismissal that, "If there was any danger, someone would tell us!"

Well, you are being told. If--like the shopper and most of the rest of us--the signs with the bold letters aren't clear enough for you, this book certainly is.

Fitzgerald is a professional writer, rather than a scientist, activist, politician or scholar. This may be why his book is an enjoyable read and easy to understand. And it's unburdened by the technical complexities or alarmist attacks that are too common to writing on this topic.

Also to its credit, the book goes beyond gloom and doom to offer practical solutions that you can begin right now. Although nothing quick or easy is promised, the case that we need to do something is made starkly compelling. Getting informed is the first step, and this book is information that we all need now to make better choices concerning every detail of what we eat and how we choose to live.

97 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It may be yummers, but it's not good for you, August 30, 2006

By	C. Wagner "cecilkunkle" (On the banks of the Wabash far away) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The United States spends more than twice as much on health care than any other industrialized nation in the world-$6,100 per year for every man, woman, and child. Fifteen percent of the economy is now devoted to medical care, up from 10 percent in 1987. Yet, the United States ranks forty-sixth in life expectancy and forty-second in infant mortality among the nations of the world." Pages 86-87. A frightening expose of the chemicals which afflict all living things on the earth with humans, of course, at the top of the toxic chain. Expect more toxins to enter our little nature web without regards to long term effects, thanks to a government and FDA in the pockets of well heeled business. In the end, it may be ourselves who can take what little action is possible. Fitzgerald's stay at the Hippocrates, with its pure food diet and physical regime, seemed at first reading totally bizarre. But, he claims it radically reduced the toxins in his own body and seemed to actually heal many of the patients. And, after watching modern medicine actually kill, in my opinion, friends of mine, not before extracting obscene amounts of money and inflicting terrible pain, I would personally consider this alternative option. Important reading for anyone interested in their health and the health of their offspring. Why then only 4 stars? Simply because in the long run this book will make no difference. Business and government will pollute more systematically and nothing Fitzgerald has to say will slow the process.