Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back

by Michele Simon

Book Overview

The United States is currently embroiled in a national debate over the growing public health crisis caused by poor diet. People are starting to ask who is to blame and how can we fix the problem, especially among children. Major food companies are responding with a massive public relations campaign. These companies, including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Kraft, and General Mills, are increasingly on the defensive. In response, they pretend to sell healthier...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560259329
• ISBN13: 9781560259329
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Bold Type Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Concise Truth-Telling: What a Concept!

This is an incredibly important book that finally explains why the answer to our food problems does not lie in the corporations themselves. We've all become so duped into believing the PR hype of the food INDUSTRY and have given away our power and our health. This isn't all gloom and doom, however. I especially like that Simon offers solutions for individuals who want to get on board and make a difference. Though they have the power and the money, our voices can still be heard, and I appreciate that Simon offers us that hope. (Oh - and do check out the Anti-Glossary. It's brilliant!) Highly recommended.

food industry...exposed

I wish you could read a health claim on a food label and trust it. I wish the government recommendations on what to eat reflected science more than corporate interest. I wish food industry claims about community responsibility reflected their actions. But none of these are evenly remotely true. Appetite for Profit is a brilliant book that exposes the hypocrisy. When you read about the extent to which profit is prioritized over your health, you'll be enraged. But hang in there - by book's end, you'll also know how to channel your anger to fight back. Thank you, Michele Simon, for providing this essential activists' guide to food politics.

If you eat, read this book!

Clear, concise and compelling. Appetite for Profit is a must read for anyone concerned about our current obesity crisis, the politics of food or how corporations avoid much-needed government regulation. Simon exposes the ways in which the food industry undermines the work of public advocates, detailing practices such as "nutriwashing" and Big Food's funding of its own science and attack dog front groups. Warning: Reading this book may turn you into an activist!

Frightening and provocative

I have read this book once and some chapters multiple times. Most interesting to me was the section explaining how modern food corporations operate, and why - despite their apparent best intentions at remedying a growing obesity crisis - they are legally-bound to make profit even when the public health is clearly imperiled by their products. No conspiracy theories. Just the facts. They spend billions each year on marketing to convince people to buy their lousy, nutritionally-deficient products, then preach "personal responsibility" and blame the consumer for being duped by their agressive, ubiquitous advertising. Big Food's targeting of children with ad dollars is especially angering. It's all in this book.