The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick - And What We Can Do About It

by Robyn O'Brien and Rachel Kranz

Book Overview

Robyn O'Brien is not the most likely candidate for an antiestablishment crusade. A Houston native from a conservative family, this MBA and married mother of four was not someone who gave much thought to misguided government agencies and chemicals in our food-until the day her youngest daughter had a violent allergic reaction to eggs, and everything changed.The Unhealthy Truthis both the story of how one brave woman chose to take on the system and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767930711
• ISBN13: 9780767930710
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Broadway Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A must read for Mom's and Dad's!!

I read a review on this book in People Magazine and I'm so glad I bought this. It was a complete eye-opener for me about how our food approval process system and the FDA fair in comparison to the systems in place in Europe. I was in shock at all the artificial ingredients that are in our foods- most of which are the foods that we often feed our children. I loved every word of this book and have made significant changes in the way my family eats.

Healing Our Nation

Robyn O'Brien is onto something CRITICAL to the well-being of our children, ourselves, and the future of our nation. Business and politics have no place in ethics; and as a nation, we've crossed a VERY dangerous line. Don't fall prey to the thought that the pop tarts you ate as a child make it okay for you to serve the same pop tarts to your kids. The shelf life has trippled, the ingredients as well as the nature of the ingredients (read: GMOs) have severely altered and it's NOT okay to assume that because we turned out okay, our kids will as well. They are not turning out okay. There is something deeply wrong here. However, Robyn doesn't despair. There is strength in knowledge and hope as well. Robyn keeps things 'real' for all Americans. She is not dictating to move to an extreme way of living; she makes things palatable (no pun intended) for all of us. However, she more importantly opens up the can of worms for all Americans to recognize the machine behind the snack. This is certainly a major step in the movement to clean our plates and NOT accept that so many of our ailments are due solely to our unfortunate genetic makeup. THE UNHEALTHY TRUTH is going to launch a critical movement for our country, and I look forward to her second step in the form of her next book.

Parents; READ THIS BOOK!

The food industry pissed off the wrong Mommy of Four. Sarah Palin might call Robyn O'Brien (author of The Unhealthy Truth) a pitbull with lipstick. She might be blond and pretty, but when her youngest child, Tory, had an allergic reaction to eggs, she didn't take "Don't worry your pretty little head about it" for an answer. Why are allergies and asthma on such a rise in America? The answers were largely: We don't know and we're not really studying it. Better yet, there were two competing camps that each thought the other one's strategy would harm the kids. One thought you should expose your kids to the foods they are allergic to in small doses to see if the allergy would go away, and the other thought you should totally avoid any contact to the allergic food at all to see if it would go away. Riiight. It's nice to have theories, it's nice to do research, but what happens if you have kids, they have allergies, and you have to feed them NOW? Much of this book is a personal story of the O'Brien family and their four children, Lexy, Colin, John, and Tory. Once upon a time they were a happy family of four, complete with Kraft Mac n Cheese, blue yogurt, dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, and colorful goldfish crackers. And then, when Tory was nine months old and the oldest, Lexy, was five, things changed in an instant. Tory ate some eggs and her face puffed up and turned red. A few doctors' appointments later, she was diagnosed with an allergy to eggs. Life in the O'Brien house changed. Now - it didn't change overnight. Robyn was raised in so-called Red America (Houston, actually), with a military father and a conservative, Republican background. Not that that shapes one's eating habits per se, but it can tend toward an attitude of not questioning authority. Robyn had been doing everything you're supposed to do to be a good mother - including those dino-shaped nuggets - and when Tory got sick, she wanted to make her child well. So she started researching. And researching. And the answers didn't add up. And then she found out that Kraft funded the nation's major allergy non-profit. Whoops. Maybe that was why that allergy group wasn't so thrilled to acknowledge some of the research that was out there about potential links between allergies and GMOs? (GMOs that you eat in Kraft foods, that is.) After all that research, Robyn condenses the possible causes of increasing allergies to the following list: 1. The shift from a natural to an industrial environment 2. Excessive exposure to antibiotics, both as prescribed to our children and as consumed through antibiotic-laden meat, milk, and poultry. 3. The rise in pollutants and environmental toxins (perhaps including the fumes and residues from some of the chemical products we use to clean our homes). 4. Our tendency to eat more processed foods loaded with chemical additives and preservatives and to eat far fewer natural whole foods. As it turned out, it wasn't just Tory who had allergies.

"The Unhealthy Truth" Is Highly Recommended by This Reviewer

This remarkable book by Robyn O'Brien with Rachel Kranz is an excellent read. The Unhealthy Truth tells the absorbing story of Robyn and her family's experience with allergies. But it is more than that. There has been a disturbing jump in allergy statistics, which led Robyn, using her research background, to become an "allergy detective." This book reveals what she found out about changes in our foods that appear to have a connection with the rise in allergies. Comments of praise by national personalities convinced me to buy this book. They include popular physician Dr. Mehmet Oz, Erin Brockovich, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Nell Newman. For added credibility, the foreword was written by Kenneth A. Bock, MD, who has impeccable credentials and is author of Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Allergies. The Unhealthy Truth has an eye-opening section on GE foods. Few of us (about 25%) know that we may consume GE foods often. Our processed foods and soft drinks, for example, may contain ingredients from GE corn and soy and other GE crops. GE Bt corn, for example, is regulated as a pesticide and not as a food. While many factors are involved in allergies, this book contains a thought-provoking discussion of the possible links between GE foods and food allergies. This book's explanation for the layperson of the genetic engineering process is the most understandable, interesting one of the many I have seen. President Obama has indicated interest in labeling for foods with GE ingredients, and the U.S. Congress may consider GE food labeling. It would be well if we consumers are informed for this possibility. We can gain much useful information from this book. The Unhealthy Truth is an important book that promises to make a valuable difference for us and our families.

The full disclosure you ought to get...

As someone with a corn allergy/intolerance I'm already disillusioned with the "system". FAAN isn't what they seem to be and the people who feed us are in it for the money. But, somehow, I've always believed that it couldn't be "that" bad. I mean, the government DOES have regulations. Right? This book, written as a description of the author's research discoveries and journey out of food ignorance bliss, is even more alarming from it's first person tone. It isn't written by an expert. It's written by a Mom who just started out looking for answers for her child and found herself in the middle of something bigger. This is a wake up call for all of us. We know about GMO, and petrochemicals and hormones in our food supply. Many of us worry about them, but let them take a back burner to little league and homework and deadlines. Reading some of Robyn's discoveries makes one realize that we need to re-evaluate our priorities, and vote with our personal choices. She also offers good advice on starting the journey away from "norm" with simple steps on getting started on life without GMO or additives, and a low pressure reassurance that no one is perfect...all you can do is aim for improvement.