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Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet-One Bite at a Time
Help to transform the planet in crisis with this indispensable guide to healthy, ethical, and economically sustainable food from #1 New York Times bestselling author Mark Hyman, MD -- "Read this book if you're ready to change the world" (Tim Ryan, US Representative).
Food is our most powerful tool to reverse the global epidemic of chronic disease, heal the environment, reform politics, and revive economies. What we eat has tremendous implications not just for our waistlines, but also for the planet, society, and the global economy. What we do to our bodies, we do to the planet; and what we do to the planet, we do to our bodies.
In Food Fix, #1 bestselling author Mark Hyman explains how our food and agriculture policies are corrupted by money and lobbies that drive our biggest global crises: the spread of obesity and food-related chronic disease, climate change, poverty, violence, educational achievement gaps, and more.
Pairing the latest developments in nutritional and environmental science with an unflinching look at the dark realities of the global food system and the policies that make it possible, Food Fix is a hard-hitting manifesto that will change the way you think about -- and eat -- food forever, and will provide solutions for citizens, businesses, and policy makers to create a healthier world, society, and planet.
Food is our most powerful tool to reverse the global epidemic of chronic disease, heal the environment, reform politics, and revive economies. What we eat has tremendous implications not just for our waistlines, but also for the planet, society, and the global economy. What we do to our bodies, we do to the planet; and what we do to the planet, we do to our bodies.
In Food Fix, #1 bestselling author Mark Hyman explains how our food and agriculture policies are corrupted by money and lobbies that drive our biggest global crises: the spread of obesity and food-related chronic disease, climate change, poverty, violence, educational achievement gaps, and more.
Pairing the latest developments in nutritional and environmental science with an unflinching look at the dark realities of the global food system and the policies that make it possible, Food Fix is a hard-hitting manifesto that will change the way you think about -- and eat -- food forever, and will provide solutions for citizens, businesses, and policy makers to create a healthier world, society, and planet.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published February 25, 2020
1,108 people are currently reading
8,606 people want to read
About the author
Mark Hyman
335books995followersMark Hyman, MD, believes that we all deserve a life of vitality--and that we have the potential to create it for ourselves. That's why he is dedicated to tackling the root causes of chronic disease by harnessing the power of Functional Medicine to transform healthcare. Dr. Hyman and his team work every day to empower people, organizations, and communities to heal their bodies and minds, and improve our social and economic resilience.
Dr. Hyman is a practicing family physician, an eleven-time New York Times bestselling author, and an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in his field. He is the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. He is also the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center, chairman of the board of the Institute for Functional Medicine, a medical editor of The Huffington Post, and was a regular medical contributor on many television shows including CBS This Morning, Today Show, CNN, and The View, Katie, and The Dr. Oz Show.
Dr. Hyman works with individuals and organizations, as well as policymakers and influencers. He has testified before both the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Senate Working Group on Health Care Reform on Functional Medicine. He has consulted with the Surgeon General on diabetes prevention and participated in the 2009 White House Forum on Prevention and Wellness. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa nominated Dr. Hyman for the President's Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health. In addition, Dr. Hyman has worked with President Clinton, presenting at the Clinton Foundation's Health Matters, Achieving Wellness in Every Generation conference, and the Clinton Global Initiative, as well as with the World Economic Forum on global health issues. He is the winner of the Linus Pauling Award, The Nantucket Project Award, and was inducted in the Books for Better Life Hall of Fame.
Dr. Hyman also works with fellow leaders in his field to help people and communities thrive--with Rick Warren, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Dr. Daniel Amen, he created The Daniel Plan, a faith-based initiative that helped The Saddleback Church collectively lose 250,000 pounds. He is as an advisor and guest co-host on The Dr. Oz Show and is on the board of Dr. Oz's HealthCorps, which tackles the obesity epidemic by educating American students about nutrition. With Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Michael Roizen, Dr. Hyman crafted and helped introduce the Take Back Your Health Act of 2009 to the United States Senate to provide for reimbursement of lifestyle treatment of chronic disease. And, with Tim Ryan in 2015, helped introduce the ENRICH Act into Congress to fund nutrition in medical education. Dr. Hyman plays a substantial role in a major film produced by Laurie David and Katie Couric, released in 2014, called Fed Up, which addresses childhood obesity.
Dr. Hyman is a practicing family physician, an eleven-time New York Times bestselling author, and an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in his field. He is the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. He is also the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center, chairman of the board of the Institute for Functional Medicine, a medical editor of The Huffington Post, and was a regular medical contributor on many television shows including CBS This Morning, Today Show, CNN, and The View, Katie, and The Dr. Oz Show.
Dr. Hyman works with individuals and organizations, as well as policymakers and influencers. He has testified before both the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Senate Working Group on Health Care Reform on Functional Medicine. He has consulted with the Surgeon General on diabetes prevention and participated in the 2009 White House Forum on Prevention and Wellness. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa nominated Dr. Hyman for the President's Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health. In addition, Dr. Hyman has worked with President Clinton, presenting at the Clinton Foundation's Health Matters, Achieving Wellness in Every Generation conference, and the Clinton Global Initiative, as well as with the World Economic Forum on global health issues. He is the winner of the Linus Pauling Award, The Nantucket Project Award, and was inducted in the Books for Better Life Hall of Fame.
Dr. Hyman also works with fellow leaders in his field to help people and communities thrive--with Rick Warren, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Dr. Daniel Amen, he created The Daniel Plan, a faith-based initiative that helped The Saddleback Church collectively lose 250,000 pounds. He is as an advisor and guest co-host on The Dr. Oz Show and is on the board of Dr. Oz's HealthCorps, which tackles the obesity epidemic by educating American students about nutrition. With Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Michael Roizen, Dr. Hyman crafted and helped introduce the Take Back Your Health Act of 2009 to the United States Senate to provide for reimbursement of lifestyle treatment of chronic disease. And, with Tim Ryan in 2015, helped introduce the ENRICH Act into Congress to fund nutrition in medical education. Dr. Hyman plays a substantial role in a major film produced by Laurie David and Katie Couric, released in 2014, called Fed Up, which addresses childhood obesity.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 275 reviews
April 22, 2020
I've read other Mark Hyman books and for the most part, I have learned from him. This book is a little different because he isn't focused on the individual as it has been with his other books. Instead his focus has expanded to a global one. He preaches reform (in government, farming, and personal choices) and education when it comes to food...in all aspects.
I think his message is one that needs to be shouted from the roof tops. Change needs to happen if we want to become a healthier people. For me, this book wasn't quite 4 stars. There was a fair amount of repetition in this which I found annoying. There was also a fair amount of "fear" tactics, which I'm not a fan of in any form. I think if the repetition had been reigned in, the latter wouldn't have been so noticeable. So I'm rounding up to 4 anyway because of the importance placed on overall health.
I think his message is one that needs to be shouted from the roof tops. Change needs to happen if we want to become a healthier people. For me, this book wasn't quite 4 stars. There was a fair amount of repetition in this which I found annoying. There was also a fair amount of "fear" tactics, which I'm not a fan of in any form. I think if the repetition had been reigned in, the latter wouldn't have been so noticeable. So I'm rounding up to 4 anyway because of the importance placed on overall health.
March 18, 2020
This was a tough read. It was like reading a textbook. But boy did I learn alot. This is a must read. We as a nation have no idea of what we are eating and what it is doing to us and our planet.
April 5, 2020
What an excellent book. Dr. Hyman goes into a deep dive about everything wrong with our food system, the corruption in our government agencies and the food companies who have pretty much bought them off, everything we've been taught about nutrition that's wrong, and how we can fix it all. I love that he isn't in one or another "camp" -- he doesn't tell you to go vegan or paleo or support one agenda or another. He uses science, facts and studies to rationally explain what kind of foods we need and how to fix our broken system to save the environment, farmers, and our own health. As a rather hardened cynic when it comes to this sort of thing, I am not prone to feeling inspired that we can make differences when things are this far off track, but he provides steps and resources throughout the book that really give me hope.
A must-read.
I read a digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
A must-read.
I read a digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
August 7, 2020
This is a great, detailed indictment of sugar, junk food, Big Ag and Big Food. If anyone you know harbors any illusions about 1. the putrid, pesticide-soaked US diet; or 2. corruption and collusion between Big Ag, government and science, tell them to read this book. However, the subtitle belies the book's fundamental flaw: you can't save the planet one bite at a time.
And, even though the author gives lip service to the Black Lives Matter movement, he counts among his pals one of the biggest perpetrators of institutional racism ever to blight New York City: former Mayor Bloomberg. Bloomberg, of course, oppressed and criminalized New York's Black population with Stop and Frisk. Maybe this is why Dr. Hyman proposes a stupid, racist idea: that bad food is one of the causes of crime and violence and small brain size. He cites an experiment in which people in prison who were given better food became less violent. Really? This is science? Hyman needs to stop everything and read "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" by Michelle Alexander.
Yes, you can change your health IF you stop eating sugar and junk food and IF you can afford organic food, but shopping at Whole Foods and buying grass-fed beef will not get greedy capitalists to pay living wages to factory and farm workers in the global South, or even in the US. Every day, 23,000 people around the globe die of starvation. They are not ordering home delivery of organic food during the Pandemic. It's good to know all the agricultural reforms that this book documents and suggests. But the first step to changing the world and its diet is for the people to take back the land.
And, even though the author gives lip service to the Black Lives Matter movement, he counts among his pals one of the biggest perpetrators of institutional racism ever to blight New York City: former Mayor Bloomberg. Bloomberg, of course, oppressed and criminalized New York's Black population with Stop and Frisk. Maybe this is why Dr. Hyman proposes a stupid, racist idea: that bad food is one of the causes of crime and violence and small brain size. He cites an experiment in which people in prison who were given better food became less violent. Really? This is science? Hyman needs to stop everything and read "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" by Michelle Alexander.
Yes, you can change your health IF you stop eating sugar and junk food and IF you can afford organic food, but shopping at Whole Foods and buying grass-fed beef will not get greedy capitalists to pay living wages to factory and farm workers in the global South, or even in the US. Every day, 23,000 people around the globe die of starvation. They are not ordering home delivery of organic food during the Pandemic. It's good to know all the agricultural reforms that this book documents and suggests. But the first step to changing the world and its diet is for the people to take back the land.
March 4, 2020
Took me awhile to read this, but I think because there's nothing really new in here that I haven't read in a million other places (including Hyman's other books.) I just feel like he puts out the same info over and over rebranding it with a different title. I get inspired by some info, and bored by other.
November 5, 2023
This is a very important and equally sobering book.
“There is one place that nearly everything that matters in the world today converges: our food and our food system—the complex web of how we grow food, how we produce, distribute, and promote it; what we eat, what we waste, and the policies that perpetuate unimaginable suffering and destruction across the globe that deplete our human, social, economic, and natural capital.
Food is the nexus of most of our world’s health, economic, environmental, climate, social, and even political crises. While this may seem like an exaggeration, it is not. The problem is much worse than we think. After reading Food Fix you will be able to connect the dots of this largely invisible crisis and understand why fixing our food system is central to the health and well-being of our population, our environment, our climate, our economy, and our very survival as a species. You will also understand the forces, businesses, and policies driving the catastrophe, and the people, businesses, and governments that are providing hope and a path to fixing our dysfunctional food system.�
~ Dr. Mark Hyman, MD from Food Fix
Mark Hyman, MD, is head of strategy for the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and board president for the Institute for Functional Medicine. He is also the bestselling author of a number of books, including .
This is a very important and equally sobering book. As Mark says: “The story of food shocked me, frightened me, and drove me to tell this story and to find the possibility of redemption from the broken system that is slowly destroying the people and things we love most.�
Now, of course, the food we eat affects our health and well-being. Actually, after I typed that, I realized that the “of course� part ISN’T a given. Many people STILL don’t see the connection between our food choices and our health and the fact (yes, it’s a fact) that our poor food choices are driving the astonishing rates of chronic disease we all face.
What might be less obvious is that the food system we have in place—ranging from the subsidies and other public policies—affect EVERYTHING from our physical health to our psychological health to our cultural well-being to the health of our economies and our environment.
Mark connects all those dots. He tells us this: “If we were to identify one big lever to pull to improve global health, create economic abundance, reduce social injustice and mental illness, restore environmental health, and reverse climate change, it would be transforming our entire food system. That is the most important work of our time—work that must begin now.�
Nearly every paragraph of every page of my copy of the book is marked up—often with a �:/� representing my “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!� appalled astonishment at just how viciously many individuals—from politicians to food corp executives—are abusing their power and ignoring the public good.
Like I said, it’s a sobering, challenging, confronting read. It’s also, ultimately, a hopeful read as Mark gives us some compelling Ideas on how we can go about SOLVING the crises along with a cast of heroic characters who are doing the hard work to serve us and change the world.
If you’d like to learn more about “How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet—One Bite at a Time,� I think you’ll appreciate this book as much as I did. (You can get a copy of the book .)
Some of my favorite big ideas from this book include:
1. The Food System - Is broken.
2. The Food Fix - What you can do.
3. Your Food Label - Is lying to you.
4. Junk Science - To promote junk food.
5. Social Justice - The hidden oppression of food.
6. Regenerative Ag - Is where it’s at.
I’ve summarized those Big Ideas in a video review that you can watch here:
I’ve also added Food Fix by Mark Hyman to my collection of Philosopher’s Notes--distilling the Big Ideas into 6-page PDF and 20-minute MP3s on 600+ of the BEST self-development books ever. You can get access to all of those plus a TON more over at .
“There is one place that nearly everything that matters in the world today converges: our food and our food system—the complex web of how we grow food, how we produce, distribute, and promote it; what we eat, what we waste, and the policies that perpetuate unimaginable suffering and destruction across the globe that deplete our human, social, economic, and natural capital.
Food is the nexus of most of our world’s health, economic, environmental, climate, social, and even political crises. While this may seem like an exaggeration, it is not. The problem is much worse than we think. After reading Food Fix you will be able to connect the dots of this largely invisible crisis and understand why fixing our food system is central to the health and well-being of our population, our environment, our climate, our economy, and our very survival as a species. You will also understand the forces, businesses, and policies driving the catastrophe, and the people, businesses, and governments that are providing hope and a path to fixing our dysfunctional food system.�
~ Dr. Mark Hyman, MD from Food Fix
Mark Hyman, MD, is head of strategy for the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and board president for the Institute for Functional Medicine. He is also the bestselling author of a number of books, including .
This is a very important and equally sobering book. As Mark says: “The story of food shocked me, frightened me, and drove me to tell this story and to find the possibility of redemption from the broken system that is slowly destroying the people and things we love most.�
Now, of course, the food we eat affects our health and well-being. Actually, after I typed that, I realized that the “of course� part ISN’T a given. Many people STILL don’t see the connection between our food choices and our health and the fact (yes, it’s a fact) that our poor food choices are driving the astonishing rates of chronic disease we all face.
What might be less obvious is that the food system we have in place—ranging from the subsidies and other public policies—affect EVERYTHING from our physical health to our psychological health to our cultural well-being to the health of our economies and our environment.
Mark connects all those dots. He tells us this: “If we were to identify one big lever to pull to improve global health, create economic abundance, reduce social injustice and mental illness, restore environmental health, and reverse climate change, it would be transforming our entire food system. That is the most important work of our time—work that must begin now.�
Nearly every paragraph of every page of my copy of the book is marked up—often with a �:/� representing my “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!� appalled astonishment at just how viciously many individuals—from politicians to food corp executives—are abusing their power and ignoring the public good.
Like I said, it’s a sobering, challenging, confronting read. It’s also, ultimately, a hopeful read as Mark gives us some compelling Ideas on how we can go about SOLVING the crises along with a cast of heroic characters who are doing the hard work to serve us and change the world.
If you’d like to learn more about “How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet—One Bite at a Time,� I think you’ll appreciate this book as much as I did. (You can get a copy of the book .)
Some of my favorite big ideas from this book include:
1. The Food System - Is broken.
2. The Food Fix - What you can do.
3. Your Food Label - Is lying to you.
4. Junk Science - To promote junk food.
5. Social Justice - The hidden oppression of food.
6. Regenerative Ag - Is where it’s at.
I’ve summarized those Big Ideas in a video review that you can watch here:
I’ve also added Food Fix by Mark Hyman to my collection of Philosopher’s Notes--distilling the Big Ideas into 6-page PDF and 20-minute MP3s on 600+ of the BEST self-development books ever. You can get access to all of those plus a TON more over at .
April 4, 2022
I started off extremely excited to dive into this book. Based on the summary, I was sure I would appreciate and agree with everything written. Unfortunately, the author makes leaps in his conclusions and engages in reductive thinking. There were facts that weren’t cited, but part of proving an argument, and I struggled to understand where they even came from. Some of the policy proposals are entirely classist, even if well intended. For example:
1. The claim that India has the largest rate of diabetes in the world, based on the expansion of American fast food chains in the country (notably: Yum! brands). How is this claim made? By percentage of diabetics? Sheer number, making one of the more populous countries in the world an obvious target? And if fast food is considered a luxury good in India, as the author claims, how does such a country with millions outside the middle class then account for the high rate of diabetes? I don’t frequent fast food for health reasons, but I found the conclusion to be overreaching. Indian food in some regions has a lot of sugar (whether jaggery, honey, or white sugar), which can raise one’s blood sugar. The amount of exercise the average Indian engages in has gone down since cars became more readily available. Yes, processed foods have also contributed to this, but not singularly.
2. The proposal that sin taxes for goods such as soda be more widespread and the soda industry’s firm opposition to it being proof that it harms sales, as well as this being good for the poor because a regressive tax will also mean lower healthcare costs for the poor. What? No, it doesn’t. WIC food stamps allow for soda because it doesn’t perish as easily. It’s easy to make a Captain Obvious recommendation to not drink soda, but has the author ever lived on food stamps to understand what actually qualifies? Organic milk does not, for example. Neither does organic produce. Canned goods with a longer shelf life, however, do. Also, why aren’t we taxing the rich on their Starbucks Frappachinos? I assume that if the author is in opposition to a can of soda containing 30g of sugar, surely a Frappachino with 42g of sugar should be taxed similarly? Or frosé drinks that usually contain about 25g of sugar and are served at brunch tables of the middle and upper middle class? Because this proposal came off as grossly classist and punitive against only the poorest.
3. Throughout the book, there are conclusions made from incredibly weak facts. (e.g., Mexican president Vincente Fox was Coca-Cola Mexico's president and that is why Latin America has a high consumption of soda) or they are based on outdated facts (e.g., the role someone at Coca-Cola had that they left over 5 years ago to then draw a 2021 conclusion as to what their work did, even if that work has no longer continued since; statistics from 2016 to draw 2021 conclusions, even though the world greatly changed from the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, racial justice reckonings, etc.). This made it really hard to really get behind what the author is so fervently concluding because the fact-checking was incredibly weak and the conclusions purely speculative. This was probably the most disappointing part of the book -- I greatly wanted to understand how he came to his conclusions so that I could be armed with the arguments and facts, but found them sorely lacking.
There were still some great callouts in this book (again, needing better studies and facts to make the conclusions he draws):
- I was particularly fascinated by the link between mental health and nutrition. The author talks about how certain criminal activity should be treated as having a lack of resources for mental health, which I agree with, but also draws the line with how nutrition can also help with bolstering mental health. This is interesting and I wish he had more concrete facts to support his conclusion, other than saying there was a prison population that became less violent when the nutritional quality of their meals improved.
- Another callout is for schools to begin teaching kids how to garden and cook as part of the curriculum. We have raised a generation of kids who do not understand how food is grown or cooked. I fully support that cooking classes and having a school garden be in the curriculum.
-Finally, the author's callout of the treatment of farm workers and food workers is an excellent callout we should always remember whenever we buy food or eat food prepared by someone else. Doing so is not only upholding the dignity of the individuals who grow, cook, and serve our food, but it lays bare the need for environmental justice measures. We cannot wait to prioritize the planet, specifically with environmentally sustainable farming measures.
Overall, I give this a 2.5 because the author makes sweeping conclusions, written from a singular viewpoint, and while there are some great ideas towards the last third of this book, they will not take traction without better facts and research.
1. The claim that India has the largest rate of diabetes in the world, based on the expansion of American fast food chains in the country (notably: Yum! brands). How is this claim made? By percentage of diabetics? Sheer number, making one of the more populous countries in the world an obvious target? And if fast food is considered a luxury good in India, as the author claims, how does such a country with millions outside the middle class then account for the high rate of diabetes? I don’t frequent fast food for health reasons, but I found the conclusion to be overreaching. Indian food in some regions has a lot of sugar (whether jaggery, honey, or white sugar), which can raise one’s blood sugar. The amount of exercise the average Indian engages in has gone down since cars became more readily available. Yes, processed foods have also contributed to this, but not singularly.
2. The proposal that sin taxes for goods such as soda be more widespread and the soda industry’s firm opposition to it being proof that it harms sales, as well as this being good for the poor because a regressive tax will also mean lower healthcare costs for the poor. What? No, it doesn’t. WIC food stamps allow for soda because it doesn’t perish as easily. It’s easy to make a Captain Obvious recommendation to not drink soda, but has the author ever lived on food stamps to understand what actually qualifies? Organic milk does not, for example. Neither does organic produce. Canned goods with a longer shelf life, however, do. Also, why aren’t we taxing the rich on their Starbucks Frappachinos? I assume that if the author is in opposition to a can of soda containing 30g of sugar, surely a Frappachino with 42g of sugar should be taxed similarly? Or frosé drinks that usually contain about 25g of sugar and are served at brunch tables of the middle and upper middle class? Because this proposal came off as grossly classist and punitive against only the poorest.
3. Throughout the book, there are conclusions made from incredibly weak facts. (e.g., Mexican president Vincente Fox was Coca-Cola Mexico's president and that is why Latin America has a high consumption of soda) or they are based on outdated facts (e.g., the role someone at Coca-Cola had that they left over 5 years ago to then draw a 2021 conclusion as to what their work did, even if that work has no longer continued since; statistics from 2016 to draw 2021 conclusions, even though the world greatly changed from the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, racial justice reckonings, etc.). This made it really hard to really get behind what the author is so fervently concluding because the fact-checking was incredibly weak and the conclusions purely speculative. This was probably the most disappointing part of the book -- I greatly wanted to understand how he came to his conclusions so that I could be armed with the arguments and facts, but found them sorely lacking.
There were still some great callouts in this book (again, needing better studies and facts to make the conclusions he draws):
- I was particularly fascinated by the link between mental health and nutrition. The author talks about how certain criminal activity should be treated as having a lack of resources for mental health, which I agree with, but also draws the line with how nutrition can also help with bolstering mental health. This is interesting and I wish he had more concrete facts to support his conclusion, other than saying there was a prison population that became less violent when the nutritional quality of their meals improved.
- Another callout is for schools to begin teaching kids how to garden and cook as part of the curriculum. We have raised a generation of kids who do not understand how food is grown or cooked. I fully support that cooking classes and having a school garden be in the curriculum.
-Finally, the author's callout of the treatment of farm workers and food workers is an excellent callout we should always remember whenever we buy food or eat food prepared by someone else. Doing so is not only upholding the dignity of the individuals who grow, cook, and serve our food, but it lays bare the need for environmental justice measures. We cannot wait to prioritize the planet, specifically with environmentally sustainable farming measures.
Overall, I give this a 2.5 because the author makes sweeping conclusions, written from a singular viewpoint, and while there are some great ideas towards the last third of this book, they will not take traction without better facts and research.
April 15, 2021
I wish I could give this book more than just 5 stars. This might be one of the top 3 most influential books I have read this year. If you're not yet convinced of the influence our diet has on almost every single aspect of our lives and that the food lobby is controlling public nutrition and health (and not in a good way), I challenge you to read this book.
August 17, 2020
Food Fix is a manifesto against America's current food system. Dr. Mark Hyman has written several books on nutrition and a leader in the field of integrative medicine, an up-and-coming field that focuses on the whole patient and their environment.
This book makes some strong claims against our system, backed up by a wealth of footnotes in the back. What is refreshing is that for each problem Dr. Hyman sees in the system, he finds a "food fix" that is already in use somewhere in the world that would make it better. This keeps the book from being a depressing screed on how fat and unhealthy we all are. Instead it is a call to arms.
Among the claims from the book:
$95 Trillion dollars has been wasted from our economy on chronic illnesses over the last 35 years, and 11 million people die yearly from lifestyle diseases, most of which can be traced to bad diets.
Over 70% of Americans are either overweight or obese, with the obese number creeping up.
40% of all food harvested is wasted and thrown out
60% of the calories we consume come from processed and not whole foods.
At current usage levels we have maybe 60 years of good crops left before the soils around the world go dead.
Only 2% of America's cropland is used for fruits and vegetables, while 60% goes to commodity crops like wheat, corn and soybeans
The bit about the soils going dead got my attention, but forecasting anything 60 years from now is next to impossible. The author also covers global warming and modern agriculture's huge contributions to climate change and carbon levels. The first chapter, The True Cost of Food, is an eye opener that goes over many of the unintended consequences of our modern agricultural system. This is a long, fact-laden book, but I will try to summarize the main points below.
Dr. Hyman briefly summarizes his own dietary recommendations which line up pretty closely with other books I've read.
Eat whole plants but go easy on fruits
Regeneratively raised animal meat is okay, and low-mercury fish is good
Eat beans, unprocessed whole grains, nuts and seeds, and pasture raised eggs.
Avoid sugar (especially added sugars), pesticides, hormones, GMO's and bad oils like corn, canola, and soybean
The book takes a look at the politics behind the food business and it's predictable and depressing. Ten companies pretty much control the entire food production system. Big food companies use a LOT of money to grease the system with lobbyists and campaign contributions to get politicians on their side. More depressing is the fact that scientists and large universities who perform many of the studies about what's healthy or not are also taking in money from the food industry. Surprise, surprise- those scientists more often than not produce research that says whatever food they're investigating is good for you, or at least not that bad.
With the science suspect, it's hard to know what to eat or drink. The nutrition guidelines are one of the most confusing ones to follow anywhere. Eggs are good, then they're bad, then they're good again, and now you have to know how they're raised.
Luckily, there are some independent studies that are more reliable. The food industry learned a lot from what big tobacco went through with the nicotine studies, and they've figured out how to muddy the waters with confusing data. Did you know that pizza is good for you and considered a vegetable for school cafeterias? With the right data you can claim anything these days.
Big food has its tentacles all over the system that would check its power and statistics. The food and drug administration (FDA) has a revolving door with food industry executives who move back and forth from companies to regulators. Major charities like the NAACP, American Heart Association, Hispanic Federation, and American Academy of Pediatrics accept huge donations from food and beverage companies that keeps them from speaking out more about the diets that are crippling their constituencies. Even the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, (AND), the organization that dieticians look to for recommendations takes money from Big Food. Conflicts of interests abound when it comes to asking for advice on what's safe to eat these days.
The book takes a hard look at the food stamp program, now called SNAP, how it began, and how food companies have grown to exploit it. An amazing $68 Billion dollars is spent on SNAP by low-income Americans every year. By design this money can only be used for food, and also by design that food can include junk food like soda, cookies, energy drinks, chips and ice cream. These empty calories are made available to SNAP recipients because the food companies lobbied congress to make them available. Junk foods are much more profitable than fresh foods because they use cheaper ingredients and have a longer shelf-life. So the junk food industry has gone after SNAP recipients with advertising based on when their cards are loaded with funds. This has undermined healthy food products and created food deserts in poverty-stricken areas.
The food stamp program is funded every year by the Farm Bill, a huge appropriation bill from congress that flies under the political radar. This bill routinely hands out billion dollar subsidies to big farmers in the form of crop insurance, price guarantees, and outright gifts. Because of this market manipulation, some crops like wheat and corn become much more profitable to grow while others suffer by comparison.
The chapter on foods in school is equally disheartening. Nearly one third of today's youth are overweight or obese, and those who grow up fatter are much more likely to struggle all their lives. Junk foods like sugary cereals and candies are marketed exclusively to children during kid's television and online programming and it works.
Schools are the one place where low-income children can count on a hot meal most days. But cash-strapped schools are sometimes forced to accept junk foods in their cafeterias and vending machines to save money. In Houston, the school district made a deal with Domino's Pizza to sell branded "healthier" pizzas in every school in the district. But in Boston, administrators have made efforts to kick junk foods out of school and the story from the book is encouraging. First Lady Michelle Obama made improving school nutrition one of her main initiatives. (Only to have them reversed once her husband left office.)
One of the biggest villains in this book is Coca Cola and the other soft drink peddlers. They have fought hard against any regulations that might hurt their sales. Many cities and foreign countries have proposed soda taxes to cover the health consequences of the sugar-laden drinks. Soda lobbyists have fought and lobbied against these measures, and often won because of their deep pockets and support in all sorts of areas. They also have blocked bottle bills that encouraged recycling, preferring to let voluntary measures do the trick.
Instead of soda taxes, Coke promises smiling public relations campaigns on the benefits of healthy lifestyles, which include soda drinking. They point the finger conveniently at lack of exercise for the reason for America's obesity epidemic, holding themselves blameless. Dr. Hyman says you can't outrun a bad diet, and everything I've read says that he is right. Exercise is an important aspect of our total health, but diet is a much bigger influence on our weight.
What is it about workers in the food industry that allows consumers to care so little about their health and safety? From farm to table, the people who make our food possible mostly work in hazardous and low-paid jobs with no safety net. Farm workers are often immigrants from other countries who are treated badly and exposed to harsh working conditions and toxic chemicals. Workers in meat processing plants are subject to a different type of dangerous work environment. And even the restaurant and fast-food workers that serve us food are paid at below-minimum wages with no benefits or health insurance. If food was so important, wouldn't those who produce it be treated better?
The last three chapters are a fascinating look at the problems that big agriculture faces in the 21st century. While we produce more food than ever, much of it is wasted or fed to animals to fatten them up. Soils are being drained of life by current practices and Dr. Hyman points to something called regenerative agriculture that would restore barren dirt. 60 years- that's all the time we have left according to this book, and the problems of soil loss, water depletion, and loss of biodiversity are the biggest threats for farming in the future.
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, (CAFO's) are singled out as one of the biggest problems with agriculture today. Cows, pigs and chickens are stuck in cages barely large enough to move in, and pumped with antibiotics and fattening foods so they can produce meat the fastest way possible. This produces lower quality, cheaper meats and all sorts of dire pollution consequences. Here again regenerative agriculture is the answer, and the book hesitates to advocate for full-blown vegetarianism.
And then finally there is climate change. Agriculture creates more carbon emissions than all of transportation according to this book. Carbon is released from the soils when it is tilled. Methane comes from cattle and landfills full of food waste. And Nitrogen dioxide comes from fertilizers that are used to boost crops. Getting a handle on global warming will also require dealing with the huge agriculture industry. Handling fossil fuels is just a part of it.
In short, this book has plenty of food for thought. (Pun intended) The author knows his stuff and backs it up with detailed citations. He also gives plenty of suggestions for how to fix things. Mind you, some of these fixes seem impossible given economic and political conditions today, but who knows what the next decades will bring. Just in the past decade we've seen a big change in how people are starting to read labels more carefully and try to eat healthier.
In the US, sales of plant-based foods are up and sales of soda are down. Obesity is still a growing problem, but perhaps books like this one are a sign that things are changing. I would also recommend Feeding You Lies, by Vani Hari, (AKA The Food Babe) for more detail on the coming revolution in food habits. In the meantime, read those labels and don't believe everything you hear about your favorite foods.
This book makes some strong claims against our system, backed up by a wealth of footnotes in the back. What is refreshing is that for each problem Dr. Hyman sees in the system, he finds a "food fix" that is already in use somewhere in the world that would make it better. This keeps the book from being a depressing screed on how fat and unhealthy we all are. Instead it is a call to arms.
Among the claims from the book:
$95 Trillion dollars has been wasted from our economy on chronic illnesses over the last 35 years, and 11 million people die yearly from lifestyle diseases, most of which can be traced to bad diets.
Over 70% of Americans are either overweight or obese, with the obese number creeping up.
40% of all food harvested is wasted and thrown out
60% of the calories we consume come from processed and not whole foods.
At current usage levels we have maybe 60 years of good crops left before the soils around the world go dead.
Only 2% of America's cropland is used for fruits and vegetables, while 60% goes to commodity crops like wheat, corn and soybeans
The bit about the soils going dead got my attention, but forecasting anything 60 years from now is next to impossible. The author also covers global warming and modern agriculture's huge contributions to climate change and carbon levels. The first chapter, The True Cost of Food, is an eye opener that goes over many of the unintended consequences of our modern agricultural system. This is a long, fact-laden book, but I will try to summarize the main points below.
Dr. Hyman briefly summarizes his own dietary recommendations which line up pretty closely with other books I've read.
Eat whole plants but go easy on fruits
Regeneratively raised animal meat is okay, and low-mercury fish is good
Eat beans, unprocessed whole grains, nuts and seeds, and pasture raised eggs.
Avoid sugar (especially added sugars), pesticides, hormones, GMO's and bad oils like corn, canola, and soybean
The book takes a look at the politics behind the food business and it's predictable and depressing. Ten companies pretty much control the entire food production system. Big food companies use a LOT of money to grease the system with lobbyists and campaign contributions to get politicians on their side. More depressing is the fact that scientists and large universities who perform many of the studies about what's healthy or not are also taking in money from the food industry. Surprise, surprise- those scientists more often than not produce research that says whatever food they're investigating is good for you, or at least not that bad.
With the science suspect, it's hard to know what to eat or drink. The nutrition guidelines are one of the most confusing ones to follow anywhere. Eggs are good, then they're bad, then they're good again, and now you have to know how they're raised.
Luckily, there are some independent studies that are more reliable. The food industry learned a lot from what big tobacco went through with the nicotine studies, and they've figured out how to muddy the waters with confusing data. Did you know that pizza is good for you and considered a vegetable for school cafeterias? With the right data you can claim anything these days.
Big food has its tentacles all over the system that would check its power and statistics. The food and drug administration (FDA) has a revolving door with food industry executives who move back and forth from companies to regulators. Major charities like the NAACP, American Heart Association, Hispanic Federation, and American Academy of Pediatrics accept huge donations from food and beverage companies that keeps them from speaking out more about the diets that are crippling their constituencies. Even the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, (AND), the organization that dieticians look to for recommendations takes money from Big Food. Conflicts of interests abound when it comes to asking for advice on what's safe to eat these days.
The book takes a hard look at the food stamp program, now called SNAP, how it began, and how food companies have grown to exploit it. An amazing $68 Billion dollars is spent on SNAP by low-income Americans every year. By design this money can only be used for food, and also by design that food can include junk food like soda, cookies, energy drinks, chips and ice cream. These empty calories are made available to SNAP recipients because the food companies lobbied congress to make them available. Junk foods are much more profitable than fresh foods because they use cheaper ingredients and have a longer shelf-life. So the junk food industry has gone after SNAP recipients with advertising based on when their cards are loaded with funds. This has undermined healthy food products and created food deserts in poverty-stricken areas.
The food stamp program is funded every year by the Farm Bill, a huge appropriation bill from congress that flies under the political radar. This bill routinely hands out billion dollar subsidies to big farmers in the form of crop insurance, price guarantees, and outright gifts. Because of this market manipulation, some crops like wheat and corn become much more profitable to grow while others suffer by comparison.
The chapter on foods in school is equally disheartening. Nearly one third of today's youth are overweight or obese, and those who grow up fatter are much more likely to struggle all their lives. Junk foods like sugary cereals and candies are marketed exclusively to children during kid's television and online programming and it works.
Schools are the one place where low-income children can count on a hot meal most days. But cash-strapped schools are sometimes forced to accept junk foods in their cafeterias and vending machines to save money. In Houston, the school district made a deal with Domino's Pizza to sell branded "healthier" pizzas in every school in the district. But in Boston, administrators have made efforts to kick junk foods out of school and the story from the book is encouraging. First Lady Michelle Obama made improving school nutrition one of her main initiatives. (Only to have them reversed once her husband left office.)
One of the biggest villains in this book is Coca Cola and the other soft drink peddlers. They have fought hard against any regulations that might hurt their sales. Many cities and foreign countries have proposed soda taxes to cover the health consequences of the sugar-laden drinks. Soda lobbyists have fought and lobbied against these measures, and often won because of their deep pockets and support in all sorts of areas. They also have blocked bottle bills that encouraged recycling, preferring to let voluntary measures do the trick.
Instead of soda taxes, Coke promises smiling public relations campaigns on the benefits of healthy lifestyles, which include soda drinking. They point the finger conveniently at lack of exercise for the reason for America's obesity epidemic, holding themselves blameless. Dr. Hyman says you can't outrun a bad diet, and everything I've read says that he is right. Exercise is an important aspect of our total health, but diet is a much bigger influence on our weight.
What is it about workers in the food industry that allows consumers to care so little about their health and safety? From farm to table, the people who make our food possible mostly work in hazardous and low-paid jobs with no safety net. Farm workers are often immigrants from other countries who are treated badly and exposed to harsh working conditions and toxic chemicals. Workers in meat processing plants are subject to a different type of dangerous work environment. And even the restaurant and fast-food workers that serve us food are paid at below-minimum wages with no benefits or health insurance. If food was so important, wouldn't those who produce it be treated better?
The last three chapters are a fascinating look at the problems that big agriculture faces in the 21st century. While we produce more food than ever, much of it is wasted or fed to animals to fatten them up. Soils are being drained of life by current practices and Dr. Hyman points to something called regenerative agriculture that would restore barren dirt. 60 years- that's all the time we have left according to this book, and the problems of soil loss, water depletion, and loss of biodiversity are the biggest threats for farming in the future.
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, (CAFO's) are singled out as one of the biggest problems with agriculture today. Cows, pigs and chickens are stuck in cages barely large enough to move in, and pumped with antibiotics and fattening foods so they can produce meat the fastest way possible. This produces lower quality, cheaper meats and all sorts of dire pollution consequences. Here again regenerative agriculture is the answer, and the book hesitates to advocate for full-blown vegetarianism.
And then finally there is climate change. Agriculture creates more carbon emissions than all of transportation according to this book. Carbon is released from the soils when it is tilled. Methane comes from cattle and landfills full of food waste. And Nitrogen dioxide comes from fertilizers that are used to boost crops. Getting a handle on global warming will also require dealing with the huge agriculture industry. Handling fossil fuels is just a part of it.
In short, this book has plenty of food for thought. (Pun intended) The author knows his stuff and backs it up with detailed citations. He also gives plenty of suggestions for how to fix things. Mind you, some of these fixes seem impossible given economic and political conditions today, but who knows what the next decades will bring. Just in the past decade we've seen a big change in how people are starting to read labels more carefully and try to eat healthier.
In the US, sales of plant-based foods are up and sales of soda are down. Obesity is still a growing problem, but perhaps books like this one are a sign that things are changing. I would also recommend Feeding You Lies, by Vani Hari, (AKA The Food Babe) for more detail on the coming revolution in food habits. In the meantime, read those labels and don't believe everything you hear about your favorite foods.
April 7, 2022
This was a very informative book and the kind of stuff I want to shout from the rooftops! It was different (more political/social) than I thought it would be, but not necessarily in a bad way. I learned so much listening to this one! For example, I wasn't aware that the number one driver of climate change is due to our food system, not the energy sector (and is totally reversible if we fixed our food system). Honestly a lot of the stuff I found pretty mind blowing and I wish everyone would read this to be aware of the impact food has on our bodies, society, economy, and planet. Another aspect of his book I found super interesting was his research about our current healthcare system. He talks about how the money we spend on healthcare would dramatically decrease if we focused on putting whole foods into our bodies in the first place. Fix the root cause rather than slapping a bandaid on a bullet wound. I'm not doing a great job at describing it so you should just read it yourself! Such a fascinating and eye opening read for me.
May 5, 2020
I was very disappointed in this book. It read to me as being a lot of statistics thrown together, with a partisan point of view - as though all the food problems we are experiencing were created from current politics. It started a long time ago, and a lot of this information isn't new news. It's just crafted to the author's POV. Hyman bastardizes the Food as Medicine mantra, and is using it to create a political action organization.
We have to look in the mirror, and make the right choices - even if they are sometimes more expensive. In addition, we need to support local organizations that support food desert areas and people of lesser means. The concept of a Victory Garden is not such a bad idea. Waiting for government to bureaucratize what and how we eat is NOT a solution.
I prefer to work form the ground up, and take the advise of REAL food as medicine advocates such as Dr. William Li, and make a difference at the personal level.
We have to look in the mirror, and make the right choices - even if they are sometimes more expensive. In addition, we need to support local organizations that support food desert areas and people of lesser means. The concept of a Victory Garden is not such a bad idea. Waiting for government to bureaucratize what and how we eat is NOT a solution.
I prefer to work form the ground up, and take the advise of REAL food as medicine advocates such as Dr. William Li, and make a difference at the personal level.
July 24, 2022
I like the idea and the intention (or at least what I think is the intention) but then he started mentioning Dr Oz which as a medical professional is a red flag to me. And then he mentioned a patient that was able to get off insulin after three days of diet change. As a pharmacist this is just not possible. Diabetes (type 2) can definitely be reversed with lifestyle improvement but not in 3 days. I did not finish this book full disclosure. But it came a crossed extremely aggressive and unrealistic. Despite being in complete agreement with his thoughts regarding the food industry.
June 29, 2020
Man, oh man, what a wealth of valuable information. It is crazy how we blindly follow “food truths� without really knowing the facts and falsehoods.
March 27, 2021
A fantastically comprehensive read about how deeply our food system contributes to structural violence, racism, and climate change. I can’t recall the last time a book truly made my jaw drop, and in Food Fix it happened roughly every other page. Dissimilar to other doom-and-gloom books about our deeply messed up systems, Dr. Hyman provides in-depth and realistic solutions for a path forward. Highly recommend!
May 27, 2020
Well, my first reaction is that this is one of the most depressing books I have read in a LONG time, as in reading Wuthering Heights as a teenager and being told it was a love story kind of depressing.
There are a large number of extremely alarmist claims related to our current trajectory for health and the fate of the planet (like suggesting that if we don't change drastically soon, we will have only 60 years worth of food before the topsoil of the world is gone, we cannot grow food and then humans become extinct). You could probably dig into all the models and math and studies that are the basis for these predictions and poke holes in them. The analyst in me wanted to. But even if you only believe half or a quarter of what is claimed, the situation is still very dire. Terrifyingly so.
And the most depressing part is where Hyman explains how structural the corruption is, with nutritionists being paid off (essentially), Congress being paid off, the FDA completely biased with individuals coming from the companies that it is supposed to police, etc. He claims that change is needed at that structural level, such as congressmen and women rejecting or ignoring the vast sums of campaign contributions and lobbying from companies like Coca-Cola and actually revamping the Farm Bill to encourage farmers to actually grow real food for people instead of subsidizing them to grow cheap corn and soybean oil for junk food and cattle. Who really counts on Congress to do ANYTHING these days, much less something so huge and fraught with very rich and partisan special interests? Depressing.
And then, even the story of food and health aside, there is the story of just how corrupted humans can be in the pursuit of money, especially trampling on and even targeting those that are the most vulnerable. Again, even if you only believe a quarter of it, it is still enough to turn your stomach. Depressing.
The author gets points for the synthesis of so many phenomena and factors into one global, giant problem, which then can have a (relatively) straightforward (but difficult) solution. The problems we are having in the world today, like climate change, skyrocketing chronic disease, etc., are related. He makes that point quite well. I have read quite a bit about nutrition, and Hyman is the only person that I have heard take on the "meat is bad for your health" claim and make the case that whether it is good or bad may entirely depend on how it was raised, and therefore any study that does not take this into account is flawed. I have personally been wondering about this (especially as I spend a premium on meat for our family) for quite some time.
He gets one star deducted because he makes a bunch of his own unsupported (at least in this book) health claims, even if I fully believe him and he is corroborated by much else I have read. This book taken alone, a critic could probably tear him to shreds. He gets the other one deducted for mentioning that regenerative agriculture is the ultimate food fix several times a chapter and doesn't really define WHAT it even is until page 290 or so. Maybe he was trying to hold the punch line until the end and be positive, but I found it annoying to read it this way.
He cited some expert somewhere in there that the mess cannot be fixed by consumer food choices alone, which since I am not in a position to get into politics right now, is about all I've got in my arsenal to fight for what is right in this situation. Depressing. Ironically, the section about what you, the consumer can do followed very shortly after this expert opinion. So can I make a difference, or can't I? It seems like this is a weird claim to make, because certainly if tomorrow, every American refused to buy a product with high fructose corn syrup in it and replaced the calories with say, whole fruit, the industry would react pretty quickly, right? So is the author and that "expert" drawing a distinction between what an informed consumer that reads his book might do to affect change and "the masses" that will surely continue to blindly buy and eat garbage that makes them sick and the poor that maybe have limited choice in the matter? Maybe this is true, but the logic makes me feel uneasy.
So I have finished this book and am very glad it is over. Depressing. I will continue to do everything that I did before I read it, like strive to feed my family as much unprocessed whole food as possible and vote with my dollars about how that food is grown and raised to the best of my incomplete knowledge. And I will try to forget this book, because right now, all I have control over is me.
There are a large number of extremely alarmist claims related to our current trajectory for health and the fate of the planet (like suggesting that if we don't change drastically soon, we will have only 60 years worth of food before the topsoil of the world is gone, we cannot grow food and then humans become extinct). You could probably dig into all the models and math and studies that are the basis for these predictions and poke holes in them. The analyst in me wanted to. But even if you only believe half or a quarter of what is claimed, the situation is still very dire. Terrifyingly so.
And the most depressing part is where Hyman explains how structural the corruption is, with nutritionists being paid off (essentially), Congress being paid off, the FDA completely biased with individuals coming from the companies that it is supposed to police, etc. He claims that change is needed at that structural level, such as congressmen and women rejecting or ignoring the vast sums of campaign contributions and lobbying from companies like Coca-Cola and actually revamping the Farm Bill to encourage farmers to actually grow real food for people instead of subsidizing them to grow cheap corn and soybean oil for junk food and cattle. Who really counts on Congress to do ANYTHING these days, much less something so huge and fraught with very rich and partisan special interests? Depressing.
And then, even the story of food and health aside, there is the story of just how corrupted humans can be in the pursuit of money, especially trampling on and even targeting those that are the most vulnerable. Again, even if you only believe a quarter of it, it is still enough to turn your stomach. Depressing.
The author gets points for the synthesis of so many phenomena and factors into one global, giant problem, which then can have a (relatively) straightforward (but difficult) solution. The problems we are having in the world today, like climate change, skyrocketing chronic disease, etc., are related. He makes that point quite well. I have read quite a bit about nutrition, and Hyman is the only person that I have heard take on the "meat is bad for your health" claim and make the case that whether it is good or bad may entirely depend on how it was raised, and therefore any study that does not take this into account is flawed. I have personally been wondering about this (especially as I spend a premium on meat for our family) for quite some time.
He gets one star deducted because he makes a bunch of his own unsupported (at least in this book) health claims, even if I fully believe him and he is corroborated by much else I have read. This book taken alone, a critic could probably tear him to shreds. He gets the other one deducted for mentioning that regenerative agriculture is the ultimate food fix several times a chapter and doesn't really define WHAT it even is until page 290 or so. Maybe he was trying to hold the punch line until the end and be positive, but I found it annoying to read it this way.
He cited some expert somewhere in there that the mess cannot be fixed by consumer food choices alone, which since I am not in a position to get into politics right now, is about all I've got in my arsenal to fight for what is right in this situation. Depressing. Ironically, the section about what you, the consumer can do followed very shortly after this expert opinion. So can I make a difference, or can't I? It seems like this is a weird claim to make, because certainly if tomorrow, every American refused to buy a product with high fructose corn syrup in it and replaced the calories with say, whole fruit, the industry would react pretty quickly, right? So is the author and that "expert" drawing a distinction between what an informed consumer that reads his book might do to affect change and "the masses" that will surely continue to blindly buy and eat garbage that makes them sick and the poor that maybe have limited choice in the matter? Maybe this is true, but the logic makes me feel uneasy.
So I have finished this book and am very glad it is over. Depressing. I will continue to do everything that I did before I read it, like strive to feed my family as much unprocessed whole food as possible and vote with my dollars about how that food is grown and raised to the best of my incomplete knowledge. And I will try to forget this book, because right now, all I have control over is me.
February 26, 2020
What an eye opening read. If you ever wanted to know what happens behind closed Washington D C doors.... this book will tell you. I never knew that the SNAP program was attached to Farm bills going through legislation. Good Read!!!!!
August 17, 2020
I listened to the audiobook version read by Mark Hyman himself. (In hindsight, I would rather recommend reading the book.) It was tough, very repetitive, and overall not very enjoyable to read / listen to. However, the comprehensive research that went into this book gave an eye-opening insight about the extent to which we are manipulated by food companies. These parts were interesting to read and full of WTF-moments. On the other hand, the food fix sections often felt like "avoid the previously discussed issues" and I would have skimmed through those parts if I read the actual book.
All in all it’s an interesting, well researched book that is worth the invested time and effort.
All in all it’s an interesting, well researched book that is worth the invested time and effort.
July 14, 2022
Mixed feelings. I think this is an important topic and you can feel Hyman is passionate about it. However, the book itself is dense and took me a while to read through. And, I’ve read his other books PLUS listen to his podcast so this had almost nothing new for me. He uses the same examples between podcast and here so it wasn’t exciting.
I did really enjoy the actionable steps in the book though and saved a lot of resources to use.
I did really enjoy the actionable steps in the book though and saved a lot of resources to use.
June 4, 2021
What a hard-hitting factual book of the realities of the Food System especially with deep insight into the corruption and lobbyist endeavors in the united state when the world is facing record human health and environmental problems. Concretely makes the connection to the majority of our world s problems stemming from our broken food systems and poor governance and production standards.
December 17, 2020
Great book on food and planet.
Intriguing read. Would recommend to fellow foodies.
3.8/5
Intriguing read. Would recommend to fellow foodies.
3.8/5
May 11, 2022
Mind bogglingly obvious platitudes with a huge dollop of hectoring and a good deal of anti GMO FUD and sprinkling of social justice. Nothing of value was communicated.
February 19, 2025
For context—I have a friend who has gone pretty far down the all natural diet pipeline, to a point where it feels to me like the Healthy Diet industry is taking advantage of his desire to feel better and willingness to pay multiple thousands of dollars out of pocket for a functional medicinalist to tell him how to do that. While my own eating style already follows decently close to a “whole� diet (~90% of what I eat is stuff I cooked from raw ingredients), I’ve had a hard time understanding how someone whose intellect I respect could end up where he is. Thus—attempting to find sources to help me understand a bit better, whether they convince me to think the same or not.
Unfortunately, this book was not that. I will qualify this by saying I made is 20% of the way through the audiobook before getting too annoyed to continue, so a) I haven’t finished and b) part of my annoyance may have been due to a poor audiobook adaptation (not reading citations), but I have my doubts. My biggest gripe is the severe lack of SOURCES. NOTHING* is properly cited (*some statistics are occasionally cited, but this is an oddity, and they are often not cited well enough to actually find the source). He claims grass raised beef is a net positive for CO2 levels? That’s something I would love to read the findings on, too bad there is not a lick of a trail to where he got that from. Same thing with healthy soil and CO2 capture—I was actually very interested in reading on this, whether soil is just a good storage bank for organic carbon or if soil life itself is contributing to active carbon capture. I love this sort of thing. Unfortunately, if I want to read that, I need to go hunt down the sources myself (…if they even exist�). The information is presented in the book as novel and not common knowledge, so why isn’t this cited?
Likewise, the same goes for chronic diseases. I feel like this book missed an initial chapter defining its constantly used term of chronic disease and going into detail how it relates to diet. It really was a bit of whiplash that this is just missing. It’s taken for granted that you already believe diet is underlying all never-defined chronic diseases and goes from there, while still presenting itself as a scientifically and medically backed source. I’m not here to contest this point, and likely the entire audience who found this book isn’t going to either, which is how the book tries to get away with this—but that’s poor writing. Skipping the part where you convince a not already sold audience of your book’s *main thesis* is a major problem, and was the start of a (later, I believe, justified) sense that this book is meant only for a certain group who already largely agrees. The lack of citations and pitiful attempt at citation when it is there does not end in the first chapter. The Mediterranean diet is the “world’s healthiest diet�? Poor diet is the cause of ADHD in school children? “Some experts say China cannot built enough hospitals to keep up� WHO?! WHO SAID THAT? WHO ARE THE EXPERTS? WHEN DID THEY SAY THIS? This is the level of poor citation that high schoolers correctly lose points for on the essay they forgot to write until the night before, not something that an adult with a post secondary degree should be publishing!!!
The straw that broke my good will towards this book was Janice. An older lady whose diabetes and heart disease had her on a smorgasbord of pills and at the cusp of a *heart transplant* joined the author’s functional medicine group (which you can find and visit us at one of these two locations!) and magically fixed her blood sugar levels enough to get off of insulin in THREE DAYS!! This is something I, the author, see every day at the two clinics I am in charge of and benefit directly from their financial success. Followed directly about how these health crises can be solved by having insurance companies and/or the government cover patient to come see my currently out-of-pocket only business! Was this medical miracle published anywhere outside of this book? Why hasn’t every endocrinologist across the country just told their patients to stop eating fried foods and coke already??? This was the point where my opinion went from “poorly written but well intentioned book trying to convince people to eat better in ways that aids our health and planet� to “poorly written and aiming to bring in customers looking for any kind of help and who already suspect it might be related to their diet�. I had a hard time taking anything seriously after this, continued for about 30 more minutes before jumping ahead to see if the allergy to proper citations got better (it didn’t) and giving up. DNF, no plans to.
Unfortunately, this book was not that. I will qualify this by saying I made is 20% of the way through the audiobook before getting too annoyed to continue, so a) I haven’t finished and b) part of my annoyance may have been due to a poor audiobook adaptation (not reading citations), but I have my doubts. My biggest gripe is the severe lack of SOURCES. NOTHING* is properly cited (*some statistics are occasionally cited, but this is an oddity, and they are often not cited well enough to actually find the source). He claims grass raised beef is a net positive for CO2 levels? That’s something I would love to read the findings on, too bad there is not a lick of a trail to where he got that from. Same thing with healthy soil and CO2 capture—I was actually very interested in reading on this, whether soil is just a good storage bank for organic carbon or if soil life itself is contributing to active carbon capture. I love this sort of thing. Unfortunately, if I want to read that, I need to go hunt down the sources myself (…if they even exist�). The information is presented in the book as novel and not common knowledge, so why isn’t this cited?
Likewise, the same goes for chronic diseases. I feel like this book missed an initial chapter defining its constantly used term of chronic disease and going into detail how it relates to diet. It really was a bit of whiplash that this is just missing. It’s taken for granted that you already believe diet is underlying all never-defined chronic diseases and goes from there, while still presenting itself as a scientifically and medically backed source. I’m not here to contest this point, and likely the entire audience who found this book isn’t going to either, which is how the book tries to get away with this—but that’s poor writing. Skipping the part where you convince a not already sold audience of your book’s *main thesis* is a major problem, and was the start of a (later, I believe, justified) sense that this book is meant only for a certain group who already largely agrees. The lack of citations and pitiful attempt at citation when it is there does not end in the first chapter. The Mediterranean diet is the “world’s healthiest diet�? Poor diet is the cause of ADHD in school children? “Some experts say China cannot built enough hospitals to keep up� WHO?! WHO SAID THAT? WHO ARE THE EXPERTS? WHEN DID THEY SAY THIS? This is the level of poor citation that high schoolers correctly lose points for on the essay they forgot to write until the night before, not something that an adult with a post secondary degree should be publishing!!!
The straw that broke my good will towards this book was Janice. An older lady whose diabetes and heart disease had her on a smorgasbord of pills and at the cusp of a *heart transplant* joined the author’s functional medicine group (which you can find and visit us at one of these two locations!) and magically fixed her blood sugar levels enough to get off of insulin in THREE DAYS!! This is something I, the author, see every day at the two clinics I am in charge of and benefit directly from their financial success. Followed directly about how these health crises can be solved by having insurance companies and/or the government cover patient to come see my currently out-of-pocket only business! Was this medical miracle published anywhere outside of this book? Why hasn’t every endocrinologist across the country just told their patients to stop eating fried foods and coke already??? This was the point where my opinion went from “poorly written but well intentioned book trying to convince people to eat better in ways that aids our health and planet� to “poorly written and aiming to bring in customers looking for any kind of help and who already suspect it might be related to their diet�. I had a hard time taking anything seriously after this, continued for about 30 more minutes before jumping ahead to see if the allergy to proper citations got better (it didn’t) and giving up. DNF, no plans to.
November 23, 2020
Highly influential for setting your diet.
Hey there, I hope you are doing good. So here I am back with a new book review. This time it took me a big while to come back. I was working on different things, one of them was shutting down my Instagram account and starting this new website to share my thoughts with you, through different medias.
So I picked this book as a base of my journey towards establishing some sound principles related to my diet/food that we eat. This book came to my observation when I had some discussion with my friend. And we were talking about the author(Dr. Mark Hyman) , who is a global warrior for climate change, economic crisis and education about nutrition. With food as his superpower.
The book literally is an eye opener for you, if you haven't realised how this economically driven world has got us to the point where we are facing different global problems related to our personal health as human and global crisises as a society. This book has shown me that fixings your diet to look good, stay healthier, feel better are far less important than to do it for saving the world.
So with this, let me get inside it -
📚The book has 5 parts and 17 chapters which talk about different problems related to food and create big picture in front of us to show how the food comes to us from farm to the plate. It also discuss the ineffective role of government in (Typically US Government) in deciding the food policies. Manipulating behaviour of BIG FOOD companies such as PepsiCo, McDonald, Domino's, Kellogg's. Etc. And how these companies make us eat junk and stop people/Organizations who oppose them.
📚At the end of every chapter the author writes a section as FOOD FIX : which is a kind of general solution of that problem. Or What can be done about that issue. These solutions are not very specific and ready to apply, but kind of give a point to start thinking about them. The overall solution looks like, take control on your plate and try to convince other to do so as it's not just about you,me and us. It's about the whole planet.(If you don't believe aliens then might be for your whole universe).
📚 It took me some great amount of days to read the book as I was involved in it on a deeper level. But it made me stop reading this for a while but soon I realised how should I approach the book( Like just get the data and try not to have a biased thought) which helped me to finish it and I am glad that I could. Because it was one of the costliest book I bought.(Rs700), but as the author says the real price of product is not what is written on it.
📚 The books won't help you much with what you should eat. Rather it focuses on what you should not eat. If you are looking something kind of typical diet book then this not the thing you should read. You can read (WTF should I eat?) By the same author.
📚 The author also have a PODCAST called Doctor's Farmacy where he dives deep into the topics and share his insights with us.
So I hope you liked the review, let me know your thoughts through the contact section. Comment section. Share this review if you find it important.
Do check out other contents by Shree-school.
Thank you ❤️
Hey there, I hope you are doing good. So here I am back with a new book review. This time it took me a big while to come back. I was working on different things, one of them was shutting down my Instagram account and starting this new website to share my thoughts with you, through different medias.
So I picked this book as a base of my journey towards establishing some sound principles related to my diet/food that we eat. This book came to my observation when I had some discussion with my friend. And we were talking about the author(Dr. Mark Hyman) , who is a global warrior for climate change, economic crisis and education about nutrition. With food as his superpower.
The book literally is an eye opener for you, if you haven't realised how this economically driven world has got us to the point where we are facing different global problems related to our personal health as human and global crisises as a society. This book has shown me that fixings your diet to look good, stay healthier, feel better are far less important than to do it for saving the world.
So with this, let me get inside it -
📚The book has 5 parts and 17 chapters which talk about different problems related to food and create big picture in front of us to show how the food comes to us from farm to the plate. It also discuss the ineffective role of government in (Typically US Government) in deciding the food policies. Manipulating behaviour of BIG FOOD companies such as PepsiCo, McDonald, Domino's, Kellogg's. Etc. And how these companies make us eat junk and stop people/Organizations who oppose them.
📚At the end of every chapter the author writes a section as FOOD FIX : which is a kind of general solution of that problem. Or What can be done about that issue. These solutions are not very specific and ready to apply, but kind of give a point to start thinking about them. The overall solution looks like, take control on your plate and try to convince other to do so as it's not just about you,me and us. It's about the whole planet.(If you don't believe aliens then might be for your whole universe).
📚 It took me some great amount of days to read the book as I was involved in it on a deeper level. But it made me stop reading this for a while but soon I realised how should I approach the book( Like just get the data and try not to have a biased thought) which helped me to finish it and I am glad that I could. Because it was one of the costliest book I bought.(Rs700), but as the author says the real price of product is not what is written on it.
📚 The books won't help you much with what you should eat. Rather it focuses on what you should not eat. If you are looking something kind of typical diet book then this not the thing you should read. You can read (WTF should I eat?) By the same author.
📚 The author also have a PODCAST called Doctor's Farmacy where he dives deep into the topics and share his insights with us.
So I hope you liked the review, let me know your thoughts through the contact section. Comment section. Share this review if you find it important.
Do check out other contents by Shree-school.
Thank you ❤️
July 2, 2023
Hyman does a great job giving equal focus to the economic, human health, and planetary health issues associated with our current food industry. Everything he presents is evidence-based, and he evaluates where the funding and motivation for studies comes from. The book does not just spell out all of the problems - many solutions are proposed as well. My only complaint was it got very repetitive. Here are some things that stood out to me:
We are raising the first generation of Americans who will live sicker/die younger than their parents
Placing higher taxes on highly processed foods/soda and providing incentives for healthy foods makes a big difference. Revenue can be used for healthier foods in schools/clean water/etc
Many people call out soda taxes for creating a "nano state," but this has been the case for many public safety measures. People get used to them and understand them over time.
The most subsidized companies and farmers are producing the foods that hurt us (government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations). Lobbyists for BigFood/Ag/Pharma spent $500 million on 2014 Farm Bill - the single biggest piece of legislation that affects how we eat
Corporate interests privatize profits but socialize the costs of their products
Minority communities are harmed most by the food industry. Large corporations prey on them with way more advertising and funding. Coca-Cola gave the NAACP more than $1 million between 2010 and 2015 and the Hispanic Federation $600,000. They give large sums of money to groups like this in exchange for their help in opposing junk food/soda regulation
Government support should help farmers convert to regenerative agriculture (which is actually more profitable, better for the land, and better for environment). Fruit/veggie producers are almost completely left out of government subsidies
Providing 20% incentive for fruit/veggies purchase to medicaid/medicare beneficiaries would save $40 billion in health care costs
Low-glycemic fruits like berries and apples are best, especially at breakfast
75% of our food comes from just 12 plants. This is not in the book, but in a separate study, it's been shown that those with the healthiest gut microbiomes consume at least 30 different plants/week
Companies will use five different sugars so that they don't show up high on ingredient lists - labels are misleading.
Bread raises your blood sugar more than table sugar
A low carb, high-fat diet burns 300-500 more calories per day than the opposite with no additional exercise
At the current rate of soil erosion, we only have about sixty harvests left. More HAS to be done to get our soil back
Further education I will be doing if you'd like to join:
Documentary - Food Chains
Book - Can We Feed the World without Destroying It?
Book - Soil and Health
Video - Soil Carbon Cowboys
Film - The Biggest Little Farm
Resources to help you shop/find the right producers/invest your money in your values
We are raising the first generation of Americans who will live sicker/die younger than their parents
Placing higher taxes on highly processed foods/soda and providing incentives for healthy foods makes a big difference. Revenue can be used for healthier foods in schools/clean water/etc
Many people call out soda taxes for creating a "nano state," but this has been the case for many public safety measures. People get used to them and understand them over time.
The most subsidized companies and farmers are producing the foods that hurt us (government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations). Lobbyists for BigFood/Ag/Pharma spent $500 million on 2014 Farm Bill - the single biggest piece of legislation that affects how we eat
Corporate interests privatize profits but socialize the costs of their products
Minority communities are harmed most by the food industry. Large corporations prey on them with way more advertising and funding. Coca-Cola gave the NAACP more than $1 million between 2010 and 2015 and the Hispanic Federation $600,000. They give large sums of money to groups like this in exchange for their help in opposing junk food/soda regulation
Government support should help farmers convert to regenerative agriculture (which is actually more profitable, better for the land, and better for environment). Fruit/veggie producers are almost completely left out of government subsidies
Providing 20% incentive for fruit/veggies purchase to medicaid/medicare beneficiaries would save $40 billion in health care costs
Low-glycemic fruits like berries and apples are best, especially at breakfast
75% of our food comes from just 12 plants. This is not in the book, but in a separate study, it's been shown that those with the healthiest gut microbiomes consume at least 30 different plants/week
Companies will use five different sugars so that they don't show up high on ingredient lists - labels are misleading.
Bread raises your blood sugar more than table sugar
A low carb, high-fat diet burns 300-500 more calories per day than the opposite with no additional exercise
At the current rate of soil erosion, we only have about sixty harvests left. More HAS to be done to get our soil back
Further education I will be doing if you'd like to join:
Documentary - Food Chains
Book - Can We Feed the World without Destroying It?
Book - Soil and Health
Video - Soil Carbon Cowboys
Film - The Biggest Little Farm
Resources to help you shop/find the right producers/invest your money in your values
May 16, 2020
Food Fix shows us that the world's most signifficant problems can be traced back to the way we produce our food. A very relevant topic for 2020 that seems to have in its spotlight things like nutrition and climate change. Somehow, functional medicine and authors such as this one that are outspoken and back it up have become increasingly popular nowadays. I admit I'm starting to read my fair share of it, because the propositions are alluring, but one musn't forget that functional medicine remains a controversial form of alternative medicine that typically lacks evidence for its use.
You can see this as another book that caters also to reading the labels of all the products we purchase, something that I agree with completely, together with details and effects of modern agriculture. I think the entire world, at least the part of it that has time to do such things as reading and thoroughly following the news in their spare time, knows by now the dangers of processed food on both personal and global scale. But the book emphasizes more on the effect this processing has on our environment which is pretty staggering. I think I was particularly marked by the note on the disruption of communities in the developing world by big corporations of the food industry.
I was already familiar with the fact that our agriculture strategies were not ideal and that they were a large contributor to the emissions, but at the same time I'm aware that globally people are looking for innovations to improve that, so I didn't perceive it in such a dramatic way.
I think the purpose of this book is to simply educate people in their food choices, as that supports the chain at its base in the economy in a lot of ways that the author tries to argument in his book. It really discusses in detail a lot of relevant things that are necessary to be brought into our awareness. Definitely not a bad read if you want to make better informed food choices that ultimately impact everything at a large scale.
You can see this as another book that caters also to reading the labels of all the products we purchase, something that I agree with completely, together with details and effects of modern agriculture. I think the entire world, at least the part of it that has time to do such things as reading and thoroughly following the news in their spare time, knows by now the dangers of processed food on both personal and global scale. But the book emphasizes more on the effect this processing has on our environment which is pretty staggering. I think I was particularly marked by the note on the disruption of communities in the developing world by big corporations of the food industry.
I was already familiar with the fact that our agriculture strategies were not ideal and that they were a large contributor to the emissions, but at the same time I'm aware that globally people are looking for innovations to improve that, so I didn't perceive it in such a dramatic way.
I think the purpose of this book is to simply educate people in their food choices, as that supports the chain at its base in the economy in a lot of ways that the author tries to argument in his book. It really discusses in detail a lot of relevant things that are necessary to be brought into our awareness. Definitely not a bad read if you want to make better informed food choices that ultimately impact everything at a large scale.
March 25, 2024
The premise of this book is that we our unhealthy and our food system is causing global warming. I agree with his premise but his studies and statements are exaggerated. Example, on page 190 he claims that whole wheat bread has a glycemic index of 70 but he fails to recommend whole grain bread which as a glycemic index of around 40.
His book is political and he presents wrong information. I agree that sugar is unhealthy & we should not drink soda regularly. As a registered dietitian, he claims that because the American Dietetic Association accepts money from the food industry, therefore, I as a dietitian need further education. Likely because I don't agree with all of his recommendations.
He talked a great deal about the benefit of a soda tax and how people in Pennsylvania are drinking less soda. No where did I see a study that said the people from Pennsylvania have lost weight because of the soda tax.
He claims that the studies that say beef is unhealthy come from a time that we did not recommend beef. He over does his recommendation on eating grass fed beef in a healthy diet.
His claim that randomized control studies are much more accurate than observational studies are flawed. We need both but randomized controlled studies only can use a very small study cohort and does not look at long term effects of the study.
He also recommends additional books he has written and his website recommends expensive tests. He is making money off his products the way the food industry is. I believe he has some valuable information but it is skewed and exaggerated.
His book is political and he presents wrong information. I agree that sugar is unhealthy & we should not drink soda regularly. As a registered dietitian, he claims that because the American Dietetic Association accepts money from the food industry, therefore, I as a dietitian need further education. Likely because I don't agree with all of his recommendations.
He talked a great deal about the benefit of a soda tax and how people in Pennsylvania are drinking less soda. No where did I see a study that said the people from Pennsylvania have lost weight because of the soda tax.
He claims that the studies that say beef is unhealthy come from a time that we did not recommend beef. He over does his recommendation on eating grass fed beef in a healthy diet.
His claim that randomized control studies are much more accurate than observational studies are flawed. We need both but randomized controlled studies only can use a very small study cohort and does not look at long term effects of the study.
He also recommends additional books he has written and his website recommends expensive tests. He is making money off his products the way the food industry is. I believe he has some valuable information but it is skewed and exaggerated.
January 19, 2023
Pros: It makes me cringe when people explain a huge systemic issue and then say, "Here's all the things YOU should do about it!" Hyman at least offers actual systemic changes that would produce significant results. His book is also well-researched.
Cons: His writing can be repetitive and all over the board. It's also pretty data-heavy, which is fine for some, but I prefer tables and charts. And even when he proposes systemic changes, such as sugar taxes or government subsidies for regenerative farming, he often turns it into a consumer choice by encouraging the reader to petition their elected officials and start their own community programs. I mean, I guess there isn't a whole lot else consumers can do, but if it were that easy it seems like we'd be further along to a solution.
Cons: His writing can be repetitive and all over the board. It's also pretty data-heavy, which is fine for some, but I prefer tables and charts. And even when he proposes systemic changes, such as sugar taxes or government subsidies for regenerative farming, he often turns it into a consumer choice by encouraging the reader to petition their elected officials and start their own community programs. I mean, I guess there isn't a whole lot else consumers can do, but if it were that easy it seems like we'd be further along to a solution.
April 4, 2020
I learned a lot from this book and gave me a new perspective on our food supply. I’m more conscious on what foods I buy not only for my health, but to support companies that are environmentally responsible. We have the power as consumers to not buy from big food companies that use unhealthy ingredients and put profits first before their customers health. The US Government is not on our side, but together we can make a difference by bringing an awareness to our families and communities.
January 6, 2024
A must read for anyone who wants to know more why our food and health system is broken and what to do about it. Reminded me of Vani Hari’s Feeding You Lies but with a bit more research behind it. I appreciated the part at the end which provides simple steps everyone can take to reversing the negative effects happening thanks to the Big Ag and Big Food industries.
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