Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities and Our Planet – One Bite at a Time

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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.

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. 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.” Avoid sugar (especially added sugars), pesticides, hormones, GMO's and bad oils like corn, canola, and soybean 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. 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.Most recently, she led coverage of food and agriculture issues at POLITICO for nearly a decade, winning numerous awards for her work, including a George Polk Award for a series on climate change and two James Beard Awards for features on nutrition and science. In 2022, she was a James Beard Award finalist for a deep dive on diet-related diseases and Covid-19. 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. 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. 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.

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. An indispensable guide to food, our most powerful tool to reverse the global epidemic of chronic disease, heal the environment, reform politics, and revive economies, 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). 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 here.) 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. 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 Eat Fat, Get Thin.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. The author also have a PODCAST called Doctor's Farmacy where he dives deep into the topics and share his insights with us.

There were still some great callouts in this book (again, needing better studies and facts to make the conclusions he draws): 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: 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 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.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: Before launching POLITICO’s food policy coverage in 2013, Helena was the Washington correspondent for Food Safety News where she covered deadly foodborne illness outbreaks and the run-up to Congress passing the most significant update to food safety law in a century.