Frances Sizer

If you have to read this for school like I did, I'm sorry. This book can fill in some of the basics of human nutrition but for me it was more frustrating than informative: it assumed the reader was on the unintelligent side and only shared certain some information while being frustratingly vague about other things. It presented somethings as controversies but had clearly stated biases throughout, even in sections not labeled as controversies but presented as proven facts. I was happy to see show more that it included some reference to the individual nature of nutrition and health but there seemed to be a contradictory fatphobic, normative bias in the wording and the way fitness was emphasized (such as claiming a muscular, toned body is "attractive"). I was particularly taken aback and offended by the way umami was referred to as the "Asian word" for the taste it describes... This book has gone through many revisions and something as absurd as referring to Asian as a single culture and calling a Japanese word a word in a nonexistent, pan-Asian language is really red-flaggish to me.

If you're looking for a book for your own research, you're better off with any other researched source, even wikipedia. show less