Diet for a New America

I rarely put FIVE stars on a book. This one is brave, brilliant, and will change the nastier parts of our world immediately. I dare anyone to read, for but one example, the chapter on "the most unjustly maligned of all Animals", without feeling that life change-up.

The author, John Robbins, presents the facts about our diet and the relationship between what we are "consuming" and the rising incidence of cancer, diabetes, and heart attacks.

The author simply takes us on a fact-found tour of our food. The book does not sermonize or condemn the modern concentrated business combines that have destroyed our hopes for robust health and humane lives. However, he empowers a new life of sanity and care.

We all share the author's values -- "Eating show more should be a pleasure". [xv] Stop eating food that has been injected by the worst drug-pushers, is manufactured by torture, kills even the soil of our planet, and poisons all who eat it.

The billion-dollar lobbyists who represent the trillion-dollar Food Industry, and who continue to corrupt those who we elect to protect our welfare, are frauds.

* The author is the "Robbins" of Baskin-Robbins and speaks as an insider from personal experience as well as access to the original research and science. He is now a vegetarian and a lover of Nature. show less

I recommend this book to every person who eats. Most of us no longer grow our own fruits,vegetables and grains. For the most part, we do not hunt and kill and butcher our own meat. We rely upon a massive food industry, corporate farms, slaughterhouses, meat packing plants and canning factories. Something that is essential to our very lives, to the continuance of our species, and the welfare of our fragile spaceship, Earth, we leave entirely in the hands of someone else. We give that huge power our complete trust and we naively believe that we are protected by the food laws of our government.
I say this. If you need to eat and be nourished you should be responsible enough to understand how this critical need is being met, what it costs show more and who pays. This book is the best I have ever seen on the subject and its effect on me was similar to the effect that "The Jungle" had when I first read that powerhouse of a book so long ago in my high school days. However, this book gave me a stronger feeling that I could do something personally to change the way things are. Written by the scion of the Robbins family of Baskin-Robbins icecream fame, this well-researched book not only exposes the vile conditions that "food" animals experience and the horrors of chemical farming but it draws a holistic picture about our place in the earth's future. You don't have to be an animal rights activist or a vegan or vegetarian to benefit from this book. You may think that bothering about the foods you eat when you have such a busy and complex life is a waste of your time, but one of the things that we all share, that is fundamental to life itself, is the fact that we have to eat. So why not take this opportunity to understand the repercussions and ramifications of an act that you probably do several times every day?
This book might make you angry, sad, disgusted, and worried, but it will also give you ideas on how to help and heal. I honestly feel that anyone who loves the children that they feed, who cherishes their own body through whose senses they enjoy life, or who calls themselves a friend to animals and the environment should read this book because it is a great aid in helping one to conduct oneself with dignity and responsibility and compassion in a world where many have become far too trusting of the corporate hand that feeds us. show less

What perhaps is a classic in food books turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for me. It started off very strong as John Robbins revealed the horrors of animal treatment within the food industry. However, by the end of the book, I felt that the book itself was just one man’s method of pushing a vegetarian agenda. Somehow, I got the impression from the chapter about disease that all illnesses have a basis on diets of meat, eggs, fish, and cheese. By the end of the book, I was about ready to toss the book across the room as the author exclaims how all of us are already so overwhelmingly tainted by pesticides. I felt as if I should quickly run to make out my will instead of finishing his book.

I have mixed feelings about the book. show more You now know what I didn’t like. Here’s what I did like. The book was very readable, nicely written in easy-to-understand prose with quite a list of citations from reputable sources. His motivation was to make the world a better place. My only hesitation was that Robbins seemed to be presenting only one side of the issue. Yes, he did include quotes from the agriprocessors (not that I like them any more than he did), but not all of them are bad guys (nor are all vegetarians perfect in every way).

The book is dated. Many of the facts within the book are no longer accurate. However, we’ve come a long way since the book was first copyrighted, and I can’t help but believe that the green movement and the slow food movement are trends in the right direction. What readers should take away from Robbin's book is the wisdom to question what they eat and to work toward helping others live a more caring, healthy life. I can’t argue with Robbins on either of those two ideas. show less

recommended for: compassionate people, vegetarians, everyone

This is the book that introduced me to veganism. It makes compelling arguments for eliminating animal products, and happily living on all plant products for all you consume. Talks about the ramifications of animal vs. plant products concentrating on 3 aspects: for the animals, for the earth, for human health. If you care about the future of the earth and its inhabitants, you'll be interested in this book.

Once in a while one comes across a book that can change one's paradigm, this book did that for me.

After reading 'Diet for a New America', I stopped eating meat. That was in the early 90's. I did it originally because I couldn't stand the way factory farmed animals are treated. But the frosting on the cake, so to speak, is that my health improved!

I thank Mr. Robbins for this educational book and for being true to his convictions.

not surprisingly, there's a fair amount of tugging on the heartstrings and things that lean a little to close to propaganda for my comfort in this book. this said, if even 1/100th of what is said is true, i'm going to have a really hard time eating meat.

Robbins' pet project filled with pseudo-science and touches of corn-syrup sympathy, disconnected anecdotes and studies that provide no narrative or proofs. An easy pitfall for newborn vegans written by the trust-fund son of the latter half of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream tycoon. Jump to your own conclusion about motive and authority.