Name: The Dorito Effect
ISBN: 9781476724218

Mark Schatzker

The award-winning author of Steak argues that the key to reversing America's health crisis lies in the overlooked link between nutrition and flavor, explaining how technologically advanced but plentiful foods have been rendered less nutritious and taste-appealing.

The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor

The Dorito Effect

Kat A

I'm giving this 3 stars for writing, but 4 stars for opening my eyes a bit more to what food *should* be like. The beginning of the book about chicken was extremely interesting and I'm am now on the hunt for "heirloom" chicken, realizing I've never tasted real chicken before. Fruits and vegetables do indeed taste so much better in other countries; I have no idea why we've diluted everything here in the USA. I can't eat strawberries here anymore. They have literally zero flavor. The Appendix at the end, How to Live Long and Eat Flavorfully, will be hanging in my kitchen soon.

Nadine 

Great overview of what the modern food industry has done for the taste, quality, quantity and pricing of food to the detriment of health & obesity

K. Mike Merrill

Really enjoyed this, but be warned, it's not really about Doritos

Chris G

Filled with insane levels of information and concepts posited in ways I had not considered (humans are crap at recreating natural flavours without caloric tradeoff). Written in a style that is accessible and humourous with a bibliography that is as longer than some chapters.

The 3rd section is quite short (especially when it is the area that gives advice on improving the situation).

If only I could action these insights...

Jeff Sexton

Stelci Rosario

Melissa Railey

A lively and important argument from an award-winning journalist proving that the key to reversing North America’s health crisis lies in the overlooked link between nutrition and flavor. In The Dorito Effect, Mark Schatzker shows us how our approach to the nation’s number one public health crisis has gotten it wrong. The epidemics of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are not tied to the overabundance of fat or carbs or any other specific nutrient. Instead, we have been led astray by the growing divide between flavor—the tastes we crave—and the underlying nutrition. Since the late 1940s, we have been slowly leeching flavor out of the food we grow. Those perfectly round, red tomatoes that grace our supermarket aisles today are mostly water, and the big breasted chickens on our dinner plates grow three times faster than they used to, leaving them dry and tasteless. Simultaneously, we have taken great leaps forward in technology, allowing us to produce in the lab the very flavors that are being lost on the farm. Thanks to this largely invisible epidemic, seemingly healthy food is becoming more like junk food: highly craveable but nutritionally empty. We have unknowingly interfered with an ancient chemical language—flavor—that evolved to guide our nutrition, not destroy it. With in-depth historical and scientific research, The Dorito Effect casts the food crisis in a fascinating new light, weaving an enthralling tale of how we got to this point and where we are headed. We’ve been telling ourselves that our addiction to flavor is the problem, but it is actually the solution. We are on the cusp of a new revolution in agriculture that will allow us to eat healthier and live longer by enjoying flavor the way nature intended.

The Dorito Effect The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor

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