Author Biography
Professor Mike Gibney is Director of the Institute of Food and Health at University College Dublin. He has a global reputation for research on food and nutrition and he has served on all high-level advisory committees of national, EU and UN agencies. He is the author of a popular book Nutrition, Diet and Health (Cambridge University Press).
Description
"Something to Chew On" is an informative and entertaining book which covers from a scientific point of view all of the worldwide controversies dominating the popular press in relation to the safety and wholesomeness of the modern food chain. It deals with the topics of organic food, GM foods, obesity, growing old, the integrity of food research, global warming, global malnutrition, consumer perception of food-borne risk, our gut bacteria, and how nutrition during pregnancy primes us for health in later life. Each chapter presents multiple arguments and comes to a well-supported conclusion. Mike Gibney provides interesting examples, reports and stories from many countries. The book is highly suitable for the general reader and will be an invaluable guide to the science of nutrition for students of food and health.
With Regard to Food
Sugar and Spice and All Things Nasty
Modified Foods
- Genetic or Atomic?
The Metrics of Food and Health
Personalised Nutrition
- Fitting into your Genes
Plastic Babies
- The Phenomenon of Epigenetics
Your Inside is Out
- Food, the Gut and Health
A Tsunami of Lard
- The Global Epidemic of Obesity
Greying Matters
Food and Health
- The Science, Policy and Politics
My Food, Your Poison
- Who Sees What in Food
How the Other Half Dies
Mankind and Mother Earth
Projections and Reflections
Notes
Index.
'Gibney offers an introduction to the issues that will shape our future.
It is a bold attempt at demystification. The mechanics of human nutrition, diet and health are clearly explained alongside important developments in plant science, climate change, water supply, and global agriculture. Gibney takes aim at what he considers misconceived propaganda about agri-food science, such as emotion-based hostility to genetically modified (GM) crops and those who put fashionable organic farming above high-yield fertilisers in developing countries. His position as a scientist who has co-ordinated European-funded research projects with food and chemical companies is explained at the outset, along with his role as an adviser to Nestlé.
The book’s richness lies in its wealth of detail. We learn that human intervention in plant genetics goes back 10,000 years. Indeed, it is human behaviour that emerges as the oddest phenomenon. Gibney highlights a 20-year study in the UK which found an increase in car ownership correlates precisely with the rise in obesity. A study of 50,000 American nurses from 1976 onwards found that those who viewed the most television had a 94% increased risk of becoming obese, and a 70% higher risk of diabetes.'
The Sunday Times
'Professor Gibney brings his vast scholarship to the subject, pulling together reports and studies from around the globe filtered through his own argumentative and common sense approach to one of the most important subjects in the world today.'
Sunday Independent
'Gibney writes in fluid prose which makes pleasant and interesting reading.'
Books Ireland
‘There were many points made in Something to Chew On that are really original and impressive and Professor Gibney has produced 170 pages of fantastic ‘brain food’. His detailed arguments on food and health controversies are very clear and exciting and, refreshingly, he is not someone to sit on a fence … this book is a masticatory joy and is highly recommended.’
NHDmag – December 2012/January 2013 – issue 80
‘I strongly recommend the book for public health policymakers and the media, who are confronted by these controversial topics daily. For classes that include food and nutrition controversies, reading assignments from this book and from 'blame' books would provide an excellent foundation for class discussion.’
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2013
With lucid precision and a leavening of wry comment, Mr. Gibney surveys the best of recent research and the claims being made about food, health and the environment. His approach throughout is one of scientifically informed skepticism.
The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2013
Twitter: @UCDPress