The Liberation Diet by Kevin Brown and Annette Presley

I was curious about The Liberation Diet after hearing Annette Presley talk about it at West Texas Writers meetings.

The Premise: The premise of this book is that during the last 100 years many things were done to the American food supply (and presumably that of other industrialized nations). These changes have been advertised to the public as more healthy alternatives to the previous food preparation methods. A scientific review of these claims shows that the changes usually had more benefit to the food manufacturers, by making centralized, industrialized food production possible and profitable, than to the people eating the food.

"Locally grown, fresh food cannot be mass produced and nationally distributed as it would spoil on the journey from California to New York, so purveyors of real food remain the 'little guy.' On the other hand, mass industrialized food processing is designed to have large distribution channels that generate large sums of money, making industrial food the 'big guy.'"


"The rise of fake food has paralleled the rise of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, ADHD, autism, and obesity. IF you really want to lose weight and get healthy, its time to get back in the kitchen with real food."

My Reaction: I was most impressed by the historical perspective that the authors gave in this book. They spent several chapters talking about how common food additives, such as cottonseed oil, were developed and marketed. (The short version of this one -- cottonseed oil is an industrial byproduct of processing cotton from plant form to fabric form. It was the first oil to be hydrogenated for use in place of lard in candles. As the demand for candles decreased, it was marketed as a "healthy" replacement for lard in food. This hydrogenated oil is one of the causes of trans fats in foods, which is now regarded as very unhealthy.)

I definitely buy into the book's emphasis of "real food" over processed food. After reading it, I have been replacing the sweetner in my morning coffee with locally produced honey (which in theory may also help some of my allergies to local wildflowers).

I am still thinking about some of the claims in the book that seem more controversial. In particular, the authors claim that saturated fats and cholesterol do not cause heart disease. They've said that this information has been advocated by groups that have a financial interest in promoting plant oils and grains over meat and dairy products.

Heart disease runs in my family, but only during the last 50 years. I've always understood that this was related to the change from farm work to sedentary work and not dying of other causes (such as being struck by lightening in the field). I'm curious now, though about the possibility that this is related to a switch from lard and full fat dairy products to a diet that includes more processed food and more grains and plant oils. I know we have wondered how our great-grandparents lived on whole milk and weekly fried chicken without the obesity problems that seem to affect generations now who eat many more salads and try to hit the gym.

My final analysis -- this book definitely made me think. It's also sent me off doing some more research, including a stop by the Weston A Price website cited in the book.

Let me know what you think if you've read this book or heard some of these theories.