Diet for a New America by John Robbins

Diet for a New America by John Robbins is an eye-opening book about the food industry, and is quite possibly a life changing read. This 25 year anniversary edition of the book is a good reminder (or perhaps introduction) to the food we eat and the correlation it has to our health.

Book Description

“Originally published in 1987, Diet for a New America awakened the conscience of a nation with its startling examination of the food we buy and eat — and the moral, economic, and medical price we pay for it. Drawing a clear line connecting America’s factory farm system with disease, animal cruelty, and ecological crises, Robbins makes perhaps the most eloquent argument for vegetarianism ever published. Robbins walked away from his family’s business — the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire — to pursue his dream of promoting a healthy society that practices “compassionate stewardship of a balanced ecosystem.” In Diet for a New America he presents both a disturbing portrait of our current system and a vision for the future that will educate and empower readers to change.” – Diet for a New America

My Thoughts

Diet for a New America focuses on being vegetarian because of the unethical, and quite frankly disgusting ways meat eaters (and dairy consumers) get their food. Most people don’t know (or want to know) the way slaughter houses work, animal cruelty, disease, and other hard facts about the food system.

This book is a slap in the face, eye-opener that really does make me consider only eating plants and cruelty-free raised animals. However, I do like meat, and those free-range, happily raised animals are rather pricey. I’m not saying I wouldn’t buy those, just that for my budget right now, I can’t do it all the time.

Overall, I found this to be an excellent book that really has me thinking about food and how we get what we eat. Anyone interested in living healthier should definitely read this book (even if you don’t want to fully go vegetarian).

* Thank you to the publisher of Diet for a New America, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.