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The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth…
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The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor (edition 2015)

by Mark Schatzker

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3232379,858 (4.18)30
Pretty interesting read about the surprising (or maybe not so surprising) things that go into our food.

The basic premise is that farmers and business owners have conspired to make food a lot more profitable, making it very bland in the process. We can buy huge chickens, bright red tomatoes, and many other "improved" food items in the grocery stores, but these "improvements" have come at the cost of flavor, so scientists have come up with all sorts of additives to make our food taste more like the food it is supposed to be. Strawberries become "strawberry-er". Vanilla becomes "vanilla-er".

It truth, all of the additives that go into our food is quite scary. This book helps pull the curtain back a little bit on the history of food additives and where this is potentially headed into the future. ( )
  ssimon2000 | May 7, 2018 |
Showing 22 of 22
This is a fascinating look at food production in this country since the 1950s and how “natural” and artificial flavors play a role in our shared agricultural history. These added flavors are tricking our brains into eating foods with poor nutritional values & disappointing blandness. Engagingly written and eye-opening! ( )
  Tanya-dogearedcopy | Feb 2, 2024 |
This book has a nice balance between our perception of foods such as in taste and other senses with the science behind food genetics and our physiologic response to food. I was surprised to learn about the "dilution effect" and inborn nutritional wisdom." And there's so much yet to learn. I now have an appreciation for "heirloom tomatoes." ( )
  Kimberlyhi | Apr 15, 2023 |
I enjoyed the book, but I don't believe all of the claims the author makes and I think he misunderstood the studies he quoted. ( )
  Vanessa_Leigh | Sep 3, 2022 |
This is a look at food and flavour. For decades now, food has become very bland – this includes meat, fruit, and vegetables. Because the companies and farmers want more and more yield for less and less money. This = no more flavour. So companies started creating flavours to make the food taste like what they should have already tasted like… and flavours to make foods taste like whatever they want them to taste like. But with the real flavour gone, so is much of the nutrition. And that is not getting put back into the foods, only fake chemical “flavours”.

This was so interesting. And so sad. It makes me want to go back in time to taste all the flavours that used to come (naturally) with food (without having to add fake flavours, sauces, spices, etc). A few people here and there are trying to bring back some of the original strains for some of the foods (chicken, tomatoes), but the industrial farmers and companies don’t want any part of it unless it can be done just as cheaply and create just as much yield. Sad sad sad. Would love to have some companies catch on to this (and yes, I realize it would be more pricey). ( )
  LibraryCin | Jun 24, 2022 |
It was interesting to hear about another mess-up of the industrial farmers & food moguls, but the chemical names & details he included were a little more than I needed, although others may have enjoyed them. He did, however, document the findings well. ( )
  Wren73 | Mar 4, 2022 |
4.5 stars

This book is all about modern food so if that isn't what you're wanting to learn about you'll probably be bored. I just happened to pick it up anyway, even though I wasn't looking for it. I really got into it. It has tons of helpful information and stuff I had no idea about. It definitely changed to way I look at things, and ever since I read it, I've been telling bits I learned in random conversation with others. ( )
  ToniFGMAMTC | Feb 17, 2021 |
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... ( )
  encima | Dec 27, 2020 |
How America became fatter as they struggled to lose weight and the impact that artificial flavors, etc., have had on our ever increasing overweight population.

Will it solve the problem for you, probably not, but there's a lot to consider and a painless way to wade through a lot of information! Probably would never have read the entire book, but it was interesting to listen to.

FROM AMAZON: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. 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. 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. ( )
  Gmomaj | Aug 24, 2020 |
Scary food book. BUT very interesting how and why Natural Flavorings came to be. Tacos in a chip! ( )
  ksmedberg | Aug 15, 2018 |
Pretty interesting read about the surprising (or maybe not so surprising) things that go into our food.

The basic premise is that farmers and business owners have conspired to make food a lot more profitable, making it very bland in the process. We can buy huge chickens, bright red tomatoes, and many other "improved" food items in the grocery stores, but these "improvements" have come at the cost of flavor, so scientists have come up with all sorts of additives to make our food taste more like the food it is supposed to be. Strawberries become "strawberry-er". Vanilla becomes "vanilla-er".

It truth, all of the additives that go into our food is quite scary. This book helps pull the curtain back a little bit on the history of food additives and where this is potentially headed into the future. ( )
  ssimon2000 | May 7, 2018 |
I LOVED this book. Very interesting thesis about the relationship between flavor and nutrition, the innate nutritional wisdom that each of us is endowed with, which contributes to my belief that health is holistic rather than allopathic. ( )
  yamiyoghurt | Jan 29, 2018 |
This book is so good (the audio is very good, read by Chris Patton, won an earphones award). This book is about food and it is very interesting and based on real research. I had to get the book, because there is so much information and I wanted to gather some notes which isn’t easy to do when listening to an audio. The reader does read some of the footnotes but the back of the book there is the Bibliography, Notes and breaks that down by chapters siting articles that the author is using in his book and an index. So if you like food and are concerned about your food, as I am, then you will love this book. Well maybe that isn’t quite right. When I started reading this book I was so disheartened as it seemed like maybe it was a lost cause. Scientist and industry began changing our food in the forties. I was born in the fifties and am lucky to remember some of the great taste of foods but it was already changing. People of younger generations may never have tasted food that hasn’t been robbed of its flavors. The author looks at obesity and from a flavor stand point why obesity has risen in spite of all the great diets available. Flavors are very interesting things and this book is about flavor. This book is not all against science/industry and in fact acknowledges that we probably can’t afford to go back to a preindustrial food source nor is there land to do so but science can help provide solutions. It ends on an encouraging note however it is really up to consumers and that does still leave me feeling a bit pessimistic that food can achieve its former greatness. ( )
  Kristelh | Jan 19, 2018 |
I won my copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway. I've read quite a few books over the years that are trying to offer quick fixes for modern diets, or that try to drum up fear of some ingredient or technology related to the food we eat. Most come across as pushy and overhyped, the sort of writing that relies more on emotion than on reason and good science to convince readers to change their eating habits. I was relieved that this book was not in the same vein. The Dorito Effect looks at the evolution of flavor from a natural and complex component of natural foods, to an ingredient that fakes the experience of one food in the form of another. One could develop quite a paranoia about 'flavorings' after reading this book, and I have to wonder now what Celestial Seasonings means on its lemon tea ingredients list by natural flavors, but still, I'd rather now more about the foods I eat, even if avoiding all artificially added flavorings is next to impossible. ( )
  JBarringer | Dec 30, 2017 |
Ugh. This is fairly inspirational. It wants me to do better, but it also inspires me to hate myself. ( )
  benuathanasia | Dec 3, 2017 |
I read a lot of long-form food journalism, and this is one of the best of these books I've ever read. The chapters on the relationship between actual flavor and nutrition are astonishing. It even ends on a genuinely hopeful note: When food itself tastes better (i.e. it's not so bland it has to be "enhanced" with flavor chemicals, ranch dressing, etc), it's usually better for you, too. Breeding flavor back into our fruits and vegetables will restore their nutrition, too, and will make meat from animals raised eating flavorful food better as well. We can have it all if we just ask for it.

I'm more excited for my garden now than I've ever been 8) ( )
  KateSherrod | Aug 1, 2016 |
The Dorito Effect by Mark Schatzker is a very highly recommended, well researched account that addresses the cause of the health crisis today as being a direct result of what we have done to our food.

In an effort to increase size, and production, we have taken the natural flavor out of food. Our bodies naturally crave flavors that the current food isn't providing so we eat more trying to fill the flavor void we're missing. Focusing on mainly chicken and tomatoes, Schatsker does an excellent job tracing how the change in our food happened and the results. There is a complex relationship between flavor and nutrition in food and we have diluted the flavor to increase size and production. Chicken today doesn't taste anything like the chicken of the past. Tomatoes today are mostly water. "The rise in obesity is the predictable result of the rise in manufactured deliciousness. Everything we add to food just makes us want it more." Schatzker points out that
the big food companies have "created the snack equivalent of crystal meth and gotten us all hooked." Not only is more and more manufactured flavor being added to things, the availability of the food with enhanced flavors is more available.

"The Dorito Effect, very simply, is what happens when food gets blander and flavor technology gets better. This book is about how and why that took place. It's also about the consequences, which include obesity and metabolic disturbance along with a cultural love-hate obsession with food. This book argues that we need to begin understanding food through the same lens by which it is experienced: how it tastes. The food crisis we're spending so much time and money on might be better thought of as a large-scale flavor disorder. Our problem isn't calories and what our bodies do with them. Our problem is that we want to eat the wrong food. The longer we ignore flavor, the longer we are bound to be victims of it. This book is also about the solution. The Dorito Effect can be reversed. That's already happening on small farms and in pioneering science labs."

Schatzker notes the words to look for on your food that indicate the presence of chemicals that fool your nose and chemicals that fool your tongue. "The following words indicate the presence of chemicals that fool your nose: natural flavor(s) natural flavoring(s) artificial flavor(s) flavoring, flavor. The following words indicate the presence of chemicals that fool your tongue: monosodium glutamate MSG disodium guanlyate disodium inosinate torula yeast yeast extract hydrolyzed protein autolyzed yeast saccharin (Sweet Twin, Sweet N Low, Necta Sweet) aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal, Sugar Twin) acesulfame potassium (Ace-K, Sunett, Sweet One) sucralose (Splenda) neotame (Newtame) advantame stevia."

I have been talking about this book the whole time to anyone who will listen. Schatzker does and exceptional job presenting the information and scientific research in an entertaining, accessible, and informative manner. In The Dorito Effect he divides the book into three parts: He tells us what the Dorito effect is, the importance of flavor, and the cure for the Dorito effect. As is my wont, I was thrilled to see a bibliography, notes and index.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Simon & Schuster for review purposes.
( )
  SheTreadsSoftly | Mar 21, 2016 |
Super interesting! Schatzker argues that salt, sugar, and fat are not exactly to blame for why processed food is so bad for us. After all, if you’re just handed a glob of those three things, even in attractive proportions, you’ll probably be disgusted. It’s actually flavor that makes people keep eating, and he argues that flavor science has made food that’s capable of getting us to eat, but not capable of satisfying us the way that natural flavors (which correlate with micronutrients) are. Thus we keep eating, and not in healthful ways. The science of flavor was fun to read about, and this is an instance in which—if we can keep profit-seeking megacorporations from taking over, which is far from guaranteed—we might be able to fix many of the problems. Although “dilution”—a decrease in flavor and nutrition—is broadly observable in many modern foods compared to their predecessors of six or seven decades ago, attributable to selection for ever-greater size and yield, Schatzker proposes that micronutrients/true flavors are actually not that energetically expensive for plants to produce, because they have sensory effects at parts per billion. Thus it may well be possible to produce flavorful and highly productive strains of tomatoes, apples, etc. We just didn’t bother to select for flavor for a long time. ( )
  rivkat | Jan 14, 2016 |
Interesting learning how our food has changed over time and getting a better understanding of food in general. ( )
  GShuk | Oct 12, 2015 |
What a fantastic book. I am a big "food interest" fan and this book is right up there with the best of them. It should be required reading by anyone who has any interest in food and what we are being "fed" by the food manufacturing industry in terms of fake flavours and how that is changing our expectations and taste experience leaving us unsatisfied but craving for more empty calories. I learned a lot from this book and will change some of my food practices although I have always been a fan of real food, minimally processed. Terms used like "natural flavours" are not natural at all but from a chemical compound. How the food manufactures have been allowed to do this is another big question! The book is very well written. ( )
  mdoris | Oct 8, 2015 |
Very enjoyable to just plain read, including the Notes! And the "facts" in all of this made me really start thinking about the food I was eating and tasting....what AM I eating? ( )
  nyiper | Sep 7, 2015 |
We can fake anything, and we have to

The Dorito effect is that the more raw food we produce, the more bland and nutritionally worthless it becomes, the more flavors we must add to make it interesting and the more varieties we have to offer because it so unappealing. Fruit, vegetables, chicken, beef – all taste nothing like they used to and mainly taste like nothing. So we add chipotle and soy, mustard and curry, salt and pepper. And aromas. And “natural flavorings”. We consume five times as much spice as we did after the first world war, when the first stats appeared. The first third of the book is all about faking flavors (with astonishing precision and success) to make food industrially.

The flavorings industry is a giant you never heard of. They are not household brands (except for McCormick) but sell billions in flavorings to cover the fact that mass produced and industrially processed food has no taste. Food is becoming more like cigarettes, Schatzker says. All foods taste different, but underneath, they’re all processed dull, flat and nutritionless, if not downright harmful. Humans now eat like livestock.

The invention of gas chromatography has taken all the magic out of taste and aroma. We now have the ability to create or recreate pretty much any gustatory sensation possible, faking our way to variety, where spectacular taste once ruled. Fruits and vegetables are much blander, because we breed the goodness out when we breed for volume. Same with beef, chicken and pork; they are much fatter and blander than they used to be, and all require vast quantities of coatings, sauces and spices to make up for their lack of taste.

The middle third of the book is research into “nutritional wisdom”; plants and animals instinctively know what they need. Plants take advantage of it by deterring predators and supplying predictable nutrition. Insects and animals know what they need to consume to regain or maintain homeostasis. We also have cravings when our bodies sense we are low in some nutrient. The punchline of course, is that Man fools his body into thinking he’s eating nutritionally from the flavors and smells of the food, but is actually getting nothing of use. The result is massive overeating in an attempt to consume nutrition. We have shortcircuited a laboratory-proven system that has been foolproof in a balanced ecosystem for eons. And added vitamins – useless, Schatzker says. Vitamins only work their magic in the context of whole foods, not as chemical additions or solo pills.

Schatzker doesn’t let it rest there. In the last part of the book, he seeks out those who breed the real thing, whether tomatoes or chickens. He gathers a continent-wide group of experts to the meal of a lifetime. And he bravely states that all is not lost; for extra money and some research, you too can find great tasting food that has real food value, mostly directly from the farm. Stores and food processors - not interested.

As horrifically serious as The Dorito Effect is, Schatzker has written it with a light touch, often commenting in sardonic and sarcastic asides. It is a lively, fast and easy read. The overall effect is that it goes down smoothly, and doesn’t leave that bloated, sluggish, unsatisfied feeling like most restaurant and prepared meal experiences. You are what you eat.

David Wineberg ( )
  DavidWineberg | Aug 28, 2015 |
Very interesting book about food, flavour and nutrition. Schatzker talks about how modern chicken doesn't taste like chicken and how bland tomatoes sold in supermarkets are and how processed food leaves us feeling unhappy and lethargic. He also ties the obesity epidemic to the lack of flavour in food. He might be stretching things a bit there but it certainly is part of the problem.

At the back of the book he gives some guidelines for eating flavourfully. One of the things he says is "No morsel of food should pass your lips before you have asked the following question: Where did the flavor come from? If it came from the plant or animal you're eating, keep eating. If it was applied by a human with a PhD in chemistry, put it down." That would certainly cut down on most foods that you can find in a supermarket, probably everything offered on fast food menus and even most foods offered in regular restaurants. Schatzker talks about all the imitation flavours and aromas that are available now. It is big business and getting bigger all the time, $2 billion in the United States and $10 billion globally. We need all those imitation flavours because the food that is available to us gets blander and blander.

I had my own epiphany about flavour in food while eating a hamburger grilled on our own barbecue. We have been buying grass fed beef in bulk for a number of years and the taste was really good. I didn't realize how good though until the hamburger on my plate tasted almost like sawdust and I realized that we had run out of ground beef from our grass fed rancher and purchased some from the local butcher. The difference was astonishing. I will continue to buy grass fed beef even if it is more expensive than supermarket beef (and I don't think it is much more expensive when you consider each pound costs the same whether it is ground beef or filet mignon). I will also continue to source out chickens from a farmer that isn't a factory and buy vegetables that are grown in my own province. I will also continue to cook most of my own meals because then I can control what I put in the dishes.

There are lots of great stories in this book (the Utah goats alone are worth the read) but there are also lots of good lessons for anyone interested in how food tastes. ( )
1 vote gypsysmom | Aug 13, 2015 |
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