[.ca] Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About ... (ISBN 0618710310)

Read it with a parent or other kid...:
Eric Schlosser's two-part series in Rolling Stone sure took on a life of its own. In book form, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001) blew the lid off every stage of fast-food production, from the invention of artificial flavours and colours right through the finished product on diners' happy plastic trays. Concerned particularly about McDonald's and its Svengali influence over youngsters, Schlosser and cowriter Charles Wilson have now simplified and repackaged his arguments as Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food. The arguments will be familiar to anyone who has ever spared a thought for the Amazon rain forest as factory, the working conditions of mall eateries, or the insides of their own arteries, but that's precisely Schlosser and Wilson's point: this is for those who have not considered the price of having it your way. The book benefits from reading with a parent or another kid; there's a lot of cultural literacy, media deconstruction, environmental science, and analysis required to really understand the cost associated with selling children such questionable "food". Discussion of slaughterhouses, heart attacks, and ground-up bugs may not seem kid stuff, but is this really something you can in good conscience ignore?

Incredible.:
A truly magnificently written novel. I have read many fast food and health informational novels that bored me to tears, but I thought I'd give this book a chance. And boy, am I ever glad that I did! It completely changed some of my views and cleared the rest. The way Eric Schlosser wrote this book is indescribable! I turned into a vegetarian for a couple of weeks when I was through with the book because of how deeply it touched me with all the heart-breaking tales. There were also inspiring stories that made me want to jump up and actually DO something right away to somehow help. I have also not placed a foot in Mcdonalds or drove through their drive-thrus EVER again. I have always known that the fast food industry was no good, but I always loved having a Big Mac, well not anymore! I refuse to have a cup of tea from there! This is a real eye-opener explaining the business, how they all start and the founders of each of everybody's favorite fast food chains, (Kentucky's, Mcdonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, etc). It is time we learned the truth, it is time we knew what we really are putting in our mouths and why fast food is so cheap and "convenient". A definite must read.