The Food and Drink Police

Book excerpt: Written in a lively, engaging style, The Food and Drink Police is a thoroughgoing examination and critique of the efforts of government agencies and private organizations (including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Food and Drug Administration) to regulate the dietary habits and choices of private citizens. Irreverent, yet always informed, the authors analyze the ideological motivations, spurious science, and assaults on freedom that underlie the activities of these groups. General readers, nutritionists and scientists in general, doctors, and government policymakers will find this indispensable reading. Chapters such as "Eat, Drink, and Keel Over: Lasagna, Egg Rolls, and Popcorn Can Kill" discuss the "evils" of multicultural cuisine and coffee, and the "good news" about junk food. In "care for a Drink?" and "None for the Road" the authors provide an in-depth look at Prohibition 1990s-style; "Glow-in-the-Dark Eggs or Anal Leakage: Pick Your Poison" provocatively fuels the current debate on fake fats and irradiated beef. In The Pleasure Police, David Shaw quotes the psychologist and advocate of "defensive" eating, Dr. Stephen Gullo, as advising his thin-obsessed patients to "drink tomato juice before ordering" in restaurants; tomato juice, after al, is "a natural appetite suppressant." To which Shaw adds, "I assume he also advises his clients to masturbate before making love." James T. Bennett and Thomas J. DiLorenzo expose this sort of convoluted advice in The Food and Drink Police, a timely and important contribution to the cultural debate on government and private choice.