Book Review: This is What You Just Put in Your Mouth?

This is What you Just Put in Your Mouth? by Patrick Di Justo

My Rating: 3.8 stars

I decided to try something different this time. I'm not generally a "food book" person, but I do like information, and this book seemed, well, informative. We do not have a gushy exposé here-- as the author himself states in the introduction, "If you're looking for shocking stories of the gigantic corporate conspiracy to poison America through its processed foods, you're reading the wrong book." This is simply a collection of information for the curious-- to help us understand why a company may choose to put a certain ingredient in their product-- how it reacts with other ingredients, it's chemical makeup, that sort of thing. The format is easy to read: each chapter focuses on one product-- like Southern Comfort Egg Nog-- breaks down some (but not all) of the ingredients in it and their intended or assumed purposes, as well as giving a little back story on how the author got his scoop. Sarcasm abounds throughout, which is sometimes amusing and sometimes annoying when you actually are interested in the facts, but, for the most part, I did appreciate the humor. Di Justo himself is not a chemist, but a reporter, and he's not shy about putting his opinions in at times, especially concerning politics. Call me old fashioned, but I believe a good reporter should be politically unbiased (of course, I doubt such a one actually exists). Just the same, it was a good read and I enjoyed sharing interesting tidbits from it with my husband (during which I referred to the book as "in your mouth", because the title gets really annoying after repeating it more than once). In the end the book is just what it claims to be-- nothing more, nothing less.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from Three Rivers Press in exchange for my honest review.