Search results for ""Author Mike Gibney""
University College Dublin Press Ever Seen a Fat Fox?: Human Obesity Explored
Book SynopsisEver seen a fat fox? Didn't think so. Why it is that only humans - or animals in the care of humans - develop obesity? In Ever Seen a Fat Fox?: Human Obesity Explored Professor Mike Gibney delves into the history of the human relationship with food. He traces the evolution of our modern diet and looks to science to offer solutions to the phenomenon of human obesity. He calls on governments to cease the single-issue ad-hoc approach and demands a massive governmental long-term investment in weight management. It is a commonly held belief that obesity is a recent phenomenon. Professor Gibney reveals that obesity is nothing new - in fact, the modern upward trend in obesity began in the mid-nineteenth century. Obesity has been part of human experience whenever and wherever we've had affluence. There are many who seek to apportion blame for the epidemic of obesity. Blaming the food industry for obesity is always popular: sugar is public enemy number one. Debunking exaggerated views and cutting through the mixed messaging Gibney demonstrates that most food processing techniques are old, hundreds and thousands of years old.The genetics of obesity, the practice of dieting, and the value of physical activity are thoroughly assessed. The failures of the players in obesity - including the media, scientists, academic organisations, international agencies, specifically the WHO, and the food industry are brought into sharp focus. What can we learn from the fox? An expert in public health and personalised nutrition with bestselling books and over 300 peer-reviewed papers in the area, Professor Mike Gibney uncovers the full story behind obesity based on painstaking research, and offers us tangible solutions to this very human phenomenon.Trade Review'Governments around the world, including our own, are struggling to devise strategies that will stem and ultimately reverse this epidemic [obesity]. These are the issues addressed in the latest book by Prof Mike Gibney, one of Ireland's most prominent nutritional scientists. Gibney is eminently qualified to reflect on the myriad forces - biological, behavioural, environmental, economic and cultural - that drive the obesity epidemic and to propose potential solutions at both the individual and policy level.' The Irish Times, 13 August 2016 'This book is a refreshing change of pace because it is so incredibly level headed. Are fast food and SSBs good for you? No, and Gibney agrees. But are we placing too much blame at the hands at the level of the food creation PROCESS and not enough on total AVAILABILITY? Perhaps.' The Nutrition Wonk, 20 August 2016 'This is a thoughtful book from one of the most provocative and knowledgeable voices in Irish food science. Those who are tired of simplistic arguments by unqualified commentators and celebrities, and who want to really engage with the fascinating science of nutrition, will be well rewarded.' Sunday Times, 3 July 2016Table of ContentsPreface; Introduction; Chapter 1. Ever seen a fat fox?; Chapter 2. Obesity and health measurements and metrics; Chapter 3. Human obesity - old and new; Chapter 4. The human food chain - old and new; Chapter 5. Culpable foods; Chapter 6. Regulating Food intake - the eyes have it; Chapter 7. Fitness and fatness; Chapter 8. Weight management - the personal perspective; Chapter 9. Weight management - the national perspective; Chapter 10. The nature versus nurture debate; Chapter 11. Eating disorders; Chapter 12. The stigmatisation of fatness; Chapter 13. Obesity - politics, players and ploys; Chapter 14: Reflections and projections; Notes; Index.
£16.15
The Liffey Press Food Through the Ages: A Popular History
Book SynopsisWritten for food aficionados everywhere, this book provides an entertaining look at the history and development of the key foods we eat every day. Mike Gibney, Professor Emeritus of Food and Health at University College Dublin, traces the story of food from early hunter gatherers through settled agriculture to the migration across Europe, and examines the influence early trading, imperial conquests and medieval exploration had on the food chain. Along the way Food through the Ages uncovers some fascinating nuggets: - Indian rice is fluffy to eat with the hand, while Chinese rice is sticky to eat with chopsticks. - In the Middle Ages it became fashionable to stuff boned smaller birds into bigger birds into even bigger birds and so on. This process, known as engastration, is still popular today in Cajun cuisine with Turducken, a hen in a duck in a turkey. - A passion for tea led two great powers, China and England, to engage in warfare - The popularity of the potato accounted for about 25% of the population growth in Europe from 1700 to 1900 - The Arabs brought pasta to Italy but the popular shaped pastas were most often produced in religious orders by nuns - The Jesuits and Dominicans argued bitterly over the perceived magical yet sinful attributes of Aztec chocolate. Professor Gibney explains the origins of commonplace foods, including bread, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, pasta, rice, sugar, tea, chocolate and of course Ireland’s beloved potato. He defines a well-stocked larder and shows how the kitchen has changed over thousands of years, getting cleaner, less smelly, more reliable, less dangerous and more accessible to all.
£16.16
University College Dublin Press Something to Chew on
Book Synopsis"Something to Chew On" is an informative and entertaining book which covers from a scientific point of view all of the worldwide controversies dominating the popular press in relation to the safety and wholesomeness of the modern food chain. It deals with the topics of organic food, GM foods, obesity, growing old, the integrity of food research, global warming, global malnutrition, consumer perception of food-borne risk, our gut bacteria, and how nutrition during pregnancy primes us for health in later life. Each chapter presents multiple arguments and comes to a well-supported conclusion. Mike Gibney provides interesting examples, reports and stories from many countries. The book is highly suitable for the general reader and will be an invaluable guide to the science of nutrition for students of food and health.Trade Review'Gibney offers an introduction to the issues that will shape our future. It is a bold attempt at demystification. The mechanics of human nutrition, diet and health are clearly explained alongside important developments in plant science, climate change, water supply, and global agriculture. Gibney takes aim at what he considers misconceived propaganda about agri-food science, such as emotion-based hostility to genetically modified (GM) crops and those who put fashionable organic farming above high-yield fertilisers in developing countries. His position as a scientist who has co-ordinated European-funded research projects with food and chemical companies is explained at the outset, along with his role as an adviser to Nestle. The book's richness lies in its wealth of detail. We learn that human intervention in plant genetics goes back 10,000 years. Indeed, it is human behaviour that emerges as the oddest phenomenon. Gibney highlights a 20-year study in the UK which found an increase in car ownership correlates precisely with the rise in obesity. A study of 50,000 American nurses from 1976 onwards found that those who viewed the most television had a 94% increased risk of becoming obese, and a 70% higher risk of diabetes.' The Sunday Times 'Professor Gibney brings his vast scholarship to the subject, pulling together reports and studies from around the globe filtered through his own argumentative and common sense approach to one of the most important subjects in the world today.' Sunday Independent 'Gibney writes in fluid prose which makes pleasant and interesting reading.' Books IrelandTable of ContentsWith Regard to Food; Sugar and Spice and All Things Nasty; Modified Foods: Genetic or Atomic?; The Metrics of Food and Health; Personalised Nutrition: Fitting into your Genes; Plastic Babies: The Phenomenon of Epigenetics; Your Inside is Out: Food, the Gut and Health; A Tsunami of Lard: The Global Epidemic of Obesity; Greying Matters; Food and Health: The Science, Policy and Politics; My Food, Your Poison: Who Sees What in Food; How the Other Half Dies; Mankind and Mother Earth; Projections and Reflections; Notes; Index.
£18.05
