Eat, Drink and Be Wary

by F.J. Schlink

This book will show that for most people the best advice will be to return, so far as a complex industrial civilization permits, to a simple traditional dietary, using as little as possible of advertised, commercially manufactured, refined, processed, artificially-ripened and treated foods, and consuming as much as possible of foods which are the least removed in time and space from their original condition, flavor, freshness, and natural environment. Such a return to simplicity and directness of production and consumption of foods would represent a complete reversal of a dominant trend in our civilization – the trend toward interfering with Nature for a profit, at every possible point where a profit can be taken and a “service” charged for. One should remember that there are many other things about Nature besides its food supply which are extremely unlikely to be significantly improved by the intervention of the chemists, the production engineers, and the canned goods brokers. The instinct which guides the cat and the robin to a proper selection of food for health and healthful activity, will work for man, and has worked for some hundreds of thousands of years for many races in many climes. If that be granted, it is clear that there is no reason whatever why the factory owner and the advertiser should be permitted to dictate to human beings on any subject so dedicated and so important, individually and racially, as the determination of one's choice of food and its quality, purity, and freedom from adulteration. Let your mind and your instincts (and in civilization, you will need both) determine your let the others follow the billboards and The Saturday Evening Post.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1976