This popular history of food scares dating back to the Middle Ages can be an antidote to paranoia or fuel even greater fears, depending on how it is read. What if drinking cow's milk makes us susceptible to serious health issues, even though the dairy industry and some leading nutritionists call it an essential component of a healthy diet?
For centuries, it appears, food producers and their marketers have been contending with dietary gurus and politicians for the consumer's convictions, with the greatest casualties being the general public's peace of mind.
One of Levenstein's bests examples of scientists, regulators, government officials, and the media creating an unnecessary conflagration is the 1912 case of the dander found on cats’ whiskers and fur that tests revealed were thick with bacteria. The Chicago Board of Health declared cats to be “extremely dangerous to humanity,” and the health board in Topeka, Kansas, ordered all cats to be “sheared or killed.” In New York City, a child polio outbreak in 1916 prompted the extermination of more than 80,000 pets, many of them dogs, even though the city health commissioner insisted the animals did not carry the polio pathogen.
More recently, the 2004 SARS epidemic greatly boosted sales of sanitizers and air purifiers even although the disease was spread by a virus and was unaffected by such disinfectants.
Other fears addressed in the book include houseflies (schoolchildren were offered a cash bounty for dead flies), "swill" milk, germ warfare, contaminated beef, cholesterol, and fat (aka, lipophobia).There are also chapters on the life prolonging yogurt craze (eat it and you’ll stay youthful) and the "vitamania" that caused manufacturers to start fortifying food.
Levenstein's hope for this book is to allay such fears with heavy doses of common sense and anecdotal evidence. “As I write,” he says in his introduction, “there is a burgeoning concern over salt in the diet. As with all such scares, experts are trying to frighten an entire nation.”
Keep in mind, however, that Levenstein is an historian and a journalist, not a nutritionist, psychologist or health professional. His anecdotal accounts may be ameliorative, but they are neither prescriptions nor scientific findings. Look elsewhere for social or cultural explanations for our behaviors.