Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal

by Melanie Warner

If a piece of individually wrapped cheese can retain its shape, color, and texture for years, what does it say about the food we eat and feed to our children?

Former New York Times business reporter and mother Melanie Warner decided to explore that question when she observed the phenomenon of the indestructible cheese. She began an investigative journey that took her to research labs, university food science departments, and factories around the country. What she discovered provides a rare, eye-opening, and sometimes disturbing, account of what we're really eating. Warner looks at how decades of food science have resulted in the cheapest, most abundant, most addictive, and most nutritionally inferior food in the world, and she uncovers startling evidence about the profound health implications of the packaged and fast foods that we eat on a daily basis.

Combining meticulous research, vivid writing, and cultural analysis, Warner blows the lid off the largely undocumented, and lightly regulated, world of chemically treated and processed foods and lays bare the potential price we may pay for consuming even so-called healthy foods.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Health, Audiobook, Science, Nutrition, History

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 26, 2013

Reviews

[Henri K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book because of an interview I heard with the author on NPR. I was intrigued about the history of processed food, especially how/where we source a lot of the ingredients that go into our food. I was disappointed to see a lot of descriptions along the line of "this ingredient is made using ____, which is also present in [bad thing]," which annoyed me because it's a facile argument and sometimes betrays a lack of understanding of science. She employs this often enough to make me wonder whether I should believe anything else she writes in this book; I didn't have a way of knowing whether the rest of it was as shoddily reported. The final chapter was anecdotal and clearly had the intent of scaring the reader into never again eating processed food, but it was very clumsily written and had an air of "this kid's behavioral problems are ALL BECAUSE OF PROCESSED FOODS, SEE?!"

Giving the rest of the book a generous reading yielded some interesting nuggets of information. For example, the history of breakfast cereal, how Subway can claim low-cal and low-fat in their foods, how the role of soy has evolved in our food supply, that kind of thing. I agree with the overall aim of the book -- we should all strive to eat food that is actually food, and a diet composed of too much processed food (food that you couldn't make yourself in the kitchen for all the stabilizers, chemicals, colorings, fillers, etc.) should be avoided -- so I wanted to like it more than I did. But alas.

[Moira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as Salt Sugar Fat, and not as good as this nytimes.com column made me think, either (I have GOT to stop buying books based on nytimes.com reviews). Yeah, it's witty, or at least amusingly snarky here and there, but this book lacks the terrifying piling-on of detail in Moss or the deeper thoughts and elegant prose style of Pollan. I wouldn't say "don't read it," but get it from the library if you do.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided a fantastic introduction to the world of processed food. Some of it was horrifying, some of it was humorous and all of it was enlightening. I love the ease (and taste) of lots of processed food (who doesn’t?...it it engineered that way!) but several years ago I decided to make a more proactive and conscientious effort to buy real, humane, and eco-friendly food. I don’t always succeed but I have learned a great deal in the process about how to “read beyond the labels” to determine what I’m actually eating. Perhaps the biggest success happened six years ago. I had suffered from migraine headaches since the age of 16. Medication kept them manageable until I turned 27. By that time, my headaches were more frequent, more intense, and less controllable. After several years, I stumbled upon an internet article written by a woman with symptoms similar to mine. She was writing to explain how giving up diet soda changed her migraines and her life. At that time, I was drinking almost nothing but Diet Coke. I switched to water (and seltzer) and four months later I was migraine-free. Now, on the cusp of 40, I have maybe two migraines a year and can manage these with over-the-counter Excedrin. So, long-windedly, I know we need to consciously and wisely choose our food options. This excellent book helped expand my knowledge and encouraged me to continue trying to eat healthier.

[Heather in FL · Rating 5 out of 5]

So... another book to torture myself with. Considering I spend all my time working, reading, making sure my kids are fed, and on the internet, how am I ever going to find the time to actually make my own food at home from scratch so I'm not killing us all?

I suppose the gist of the book wasn't *really* that everything is dangerous, but it was more "icky". And it left me with a feeling of desolation that science has mucked with food so much that it's barely even food anymore and most of it's not even really nutritious, regardless of what the marketing says. The descriptions of what happens to food before it's packaged for our consumption is mind boggling. I'm not naive enough to think I can rid myself of processed foods entirely, but I'm going to make a conscious effort to reduce my reliance on them.

There was so much information in this book that I'm listening to it a second time.

Edit: Second time was just as good as the first. Maybe better because it reinforced what I'd learned the first time and reminded me of things I heard the first time but maybe forgot or remembered incorrectly. Great information.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma answers "How should we eat?" Pandora's Lunchbox answers "Why should we eat natural foods?" Spurred by a blog project in which the author let processed food sit and recorded the unsettling lack of decay, this book tracks the historical precedent and health consequences for preservatives, additives, and other processing methods used in mass-produced food sold in America. I think it's fantastically accessible for a lay audience without dumbing down the research or galloping off to histrionic conclusions.

I think it's an interesting moral dilemma because we have an incredibly safe food system that presents cheap calories for consumption. Yeah, food should be more expensive and local, but try telling that to someone making minimum wage. At least they're not starving.

While our food is remarkably immune to spoilage, is it moral or responsible to pump meals with laboratory-created salts, dyes, and starches? There's a dizzyingly complex list of ingredients that go into foods, and most of them have an unknown or dubious safety record. The FDA is unable to check new ingredients for safety, but industry (and thus congressional) pressure has loosened regulation so a food company can declare their new dye/binding agent/vitamin spray as functionally equivalent to an ingredient already on the market.

As an employee of an FDA-regulated industry, I'm sympathetic to the idea of writing a letter to declare equivalence. It saves a lot of time and effort to not resubmit a regulatory petition to something that you know is safe (e.g. if you manufacture a catheter that's 12 inches in length and make one that's 9 inches in length from the same material, etc., it's pretty easy to say your device is a functional equivalent). However, it can also be a lazy way out, especially if you're basing equivalence on an equivalent product, which was approved due to another equivalence. Like copying a videotape, at what point does it differ from the ingredient that was actually tested in a lab? You'll only know for sure through testing.

Despite the shaky rabbit hole of logic used to approve food-grade substances, the author goes out of her way to interview and humanize actual employees of the food industry. They are painted as people who care greatly about their work, are generally helpful, and who also tend to defend their products and processes. Which makes sense because part of your job in a regulated industry is to do just that. Their words come across as corporate, sterile, or mush-mouthed, but that's the language spoken inside the bubble. But while many of the employees interviewed are legitimately excited about their work, many also prefer natural foods and stay away from those they produce. I imagine that seeing 40-odd ingredients piled into a cracker would turn one's appetite away from Wheat Thins for a few years.

As to the ingredients that go into the food? You name it. Preservatives, dyes, binding agents, drying agents, and a whole host of other things I cannot remember act in concert to prevent clumping (but encourage a gooey texture), maintain sweetness, hold a chicken nugget in a nugget shape (until it reaches room temperature for a few hours), and taste like the best possible combination of salty, sweet, and crunchy. That's a hell of a lot of chemicals. Sadly, these food products are often sold as healthy, natural, or heart-smart, all based on dubious research, non-sensical comparisons (Froot Loops were deemed a "healthy choice" because they were "a better choice than a donut"), and more vague regulatory language (how does one certify a food as "natural"? It's impossible).

The dream of America's industrial forties & fifties was the adoption of science to cure mankind's ills. A perfect food could be formulated in a lab and produced cheaply by our booming system of hyper-efficient factories. It would be sterile, coated in vitamins, and delicious, all because of the hard work of our best, smartest men. And, to be fair, science has done wonders for us and food. We no longer have to worry about iodine deficiency, for instance, and, as mentioned above, our food is fantastically safe.

However, we're learning that more is not necessarily better. Vitamins are good, but vitamin supplements have been linked to cancer. Soy and tofu were ready to save the world in the 80s, and now their overuse is linked with an imbalance of the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, which is linked to a host of health issues. Natural, organic foods seem to be the answer to this suite of problems, and it makes a certain logical sense. We have no idea how these new ingredients interact, so let food be food.

But as research churns on, I'm sure we'll find new evidence of the dangers of some leafy green, artificial sweetner, or food ending in -inoa, and we'll jump on the next bandwagon. Pandora's Lunchbox is a compelling collection of research and anecdotes that, if nothing else, tells us why we should hop off the bandwagon of our current industrial food supply.

[Bogi Takács]

I did not expect to read this exact book over Shabbes, but I realized on Friday afternoon that it was due back to the library because someone put a hold on it. It loooked like a well-thumbed copy, too, which is usually a good sign.

It was a fascinating read, though on occasion it did slip into "Evil Chemicals!!" I generally eat organic, and a lot of the foods she mentioned drew kind of a blank from me, not having grown up in the US - I think many of these food items are primarily marketed toward children? ...Which is a point she does make and is somewhat terrifying to contemplate. But I greatly appreciated her discussion on how even if there are only a few things on the label, the actual process of assembling those few ingredients might still be kind of terrible. I never thought about that! I know about the issues in kosher meat production, but there you often buy a chunk of raw meat and not something like breaded saucy etc frozen pieces.

Examples of Evil Chemicals where I felt this line of thought was a bit excessive: comparisons to crude oil and plastics were not always warranted. I'm perplexed why anyone would be surprised that the synthesis of vitamins is a chemical synthesis with many chemical steps. Well of course?! (I did think her discussion on how a vitamin in isolation might not be as helpful was great. But I have had a history of multiple vitamin deficiencies - probably due to absorption issues - and being able to get a large dose of a synthetic vitamin can be LITERALLY a lifesaver.)

I thought her overall conclusion was fine - namely that it is probably not terribly unhealthy to eat some processed foods and TV dinners, just not constantly and with the exclusion of anything else. I thought that she brought many good points to substantiate this in detail. She also spoke to many food scientists working on processed foods. I was amused that many of these people were diehard organic food eaters in their own lives. It reminds me of how both of my parents originally trained as agricultural engineers and worked on big industrial state farms with All the Chemicals, and now they both eat organic. Surely anecdata, but quite telling.

I also had some 'cultural differences moments', most notably when the author talked about extrusion as something most people don't know about food - when I was a child in Communist Hungary in the 1980s, "extruded corn" was a popular novelty snack, and it's frequently eaten in Hungary to this day. It's not supposed to have much of a nutritional value, though, it's just a fun snack. So I am genuinely surprised that American parallels to it are sometimes advertised as... healthy items?

It was interesting to see that often the reasoning behind what's healthy is "well, it could be worse" which is a really poor argument, as the author correctly points out.

Overall this was a fun and fascinating book to read. One point that made me sad is that many of the factories did not want to let her in, whereas when I read Kosher USA (I also recommend that book), very similar factories let in the author or were in general more forthcoming. I felt this was both due to a gender difference and also because "I'm a journalist writing about processed foods" sounds like a PR nightmare, whereas "I'm a researcher writing about the history of the kosher food industry" sounds like something that could be spun right by a talented PR person - from the factories' point of view. (It's definitely not about kashrut itself - a lot of store-bought kosher food is extremely processed, and many of the common American processed foods are kosher.)

Now I want to read more about the food industry, because this is the second book about the topic that I pick up on impulse in the library, and I liked both...

Source of the book: Lawrence Public Library

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was all set to read Pultizer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Michael Moss's Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us when a friend pointed out that this book, Pandora's Lunchbox, also exists. Written by former Fortune and Times staffer Melanie Warner, and subtitled "How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal", Pandora's Lunchbox clearly covers much (all?) of the same appealing-to-me ground as Salt Sugar Fat, and the author's creds are pretty identical. With so many other great books out there, I'm wasn't going to read both, so based on little or nothing (one dual review, in the Journal), I opted for Pandora. Was it the right choice? I guess I'll never know... but there was enough meat here, plus a nice sprinkling of sly humor and fun facts, to make me not regret the decision. Too much.

Anyway.

In Pandora's Lunchbox, Warner takes a look at each of the major processed-food categories and factory techniques--soy protein, sodium-everythings, artificial (and "natural") flavors, extruding and gun puffing, etc.--offers a brief history of the beast, explains the science, shows why each has become so ubiquitous (almost always: the cheapest way to extend shelf life the longest), and takes a look at all the reasons why it's terrible for our bodies, minds, planet. There's some good stuff here, from trivia (55% of the entire state of Indiana is covered in either corn or soy plants!); to big-picture ruminating on how the corporate/capitalist system is, literally, poisoning us (though I wanted much more of this); to, in the book's closing chapter, a nicely done, inspirational story about how one middle-class Sacramento family completely changed their health and their lives by substituting a diet of non-stop crap with, you know, actual food. But ultimately Pandora's Lunchbox left me feeling unsatisfied. Much of Warner's reporting seems to involve quoting from company websites, and her in-the-field (or, more commonly, in-the-lab) scenes lack color, and zing. And the temptation to skim is strong in several sections of this short book, when she dives dryly into the chemistry of it all. Mostly, though, Pandora's Lunchbox made me grateful for the millionth time that I live in New York City, land of huge greenmarkets, superb bakeries and butchers, world-class supermarkets--not to mention a thousand great restaurants--so for me, eating excellent fresh food for every meal, every day, is cheap and easy.

[William Hamman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's nothing particularly new or startling in this book - I guess my feeling is that anyone who didn't know about the proliferation of (sometimes very odd) additives and processing techniques hasn't really been paying attention.

But the material is presented in a fairly light and at times pretty amusing style, so even though it's not exactly penetrating investigative journalism, it's pleasant to read. Nor is it polemic - she never portrays the food scientists as evil, and never levels a particularly nasty accusation at anyone. Except for us: her point, which seems perfectly valid, is that food companies are in business to make money, and they bear no responsibility for what we as individuals choose to eat. If we go into the cereal aisle and buy a huge bag of Apple Jacks clones, well, whose fault is that?

But I did have to skim the last chapter pretty ruthlessly, where the book stops being about processed food as such and turns into something else - more like an extended blog post than anything else. I think it was the sudden appearance of the word "yummy" that put me off the last chapter.

Now, here's my challenge to the food scientists out there. I like Cheetos. I always have, and I always will. I am not challenging food scientists to make HEALTHY Cheetos, because I just don't think there's a way. Mostly I want to be able to eat Cheetos while I'm reading without smearing hideous orange fingerprints all over my books.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are entertaining reading this book, do it! Even if you only listen on audiobook half-heartedly, you'll gather scraps of quite interesting information that will make you want to change your eating habits.

I especially liked this particular book about the truth about our American food because the author names companies and specific products she references instead of vague generalities. It helps to know so you can eat better.

[Violet Christensen]

cooking up another extensive review
here we go again! i really enjoyed this book, thanks for the pristine copy jenna (the crusty copy i got from the strand is still sitting on my bookshelf)! without further ado, here are my notes as I annotated this:

- starts strong by quoting Stephen Colbert who says, “Eight percent of U.S kids have food allergies. Luckily very little of what they eat is technically food” (1). I thought this number seemed low but apparently that equates to 1 in 13 kids so idk
- the Institute of Food Technologists yearly meeting sounds nightmarish for gut health (4)
- modified starches made from corn, potatoes, and tapioca are used to add structure to sauces and moisten meat, thicken yogurts and puddings, provide “freeze-thaw stability” to frozen foods, and most importantly lower food production costs all around (5)
- “American grocery shoppers and fast-food eaters have become deeply attached to the idea of inexpensive food” (6)
- “Manufactured food needs not only to taste good, for instance, but also to withstand the wear and tear of processing. It has to look and taste exactly the same every time. It also has to have a long shelf life, be produced cheaply and efficiently, and on top of all that, it would be nice if it could be marketed as healthy” (12) yikes…
- it’s interesting to me how a lot of food scientists creating foods that meet the above criteria eat very healthy themselves, some emphasizing the importance of shopping at the farmers market and tending to a home garden. they truly think they are helping underserved populations (although some just say they do this because they get paid for doing what they are good at)
- 38 U.S universities offer a program in food science, which is a predominantly female field
- roughly 1 in 5 people studying food science are international students, and have high job placement in university and government jobs in the States (18)
- by the 1900s, “those who used chemicals and other new technologies as a way of cutting costs often gained a competitive edge over those making the real thing, forcing the honey sellers either out of business or into a reluctant embrace of cheaper production methods” (25)
- i loved learning about Harvey Wiley, who discovered the misrepresentation of foods long before Sinclair released The Jungle. He used a polariscope (which can measure the individual constituents of certain foods) to discover that bread had sawdust in it and jams were made from rotting fruits
- from his experiments (that would not fly in today’s age for ethical reasons), Wiley determined that much of the food people were eating was slowly poisoning them
- Ever since reading this book I have been on the lookout for sodium benzoate in the things that I eat, because Wiley claimed that it is “highly objectionable and produces a very serious disturbance of the metabolic functions, attended with injury to digestion and health” (30) and Warner (the author of this book) claims that it is still used today and is connected to hyperactivity in children. I saw sodium benzoate in the ingredient list for Sprite and Sunkist, and in the pickles that i ate for dinner last night (1/10 of a percent of sodium benzoate :I ). I forget what else but i saw it more than i should have for the effects it has on the human body. so that was concerning!
- after resigning from the Bureau of Chemistry Harvey Wiley worked as the resident health and consumer products expert of Good Housekeeping, estimating that “he rejected more than a million dollars’ worth of advertising revenue over the course of seventeen years, which amounted to a fortune in those days” (32)
- Wiley lived 28 years past the average male life expectancy at the time
- ah here’s what Warner says about sodium benzoate: it is “a preservative made from a petrochemical found in paint thinners, [and] continues to be used in a variety of foods—condiments, salad dressings, sauces, frozen foods, fast food meals, and soda, including Mountain Dew, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and Mug Root Beer” (36)
- James Lewis Kraft was trying to find a way to make cheese last longer and happened upon a solution accidentally when he stirred the cheese longer than usual (15 minutes). this prevented separating of the cheese solids and fat, and killed bacteria. this everlasting cheese packaged in tin cans and sent to American troops abroad during WWI. this was actually a pretty good invention considering modern methods of refrigeration did not exist at the time.
- “While today many eaters champion local products and local ingredients, Kraft actually trumpeted the fact that one of his new cheese factories drew milk from as far as thirty-five miles away. In an era when most chess makers purchased their milk from farmers living within two miles, Kraft’s huge footprint was a novelty and a selling point” (41) so interesting to me
- processed cheese has a lower fat content and higher sodium content than non-processed cheese
- “The longer a cheese ages, the greater the umber of living organisms taking up residence within it. These bacteria are the reason people who are lactose intolerant can sometimes eat cheese incident-free” (47) everything makes more sense now
- I like Wiley’s term, “vital spark,” which is used to mean all the things that give food its power to nourish (50)
- Battle Creek’s Annual Cereal Festival sounds INSANE with thousands of boxes of cereal available to munch on and photo ops with plush cereal character suits and people of all ages chowing down on pure sugar celebrating industrial local food
- “Items from the cereal aisle are the eighth most popular supermarket product…there are more cereal iterations in the supermarket than any other product” (53). 215 different boxes of cereal is wild
- the Kellogg company most likely reached its success because Kellogg hired his younger brother, who was more of a businessman (while his brother was away he added sugar to corn flakes and that boosted popularity but the elder brother was not happy that came at the cost of a more healthy food)
- “Americans today know far less about how our breakfasts are made than did our less educated ancestors living in far less techno-savvy times. In 1913, most Americans knew more or less what a gun-puffing machine was” (61) advertising strategies differ so much across time it’s so fascinating. in 1913 there was “a growing sense of wonderment toward technological innovation” (60), whereas in modern day “companies seek to highlight the pastoral origins of their products” (61) but did you know that Bear River Valley all-natural cereals are not made in Bear River City but actually 8 miles north in a $100 million cereal plant yay wow!
- “Breakfast cereal can sit around for up to nine months before anyone buys it, and overtime most vitamins naturally degrade and lose their potency. For instance, manufacturers compensate by adding in synthetic vitamins at overages up to two and a half times what’s listed on the package. . . if the label says you’ll get 30% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C, there might have been 75 percent RDA added, just to ensure that by the time you spoon the crunchy squares into your mouth, 30 percent is there” (63) I thought this was so so interesting
- high output industrial production removes nutrients, flavor, and color, and all of this is added back in artificial ways (64)
- “Depriving our stomach of its gastric duties by giving it disassembled food appears profoundly to alter energy metabolism and the dynamics of hunger and satiety” (65)
- okay this was mind boggling to me. Basically when you see that vitamins or minerals have been added to foods, they are many times extracted from things that are not edible. Take milk for example. Most all milk sold in the grocery store is fortified with vitamin D. guess where this vitamin D comes from! The grease in sheep wool (protects them from harsh weather). It is collected from Australia and shipped to Chinese factories to end up with vitamin D that we consume in our food. (75)
- Europe is the birthplace of synthetic vitamins and yet they don’t have a problem with over fortifying their foods (87)
- “‘Americans think you can eat poorly and then take supplements. . . the idea is to try your best to eat healthy in the first place’” (93) - Shengmin Sang
- ancient approaches to bread do not work for mass production because they take time to ferment and rise, and often result in a dense (and thus expensive) loaf of bread. Americans have come to expect loafs that are less bread and more air, with consistent (and small) air pockets throughout (101)
- on page 104 Great Harvest Bread was mentioned because they use traditional bread making methods and grind the wheat on site I LOVE GREAT HARVEST i go there every time i go to Utah ugh i miss it
- “The FDA is the government agency responsible for overseeing the safety of all our food except fresh meat (that falls to the USDA)” (104) I feel like i knew this but i thought i’d include it anyway
- the process for getting a newly created food additive “approved” by the FDA is actually a joke. like completely. companies would “test” it and present it to a panel on their own and just always say it was safe to eat (107)
- if one toxicologist tells a company their created product is toxic for human consumption, they go elsewhere until they find someone that will green-light their product it’s actually insane
- it’s estimated there are some 5,000 ingredients used in the ultra processed foods that we eat. But this is “just an account of the substances added directly and intentionally to food. It doesn’t include what are known as food-contact substances—things that manufacturers use in their packaging and apply to machinery to keep it running, such as lubrication oils and cleaning chemicals. There are 3,750 of these substances, though companies never intend for them to migrate into our food. Often they do, but you only hear about it when there’s a problem” (109) basically a direct consequence. who knows what this stuff does to us long term. I never thought about food-contact substances before.
- “a steady dose of quasi edible food additives is of particular concern for children, whose small and still-developing bodies are more vulnerable to toxins than those of adults. Instead of being more wholesome, a lot of the food aimed at and favored by kids is less so than other foods” (116)
- “By no means is clean [food] label synonymous with healthy, low-tech, or minimally processed food” (118) think of the potato chips…
- there are also added enzymes in the foods we eat, but “since they’re inactivated bt the head of baking, enzymes are considered “processing aids” and don’t have to be declared, though they remain (inactive)” (120)
- in 1909 82 percent of the fat people used came from animals. now it’s a lot of soybean oil and other very refined industrial oils..
- “the vegetable oil industry is the largest emitter of hexane” (131)
- deforestation caused by the demand for oil may lead to the extinction of the ORANGUTAN THIS IS TRAGIC
- “We’re also getting more omega 6s thanks to the fact that chicken, pigs, turkeys, and cattle now consume diets high in soy meal and corn, which also has off-the-chart levels of omega 6” (141)
- why can we consume sodium hydroxide im so confused. “It can cause blindness if it gets into your eyes and its most common household use is as the active ingredient in Drano. In the food industry, it’s also used for washing fruits and vegetables, for making soft drinks, and for removing chocolate’s natural bitterness” (154)
- soy protein is better (??) for the environment than animal protein but has nothing going for it nutritionally
- “Eventually what you end up joining, if this plan of introducing “healthy” convenience foods from the First World to the Third is taken far enough, is swapping classic malnutrition for the modern diet-related maladies we have here in the United States” (161) not a long term solution to push soy protein abroad
- did you know “beef can’t be “mechanically separated” due to concerns over mad cow disease” (164) because I didn’t. Chicken, pork, and turkey can be separated though
- why is pre grilled chicken breast not actually grilled but just colored and flavored to act as if it’s grilled. the cat-fishing to save money is wild
- “Using real ingredients is not only more expensive, it’s often ineffective, since Mother Nature’s volatile and fragile floors often don’t fare well during journeys through the assembly line” (172)
- Potato starch helps “thicken sauces, make ice cream creamier, allow meat to retain water, extend shelf life of tortillas, and do to baked goods what many conditioners claim to do for hair—add volume and structure” (182)
- “Pepsi, Kraft, Kellogg’s, ConAgra, and General Mills won’t be the ones to improve our diets and fix our health problems, and we should stop asking them to” (202)
- Cooking Matters sounds like a really really good program I like it—people that receive food stamps cook a dish together in a class and then take the ingredients home to make again on their own
- Great resources online for kids: Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory (wait help i just watched it that was so silly! and kind of long) and Unjunk Yourself
- the food industry spends “nearly $2 billion a year on marketing aimed directly at kids” (229)

Okay this review is way too long I will end it quickly now. Two things: i didn’t understand a lot of the food science that was explained in the book but i think it’s cool to have access to that! theoretically i now know how to make ascorbic acid or vegetable oil, assuming i have a large factory to help me. Also! I found it endearing that the author experimented with the shelf life of a lot of foods herself, like the squares of kraft cheese. it is concerning that 2 years later there’s not much change (48). Okay I’m done now thanks

[Biblio Files (takingadayoff) · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's some overlap here with Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss, but not as much as you might expect, considering that the topic is the same. While Moss takes a scrappy journalistic approach, Melanie Warner isn't necessarily looking for any dirt. She finds it anyway.

You know the story already if you're even reading this review, let alone the book. Much of our food is overprocessed, overpackaged, and filled with fat, salt, sugar, and additives that may or may not be safe. The government agency that is supposed to be inspecting and ensuring safety is also responsible for promoting the food industry, which is a conflict of interest the consumer rarely comes out ahead of.

Warner's book is not depressing or fatalistic though, in fact, it's really quite entertaining, if a little gross at times. I enjoyed her conversational tone and I learned a lot. One of my favorite interviews was the one with a specialist in adding artificial aromas to foods.

A subtle theme runs through the book, aside from the more obvious one of buyer beware -- that none of the executives or scientists involved in creating and promoting and selling what passes for food, actually eats their products. They all eat home made food from fresh ingredients or eat at restaurants that specialize in organic and unadulterated ingredients.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considers our habit of eating overly processed foods and the preponderance of artificial ingredients -- which may or may not be harmful to eat in large quantities. Warner explores the way our diets have changed in the past hundred years, and the influence and histories of large food manufacturers like Kraft and Kellogg. Examples include common foods like chicken nuggets, puffed rice, cereals like corn flakes, and cooking oils like soybean oil. She cites various studies, describes interviews with several researchers, and mentions many chemicals and preservatives. I think Warner does a good job avoiding a push toward a particular agenda, and she admits that much food research is inconclusive. It was a good read, but I think I learned more from The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and even-handed account of the processed food industry. Ms. Warner never paints the food scientists as monsters, but it's telling that, in interviews, the scientists indicate that THEY aren't eating much of their product. We all know that the business of business is to make money; the only way the food industry will change is if consumers drive the change. Somehow we need to turn around our fast food/convenience food society and rescue our health.

Over 20 years ago, my son's pediatrician told me that there would be a lot less ADHD if people would cut back on the amount of sugar, caffeine, and artificial colors and preservatives in their children's food. Unfortunately, the message either isn't getting out or we as a society are ignoring it. This book is a little frightening (who knew that the vitamin D in our milk was processed in China from lanolin in the wool of New Zealand sheep? ICK!) but I think everyone should read it.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, so if you're picking up this book it's probably because you agree with what it's saying already. Personally I don't mind that, because I am one of those people who agrees with what the book is about. And in this case, Pandora's Lunchbox takes a look at processed food in the American diet. And it is kind of scary.

There are thousands of additives that can be found in our food anymore. Ranging from things that help flavor, to dough conditioners, to texture enhancers, a simple piece of breaded chicken is no longer so simple. Or sometimes it's not even chicken. The author takes a look at how these additives are made, what they go into, and who the people are that develop them. She also researches historically to see who first invented this way of transforming our food, and even some safe food pioneers that helped get the FDA on its feet in the beginning.

While Warner doesn't come outright and say any of these people are evil, she isn't sugar coating what they are doing either. All the food scientist she meets it would seem she asks the hard question of why we even do this sort of thing to our food. But she does take the time to note the extensive education and research that goes into developing these additives, and gives them their dues there. These are not stupid people researching food flavorings or stabilizers. And she also meets with people on the other side, although not as extensively. Towards the end she relates the story of a family who went off of processed food and how it improved their health.

There was a lot of research done for this book and I appreciate the many attempts at interviewing people at the companies that make the processed food, even if they didn't always respond. At least she tried. And some of what she found what quite alarming. I don't want to give it away, but the guacamole story she had was VERY interesting. And I will make my own guacamole from now on probably. None of what she covers in this book is anything new, we all know that fresh foods are infinitely better for us than a frozen pizza, but some of what she finds is surprising. Like the use of additives in the organic and natural markets. I definitely learned a lot that I didn't already know in this book and as I sit looking at my soda that I'm drinking, it makes me feel bad about what I'm eating. Which is probably why my grandmother tells me to stop reading these kinds of books because she's frustrated with the foods I won't eat. Really, my only complaint about this book would be that it rambles at times. There were a few times where I became disinterested and found myself hurrying through to get to the next interesting fact.

I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. Buying whole foods and cooking them, but I will start trying to quit soda again, even if I will miss the caffeine. And I'll pay more attention to the natural products I buy too. A very good book for those people that are interested in what goes into their food.

Pandora's Lunchbox
Copyright 2013
249 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2013

More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a great deal about food, researched and written an honors thesis on the National School Lunch Program, and taken several nutrition courses taught by the president of the German Nutrition Society. I've read most of Michael Pollan's cannon, Twinkie Deconstructed My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown Mined Yes Mined and Manipulated Into What America Eats, and Food Politics How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health to name a few. That said, Pandora's Lunchbox blew the doors off the dark, secretive room that contains the facts and history of processed food and gave me a much better understanding of its necessarily unhealthy (profits, people!) impact on our diet.

I knew outlines of many stories in the book, but Warner's accounts of industry conventions, her studies of and conversations with food scientist, and her entrance into many opaque areas of our diet with a frank and curious light offered a refreshing knowledge that I'd lacked before opening Pandora's Lunchbox. I'm glad not to have much of a relationship with processed food at this point; these breakups are never easy and often painful. Even as a vegan who eschews most processed food, I gained insights and pressing questions about ingredients in my diet and will have to consider how to relate to major food and ingredient manufacturers.

You will turn the final page in this book having enjoyed a brisk romp in a diverse spectrum of America's modern diet. Warner uses her words and anecdotes wisely. Pandora's Lunchbox enjoys a brisk pace, no wasted pages, and a flood of significant insights that are all clearly arranged for digestion, though some may provoke an upset stomach. This is the best food-related book I've read in several years and would heartily recommend it to all eaters, whether seasoned critics or curious typical eaters.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a passionate home-cook and someone who makes her own bread and yogurt, I figured I probably knew most of what this book had to offer. However, there are still plenty of fascinating details in here about the processed food industry that kept me interested. Warner writes with an engaging voice that's easy to understand even for the most complicated industrial processes, like isolating soy protein or hydrolyzing corn oil. The book is an interesting mix of biography (featuring little stories and anecdotes of Harvey Wiley, an early pioneer in whole foods, W.K. Kellogg, and James Lewis Kraft) and science writing, with a few personal anecdotes and an overall argument for a whole foods-based diet. There were a few points in the book that I would have preferred a touch more detail (as, for example, when she mentions how "spray-drying of milk" became widespread in the 50s before hurrying on to describe the use of ultrafiltration in the 80s--when I wondered what spray-drying was), but overall it's a fascinating look at what most of America is really eating.

[Evan Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. In the beginning it was a fascinating look at how food science has fundamentally altered our food. Unfortunately, the argument rapidly slid into a mess of heavy handed speculation about what might be good and what might be bad. Anecdotes rapidly replaced data. And, frankly, some of those anecdotes suck. Is it really a surprise the stay at home mom who home schools her kids as enough time to cook? But don't worry your son or daughter will undergo a similarly magical transformation as hers did. Who knew whole wheat pasta was the cure for sullen teenagers. If you believe the author, ditching processed foods will make your son both handsome and so obviously intelligent one could tell that just by looking at him.

[Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

The central thesis of this book is, "We should eat natural food from scratch because it's better for us." I say, "Duh." It's pretty impossible to strongly disagree with this premise. That said, I strongly disliked this book. A note on this review: I listened to this as an audiobook, and did not take notes on the things I disliked. Thus, examples are going to be vague.

First, it's obvious the author isn't a science writer. Despite talking to a bunch of food scientists, Warner seems to base most of her book's punch in her emotional reactions to what she sees and hears. The book is full of examples of ingredients used in other things. One example is the strong base used to make soy protein. Of course it's used in other applications as a strong base! It's being used to neutralize a strong acid! Also, the author talks about how horrible it is that hydrochloric acid is used to produce soy protein by talking about how corrosive it is. Shortly after, she talks about how dangerous the strong base used to neutralize it is. Basic chemistry: they neutralize each other. They're gone. It's no longer an issue. (I will give credit to Warner for at least mentioning the fact that scary sounding chemical names are not always scary sounding things.)

At one point, Warner mentions how a certain nutrient additive (I think shortly after the soy protein section) has been observed to have a really good effect in the body. (This isn't detailed because I was on a run at the time, okay.) However, there's no established, obvious pathway for how this effect works, which Warner uses as an excuse to dismiss the effect. Then, towards the end of the book, she profiles a family (read: mom blogger's family) that stopped eating processed food. The teenage son of the family had a 180 degree turn in behavior, becoming a much easier person to live with, and less moody. His doctor(s) don't have a clear explanation for how this happened. In contrast to the effect that doesn't quite fit Warner's thesis, this effect had no aspersions cast upon it, even though there's no clear pathway, just like the other effect.

Also, this book was super repetitive. A lot of it was just profiling different processes to make processed food. First, here's how they make processed cheese. Now, here's how they make cereal. Now, here's how they make soybean oil. Now, here's how they make soy protein. Scary, right? (This may just be me, but I laughed a bit at the part that was like "(Shakes fist at cloud) Kids these days don't know what a gun puffer machine is!" I could be remembering the name of the machine slightly wrong. (It's used to puff grains in cereal production.)

One thing I think this book really lacked was an interwoven set of alternatives. Warner discusses alternatives in the last section of the book, in sections about a significantly less processed chocolate/nut/fruit bar, the mom blogger's family, and a cooking class the author observed. However, it's all the way at the end, and doesn't offer much in the way of help for people looking to cut down on processed foods who don't have specific circumstances. (Ex: at time of writing, you could buy the bar in around two test markets.) I would suggest the author include alternatives to the processes being discussed in each chapter. For example, suggest oatmeal and baking your own oatmeal bars at home at the end of the cereal section. Have a companion website with a couple genuinely easy, low prep recipes (none of this "10 minutes prep" but we assume you already chopped everything stuff).

Lastly, maybe this is a personal dig, but Warner really couldn't have found all this stuff that unappealing, because she says at the end that she fed it to her kid(s) all the time when she was working on this book. For another slightly personal dig, Warner mentions one unprocessed meal the mom blogger served was a pear half with honey and raspberries on top. In what world is that a meal? That's dessert.

[Aspasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Just because it's edible doesn't mean it's good for you" (xvii)
Melanie Warner's mom, quoted above, was onto something and way ahead of her time. While most kids had the freedom to eat whatever processed food came their way, Melanie was only allowed to eat whole foods; "gooped-up" foods were not allowed in the house when Melanie was growing up.

Nowadays, food science has taken technology and food processing to a whole new level: hexane is used in the manufacturing of soybean oil, synthetic Vitamin D is created from sheep grease in Chinese factories (won't be buying vitamins anymore), other vitamins are created from coal tar and acetone. Yuck!

Warner takes us through the history of American cereal. Americans used to eat oatmeal and various meat products for breakfast until the Kellogg brothers figured out how to create cereal flakes. Sugar was added to make the flakes more palatable and now modern cereal grains undergo extrusion and gun puffing before they are filled in the cereal box. Unfortunately, "industrial processes like extrusion and gun puffing ... dismantle foods to the point where there's not much left for our digestive systems to do" (65). So what's the big deal about that? "Depriving our stomach of its gastric duties by giving it disassembled food appears profoundly to alter energy metabolism and the dynamics of hunger and satiety" (65). Sounds like our stomach needs to work out too.

Warner, like other food-issues authors I have read, discovered that food scientists don't partake of the products they create; the food scientists she interviewed bought their produce at farmer's markets, planted their own garden, and cook their own meals from scratch (one scientist she interviewed even makes his own yogurt!).

Not only are synthetic chemicals and vitamins added to our food, but there is special category that food scientists refer to as "food-contact substances." These are "things manufacturers use in their packaging and apply to machinery to keep it running" (109).

The American food industry is like a dog chasing its own tail. Natural nutrients are taken out of a food to make it cheaper to produce. Then synthetic vitamins and nutrients must be added back to said food product so that it can be marketed as healthy. To make sure these vitamins stick to the product, more chemicals must be used. Oy vey, when will it all end?

***You can read more of my book reviews on my blog: www.thesouthernbookworm.blogspot.com

[Dinah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as inspiration to get off the processed food train. I got a lot more than that.

The style in this book is advanced, but still readable. There is a fairly extensive usage of nearly indecipherable preservatives and additives, as well as somewhat confounding write-up of the methods used to make these processed foods. Obviously, that's completely necessary and expected within a book like this. I would recommend starting with a food doc like Food, Inc. or King Corn, or a book like Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser before traipsing into this one. Once you understand how the industrial food complex works, it's easier to stomach (har har, see what I did there) the mechanisms of food processing. Without a primer, you've got too much information to digest (oh my god, somebody stop me before I pun again), and it takes a crazy, confounding system and turns it into science fiction. (It's PEOPLE! Soylent Green is PEOPLE!)

One thing I really liked was her subtle advocacy of the concept of whole foods. She presents the information and leaves it up to the reader to choose. If you are okay with your cereal being puffed into oblivion before being fortified with synthetic vitamins and minerals, you are welcome to it.

Stick around to the end chapter, or skip the science and go right there. One complaint I have is that the more affective, anecdotal stuff at the end wasn't as interspersed throughout. She talks to one family that made the switch from a diet heavy in processed foods to one with almost none. While they are a good example of a middle class family, it might have been nice to get a little more of a spectrum in there.

Overall, this is a good book at an intermediate level for people who already have a little bit of knowledge about the way our food is produced.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read huge sections of the first third or so of this book aloud to anyone who was near me, it fascinated and grossed me out so much. I don't eat much processed food, and hadn't properly ever thought about some of the aspects of the huge industries of weird starches and fillers and that they have trade shows and career paths and all that. I never considered that citric acid was made from corn. It's one of the tags I see on an ingredient list and think of happy citrus fruits and not our yucky pesticide laden frankencorn. I was particularly struck by the section on vitamin supplements, where they come from, how they are made, and what they are made from. And I purchase mainly organic food (though blow this by eating out frequently), and had no idea that the supplements fortifying nearly every non-veg/fruit matter did not have to be organic! I felt I was no longer paying as much attention later in the book, maybe it was subjects I'm more familiar with at that point or the shock had worn off. I think I would enjoy viewing parts of this book as How It's Made type video segments. I want to see the labs and factories and experiments being done, and oil being extruded from sheep's wool for supplements and all that.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, although time consuming and sometimes cumbersome to read because of its textbooky lingo, was both educational and eye opening. And it is very well researched. Processed foods and additives have become a way of life for most of us. But at what cost? Most of us are not going to grow our own gardens, raise cattle and chickens and live off the land. We can hardly make it to the grocery store! But as all things, moderation would help. This book will educate you and make you think before making food choices. My son works for a company that makes maltodextrins from corn. We have had some interesting conversations as to where that fits into my "little world" and where it fits in globally. He makes good points and this book helps me understand what exactly he does as a chemical engineer. Food scientists, I thought, just got to come up with new flavors for us all to enjoy. But their jobs engineer food through chemicals, not real food. So that part isn't as enticing. This pretty much sums up the book to me, "We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons." ~ Alfred E. Newman

[Kenadi Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a truly depressing book. It's really sad to me that even things you think are good for you (like cereal, whole wheat bread, and yogurt) are still overly processed and/or full of all sorts of artificial crap. And don’t get me started on how vitamins are made. The section about soy protein and what really has to happen to make that veggie dog or fake chicken would give a lot of vegetarians pause.
I suppose I already suspected a lot of what was discussed in this book, and we probably do a better job than most at eating “real food”. But it sure can be appealing to heat up something from the freezer or a box after a long work day followed by a 40 mile bike ride, when all you want to do is eat and get to bed. So while this book serves as a good reminder of what we’re really sacrificing with those types of meals, they will continue to be an occasional necessity. I sure don’t have the time to start making my own bread and fermenting my own yogurt, but I do plan to continue making an effort to minimize the junk.

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book on vacation and could not put it down. I kept reading lines out loud to my travel companions.

Of course, I already agree with the premise of the book: that processed foods have made Americans sick. When I was in high school I had severe asthma and allergies. A classmate said to me, "my dad's a doctor and he could really help you." That was 1988, and the progressive Dr. Kreindler was already advising his patients to remove all processed foods from their diets. I followed his advice and it changed my life.

This book is a great reminder of just how many non-food items are sold as food. The book includes a lot of detailed descriptions that are very helpful as a "re-set" button for anyone who is eating "food-type" products that have been processed to within an inch of being poison. I liked the writing too: a new-journalism mix of detailed research, first person experience, and interview.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

People who read this book are already partially convinced that we need to change how food is produced in the US, forgoing low cost or benefitting large corporations, and making moves to improve health. This book has some compelling information. It delves into the issues of additives or ingredients that are several steps removed from anything produced by Mother Nature. I definitely learned that my healthy breakfast of cereal is not nearly as healthy as I thought. But, I felt that this book too often strays from good factual data to personal anecdotes. I'm glad that the author's son seemed less moody when he embraced a healthier diet, but I want more facts. The book has potential, but is missing an unbiased viewpoint to be placed in the same category as books like The China Study, and lacking the beautiful writing style or emotional impact of Jonathan Safron Foer's Eating Animals to become a book that I would recommend to others.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read books like this all the time. Most of them kind of run together, a vague worrisome muttering in the back of my head as I shop for groceries. This raises an entirely different sort of alarm, one that is both clearer and more frightening than the ones that have come before. This book goes into disturbing depth about how even ingredient labels you think you understand (oh, say, "cream") are fooling you. After reading this book I never, ever want to buy anything in a package again, even though Warner is pretty even-handed and allows that one will buy and eat the crappy foods because they are so ubiquitous. Doomed. We're doomed.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book - with some good research and it does make you stop and think about what you're eating. I think she could have had a stronger finish - the end was a bit wishy washy - so well, what do we do? Considering all of the Monsanto crap, what's put into our food is very important. And I know I'm eating crap when I eat morningstar farms bacon. I would probably be better off eating organic bacon.

[John Behle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest wave of food industry books are laser sharp in their exposing all on the food industry. This book is woven with factory visits, interviews with insiders, and hard science data backups.

Melanie Warner provides a nearly undercover, hard and clear look at what manufactured food is and how to spot it. Her book is current, timely and a virtual field guide to the 1000's of additives in processed food.

My trip to the grocery will never be the same. Good.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. I appreciated the historical details regarding processed foods and the birth of the FDA. I had feared that this book might devolve to the overly simplistic argument of, "Processed = evil, natural = good," but Warner has done her research and presents a more nuanced, thoughtful approach. Her conclusions won't startle anyone familiar with the locavore movement, but overall, this is a well-researched book, well worth reading.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is not enough recognition of just how inverted American health dynamics are, falsely depicting processed foods as cheaper and better for individuals. Coming off several decades of recurring health campaigns, the food companies are savvier in their packaging. Producing less unhealthy foods concocted in the food labs of the quirkiest of food scientists. Oh yes, the health bar with enough ingredients to win you an alphabet game is just as good as the apple.

This is the dynamic that I think this book excels at. It’s hard to tell the story of the modern American diet without sounding too condescending, forgiving of the food industry (cough cough Levenstein), or wonky; but here we are. Warner selects a bevy of processed products (because these really are products more than they are food) and finds their farm. Oftentimes it’s in large ominous laboratories more reminiscent of a Star Wars ship than a barn. The book focuses on how the companies justify their ingredients choices to themselves and the public, and how obvious cognitive dissonances undermine broader health goals while still leaving intact the bottom lines.

Could the language have been more pointed and critical? Sure, I think the final chapter in particular puts a little too much onus on the individual consumer. But I’ll let it pass because it’s extremely difficult to read about all these producers you’ve never heard of and side with them and their chemical concoctions. Additionally, a message of narrative shifting does require altered choices on the part of the individual.

Not to mention the book really does a good job capturing every health and pseudo health food issue of the modern era. We get to find out where vitamins are made (and from sheep wool?), where “natural flavoring” comes from (somewhere off a New Jersey turnpike), the evils of Illinois soy (though other vegetable oils can be just as bad), the shortlist of decent products big companies actually sell (smuckers peanut butter and Wendys baked potatoes), and Warner does what many of us have dreamed of doing but we’re too reckless or chicken to actually pull off: refrigerator experiments. Lots of stuff gets left in Hell’s refrigerator, and the byproducts always seems to surprise.

The book is also fair though. Understanding how capitalism’s compressed sense of time mandates we make the switch from natural to processed, just because it saves time (literally the only advantage, and a very marginal one at that). There are solutions proposed, with the lower incomed especially in mind, but even more important are the examples of how to change your mentality. All the hidden areas your life may improve. Also, clear distinctions between the not choosing processed foods and other positive issues you can take up or ignore (think veganism, organic, fair trade) on your trip to the supermarket.

Finally, it is just a fun work to read. The chapters fit together and all contain entertaining opening anecdotes that do well to dive into their issue. Recommend for anyone that wants to know why exactly American food is shit.