This is a book that I have that is a hard read unless it is a topic that you are interested in. Written by Dr. Murray Waldman and Marjorie Lamb, it is filled with facts and references for those that are really looking into certain medical conditions and the effect that diet has upon those conditions. The book takes as a focus the link between Alzheimer’s and meat, but there are others mentioned within the book as well.

So vs. putting here loads of facts found within the book, instead I think that a better approach for this type of book is to just put down the chapters for you to get a feel if this is something that you are interested in.

PART ONE: The Short History of Alzheimer’s Disease
1. Dementia: Here and There
2. Dementia: Then and Now
3. Doctors and Medicine in the Old Days
4. Observations on the Elderly: Ancient Greece to Modern Literature
5. Age Patterns and Alzheimer’s Disease

PART TWO: Kuru, CJD, Mad Cow, and vCJD
6. Kuru The Curse of Cannibalism
7. Crutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
8. Mad Cows and Dead Englishmen

PART THREE: Prion Diseases
9. Minuscule Assassins
10.The Ultimate Stealth Invader
11.Other Human Prion Diseases

PART FOUR: Eating Dangerously
12. How Now Ground Cow
13. A Disassembly Plant
14. Everything but the Moo

PART FIVE:
15. Smallpox, Syphilis, AIDS…and Alzheimer’s
16. Meat Packing a Bunch
17. Alzheimer’s Disease in Different Populations
18. Just One Cow

PART SIX
19. A Population at Risk
20. The Search for a Cow
21. The Future of Old Age

The book has an extensive index in the back to help you to find that one topic that you KNOW that you read in the book but can’t remember where which I find to be a great help.

The book is much favored by those that are vegetarian, but the book doesn’t really press the issue of not eating meat as much as if one IS going to eat it, then make sure that it is meat that is raised without all the negative things that are added to feed and instead range fed – at least that was what I felt when reading the book. The case that can be made NOT to eat meat after reading the book – is overwhelming. My personal view – everyone needs to make their own educated choices that fits their own lifestyle.

What bothered me most after reading the book is that the facts are known and yet the government that is so busy getting active in overseeing our healthy choices in life that it ignores many known scientific facts. From my own research, points still valid and nothing new has been found to refute the points. That isn’t to say that others won’t claim that the points are an overstatement, but they just don’t show where the points made are not indeed valid. Yet – the government ignores valid points made, pressing for a positive approach that the meat industry should be taking and isn’t. The smell of MONEY comes into the picture from my vantage point – the quest for the all might buck and that bottom line of speeding up profit at the expense of others.

Published in 2004, this is a book that I found in a discount book bin. It is one of the books that I turn to when I need a quick fact and a ref. to give along with the point. For me, a book that I enjoyed. For others, unless this is a topic of interest – more than likely NOT.