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    Real Food, Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About It
    Real Food, Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About It
    Real Food, Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About It
    Audiobook12 hours

    Real Food, Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About It

    Written by Larry Olmsted

    Narrated by Jonathan Yen

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    You've seen the headlines: Parmesan cheese made from sawdust. Lobster rolls containing no lobster at all. Extra-virgin olive oil that isn't. Fake foods are in our supermarkets, our restaurants, and our kitchen cabinets. Award-winning food journalist and travel writer Larry Olmsted exposes this pervasive and dangerous fraud perpetrated on unsuspecting Americans.
    Real Food/Fake Food brings readers into the unregulated food industry, revealing that this shocking deception extends from high-end foods like olive oil, wine, and Kobe beef to everyday staples such as coffee, honey, juice, and cheese. It's a massive bait and switch where counterfeiting is rampant and where the consumer ultimately pays the price.
    But Olmsted does more than show us what foods to avoid. A bona fide gourmand, he travels to the sources of the real stuff, to help us recognize what to look for, eat, and savor: genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy, fresh-caught grouper from Florida, authentic port from Portugal. Real foods that are grown, raised, produced, and prepared with care by masters of their craft.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateAug 2, 2016
    ISBN9781681681955
    Real Food, Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About It
    Author

    Larry Olmsted

    Larry Olmsted, a prolific freelance writer who has published thousands of articles in national publications, including Outside, Playboy, USA Today, and Inc., is a contributing editor to numerous publications, and was a longtime columnist for Investor's Business Daily. He lives in Vermont.

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    Reviews for Real Food, Fake Food

    4/5

    91 ratings21 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Entertaining, but more journalism than crafted narrative.
      The accents put on by the narrator whenever citing someone are very annoying, and borderline racist or sexist.
    • 4/5
      I won this book in the Early Reviewers Giveaway. It's a well-researched book and very interesting. There are times when the book just seems to rambling on, but content is enough to keep you passively engaged. It's an informative book if you're interested in the origins of food stuffs, particularly foods that can be "faked." The recipes at the end of the chapters are a nice touch.
    • 5/5
      In depth research. You can go the the chapter with the topic of most interest.
    • 3/5
      Larry Olmsted is a foodie. Food is his passion, hobby and, according to the back of the book, at least partially his job as a food journalist. Real Food/Fake Food is Olmsted's homage to some of his favorite premium foods and outrage over the fact that imposters are everywhere. It also contains some great information for general consumers with tips on how to avoid food fraud when you can though most of this information tends to be a few paragraphs at the end of each chapter.Olmsted breaks down fake foods into three categories: regional imposters (such as Parmesan cheese made in California instead of Italy); fraud (the swapping of a lesser quality ingredient for another or adding lesser quality ingredients to pure ones yet still selling it as the real deal); and synthetic chemicals masquerading as actual food (cheeses being made with ingredients not related to cheese at all such wood fibers or plastics). Olmsted's main focus is on regional imposters so if you're wanting a deeper look at the other two categories further reading will be required.Depending on where you are in your real food journey will determine how much value you get from this book. If you've never done research at all into where food comes from and just how bad fraud is in the food industry, this book will likely be eye opening. If you have done some research this book won't come as a surprise though you should still learn something. I didn't realize just how bad fraud in the seafood industry is until reading this and doing further searching on my own. I don't think I'll be ordering seafood from a restaurant for a while!This book is written exclusively from the US perspective. While the author does mention some very specific regional laws in other countries, and those outside of the US may find this information valuable, you'll have to check the laws of your country to see if your food sources have better or any protections. In the US, food manufacturers looking to make every last dime off consumers and our lack of proper government regulations make things a lot harder for the average person to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake. As if eating healthy, whole foods wasn't difficult enough!My main issues with the book come from spelling and grammatical errors, lots of repetition and how pretentious the author's writing style comes across, especially in the early chapters.In essence, buyer beware. Food fraud is everywhere at the grocery store and restaurants. The FDA is not doing its job to protect consumers and the responsibility is with us to stay informed, check labels and shop carefully.
    • 3/5
      A defense of truth in foodie advertising.First off, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, a delicious hard grating (and snacking!) cheese, unlike any other to hear him tell it. I'm all for Parmigiano-Reggiano. But Grana Padano has all the same characteristics. I'm more familiar with the latter than the former, so maybe I need to go find some P-R and be transported into ecstasies by what I've been missing; but I have to say I've had damn good G. P. He talks about G. P. being passed off as parmesan, and I'm all for truth in labeling and advertising; but he never stakes any claims as to why G. P. is such a worse thing.And a confession here. That "cardboard" powder that comes in the shakeable green can? It ain't Parmigiano-Reggiano or even lousy Grana Padano or even, I guess, cheese. But (whisper) I kind of like it? It has its place? It's an easily shakeable umami I can put on my pasta. Shaved hard cheese is delicious, but it's not the same thing, is it? I like the grated stuff. Grew up with it.Onward... parma ham - I'm not familiar enough with it to comment. Fish labeled as the wrong species - again, I don't want things mislabeled. But he doesn't really sufficiently go into why the species is so important.Olive oil - a very informative chapter. And I've been destroying my bottle of super-authentic olive oil that I carted personally all the way from Italy, by keeping it next to the toaster-oven - DOH! But sigh, to hear the experts tell it, we have to buy oils and spices and grains in practically single-serving sizes since they allegedly become inedible so quickly. Truffle oil, another informative section - basically, don't. Just don't.Kobe beef... You haven't had it. There are only three places in America serving the real deal. Meanwhile, we have a lot of "wagyu" beef floating around... this is nominally the same species as the cows used in Japan to make Kobe beef, but that doesn't make it Kobe beef, or good, or anything, really. Anyway, Kobe beef doesn't sound like something I want. The way it's described reminds me of a croissant - fat, fat, fat, and just enough lean [muscle/flour] to keep the structure together and not just be a stick of fat. Meh. Champagne - I don't even like. Scotch - even less so. More about cheese. And wine - provenances and varietals. Useful info, like what percentage of a varietal is needed in the U.S.A. to use the name of the varietal in the label (used to be 51%, now it's much higher)...Don't let my negativity fool you, the book was A.O.K. with lots of info; I guess just a few too many sections about foodstuffs I'm not interested in.
    • 2/5
      This book was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors ("principal" instead of "principle" and—the one that almost made me stop reading—"Columbia" for the country of "Colombia") and presents information that should be common knowledge to most of the audience for whom this book is intended. There is a lot (a lot) of repetition and the most interesting parts—when the author speaks with the producers of the genuine foodstuffs and others in the food industry—are too short and often too focused on the author himself. Ultimately, this book felt like a project that arose when the author discovered the areas in which his own food knowledge was lacking and decided to write an angry screed, but an angry screed wasn't going to get him paid, so he had to tone it down and somehow turn it into a book. Save your money and use it to buy some good olive oil or a nice wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano instead.
    • 5/5
      Highly entertaining and eye opening. You'll want to grown your own food, quit eating, obsess over quality and authenticity, or even just throw up your hands in frustration.One point I disagree on. Most Americans do see Parmasean as genetic pizza cheese and champagne as generic bubbly wine you drink at New Year's and weddings. I doubt many even know there's a geographic significance attached to it.
    • 3/5
      I'm sitting at a 2.5/3.0 star for this book. It's not the author --- the book was certainly informative and eye opening on many topics...even for things I wanted to turn my head and pretend weren't being said. My problem is with the topic overall. There's just SO MUCH "truth" out there that it's becoming extremely difficult to trust any source. An interesting read, I'll file it in my brain with the other "truths" and try my best to make educated decisions!
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable read... nothing earth-shattering or totally new, most of the fake food probably most people have heard of before, but overall it was a good book with a lot of detail as to "why" certain foods are fake. The author defined his meaning of fake, which I thought was an excellent idea, since the fake-ness of certain foods is debatable. Also, the chapters spent on wine were tedious since the author seemed to think that certain ideas, like geographically based naming, needed to be reinforced over and over and over and over... got it... Burgundy can only come from Burgundy... I shall not forget, I promise Mr. Olmstead.Anyway, I recommend this book for anyone who eats. Yup, that's a good start. I could care less what I eat and the menu listings were pretty much a waste but I still loved the rest of the book. The section on Parmesan cheese was especially interesting - learning how they make it and how it's graded. I actually went right out to a specialty shop and (hopefully) bought some real Parmesan - it was incredibly tasty. I've always hated Parmesan cheese and now I think I know why... it wasn't real Parmesan, and may not have even been cheese! But I liked the small hunk I bought at Trader Joe's which, again, hopefully, was real.
    • 4/5
      I picked this up with a little trepidation because I was afraid I'd become paranoid about ingredients I buy at the supermarket or eat in a restaurant, but it turned out to be an interesting and informative researched work. If you're interested in understanding why certain names such as Champagne, Parmigianno, Balsamico, Kobe and Burgundy appear on so many labels of sparkling wine, cheese, vinegar, beef and wine when they're not only not made in the style of the original product or even from the country or region of the original product, this is a good book to read.If you're interested in whether you're even served the tuna, salmon, caviar, gorgonzola, mozzerella, Kobe or Angus beef you think you've ordered in restaurants, this is a great book to read.If you're interested in the reasons why some companies in the US are allowed to rip off international brands for profit with their locally made products and why some are not, this is a good book to read.Has it made me paranoid about what I eat when I am out and what I buy from supermarkets? No, but it has made me more aware of what I may choose to order in certain places, and what I should look out for when I am at the butcher's or the supermarket. The choices are still mine to make, but I'm now able to make more informed decisions.
    • 2/5
      My problem with this book is probably mine. The book has nothing that I didn't know already from reading the newspapers. We've read over and over again that 'Parmesan" in a green can wasn't made in Parma regions of Italy. ( I didn't really need to read about this one - just taste it). Or that many olive oils aren't from olives, or red snapper isn't red snapper in most restaurants, etc. it was boring reading the problem with few solutions listed. If you are a person beginning a search for better food choices this book may be OK.
    • 4/5
      Larry Olmsted's "Real Food Fake Food" is yet another book that tells us that the food we eat is subpar. Unlike many of the "The Omnivore's Dilemma" knock-offs, this book offers real information. Olmsted gives tells you how to figure out if your Parmigiano-Reggiano is the real-deal, what is actually going on with Olive Oil, and what to look for when buying your booze. I found the book to be engaging and informative, but because of the information presented it did take me longer than usual to read. One negative for me was the inclusion of recipes in the book. They felt out of place and distracting. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the food they eat.
    • 4/5
      Being very interested in the subject of health and nutrition I was very happy to receive a copy of REAL FOOD FAKE FOOD by Larry Olmstead. One thing becomes obvious as you read thru this book is that Olmstead has done his research. Who would have ever known there are so many specifics needed to be true parmesan cheese. Or even some of the big name companies are putting out cheese with the same ingredients used to make paper. Likewise, I never realized there was so much to know about olive oil. What's disappointing is that the consumer is being duped in most cases as to what they are actually buying. This book covers all those details. It scary to read how ineffective the FDA and The Dept of Agriculture are in enforcing policies and implementing regulations that actually protect and benefit the consumer.The chapters on seafood and kobe beef are very interesting and actually scary to read. The bottom line is that we really just don't know what we are eating or eat at your own risk. I found this to be a very interesting book and a must read for any foodie or anyone interested in nutrition and wellness.
    • 3/5
      Larry Olmsted's book Real Food Fake Food is sometimes infuriating, sometimes terrifying, and sometimes just downright pretentious. As a cry for eaters and cooks to denounce fraudulently labeled foods, Olmsted is at his best when educating readers about the ingredients and processes that make these products unique. Joining Olmstead on his international travels to learn about the history and regions of where specific foods originate is simple fun. Knowing that I will never eat real Parmesan cheese, Kobe beef, or drink several types of wine, I could not match his righteous indignation. However, his chapters on olive oil and seafood are excellent, as is the information he provides about food regulation (or the lack thereof) in the United States. His writing is clear, his descriptions canny, and he provides appropriate guidance to other resources. These chapters will change the way I shop. With the book originating as a magazine essay, keeping to the essay style instead of compiling it into book form might have been the better stylistic choice.I received a copy of this book as part of the LibraryThing early reviewers program.
    • 4/5
      I am very happy to have received a copy of Real Food/Fake Food by Larry Olmsted in the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. It was very informative and fascinating. I had not considered the idea that the names of some foods are based on deep history and are strictly regulated in their place of origin. I absolutely agree with the author that those names should be protected and that other producers of cheese or wine or whatever can come up with their own name for their product. I want to know what I am buying! I don't see a problem with using a term like "in the style of..." or whatever, just as long as the label is truthful about what is in the package. I almost felt like this could have been two books, or at least two sections, one devoted to fraud, as in the case of criminal substitutions of fish and olive oil, and another section devoted to the naming issue. It also felt a bit disjointed with each chapter jumping from one subject to another without a clear pattern or progression. He discussed cheese in at least three different sections of the book and meat as well. Often times I would be expecting further discussion on a particular point while he went off onto what seemed like a side story, only to never go back and finish the thought. The section on wine was fascinating but a bit confusing and I felt that he could have more profitably spent some of that space on fraud in the area of herbs and spices. Overall the book did a great job of infuriating me about the inconsistency and lack of professionalism of the FDA. I really hope this book gets more people to pressure them into doing the job that we are paying them to do.
    • 4/5
      I received a free advanced copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review.This book was hardly what I was expecting when I got it. I was expecting talk of GMOs and processed foods. Instead, I was confronted with the notion that the USA doesn't really protect its consumers when it comes to food. Much of this book focuses on mislabeling which can have the somewhat small consequence of higher cost for lower quality or the high and very serious consequence of illness and death. There is also a lot of concentration on something being "fake" because it was not produced in the region (terrior, in the book) where it originated.He will often call out a region for producing something that can only be made in another region. I have a bone to pick. IN his chapter about cheese, he discusses how local cheesemakers in the United States have formed their own types of craft cheese and do not need to make knock-off versions of European cheeses. He applauds California and Vermont. He mentions Wisconsin... but only to criticize a company for making European knock-offs. I'm from Wisconsin originally. We're proud of our cheese. And we make excellent craft cheeses that I think should have been acknowledged. Wisconsin almost always walks away with more awards than it can carry at cheese competitions. I have no issue with him addressing a negative, but I wish he would have also highlighted a positive.I am horrified by some of the things that are overlooked and are also blatantly bad for our health. I am not, however, as bothered by the idea that I maybe have paid more for an item than it deserved because its place of origin wasn't authentic. Ultimately, I can get past a regional difference if I enjoy the taste, but I cannot stand aside for something that can negatively impact our health. That being said, I am a firm believer of transparency and nobody likes to be lied to.I knew going in that I was probably going to read this book and then be afraid to eat everything that I didn't grow myself. I might have been a little dramatic, but there are a few things now that I will probably completely avoid or go out of my way to make sure I'm getting the right product.The writing style was accessible and interesting. He had a dry and sarcastic sense of humor that I loved. He also pulled a lot of his information from interviews with experts which helped to validate what he was saying. There were some obvious errors such as "Pasa Robles" vs "Paso Robles" and a sentence with a repeating phrase (it is it is). Also, the last page of every chapter had the name of the first chapter in it's subtitle at the top. The physical book says nothing of this being a proof, so I suspect that these errors have turned up on the shelves. These are minor things, however, and did not really detract from my reading experience. I will be passing it around to other people.
    • 4/5
      I received this through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.Olmstead presents a disturbing, thoughtful analysis of the proliferation of Fake Food in the American food industry. Many of these stories are ones that flickered through mainstream news headlines in recent years, such as Parmesan not really being the cheese it should be and the way grocery store beef is engineered to look better on the label. He gets deeply into the issue of terrior--the ingredient of place as part of a food's deliciousness--noteworthy in products like Parmigiano-Reggiano or Champagne. The United States tries to enforce basic safety standards with food, but it makes a muddle of things as far as quality. Products like extra virgin olive oil are not checked to make sure they are actually olive oil, while generic food name legal rulings for things like Champagne mean that cheap, horrible knock-offs can use a term without any of the quality assurances of the real wine from Champagne itself. The book is truly eye-opening. I felt the constant need to stop family members and say, 'Did you know...' and elaborate on what I had just read. As a cheese lover, I felt edified by his chapters on Parmigiano-Reggiano and the growing production of artisan cheeses (many of which successfully market their own kinds of cheese instead of piggy-backing on a famous name and muddling it). The chapter on seafood was outright disturbing and will entirely change how I study--and trust--the labels on packaged foods and menus. The portions on wine and the beef industry were also good. ... Well, heck, the whole book is fascinating, down to the bits at the end on honey and maple.I was surprised at the number of typos in this on-sale edition of the book. I also found the recipes at the ends of chapter to be an ill fit with the other content. I would have much rather had maps to see the regions being discussed.I highly recommend this book for American consumers. It will change how you shop and purchase food.
    • 5/5
      Larry Olmsted is angry, and those who read his book "Real Food/Fake Food" will likely come to share his anger. Olmsted, a food and travel columnist, devotes his book to uncovering the many bait and switch schemes used in the food industry to dupe consumers into paying for what they are not getting. He uncovers shady practices used to purvey fish, olive oil, beef, wine, cheeses, honey, maple syrup, coffee, tea, and other foods. Olmsted also makes it clear that Americans cannot depend on the U.S. government to protect consumers. Because of an absence of legislation or vague laws and lax enforcement, food producers have free reign to practice deceptive methods. Olmsted does conclude chapters with ways consumers can protect themselves from widespread deceptive industry practices and ensure that what is being purchased is the real product. It is not only consumer pocketbooks that are being hurt by deceptive practices in the food industry. Olmsted also points out detrimental health consequences that can result. This is an important book to read for anyone who cares about what they eat.
    • 4/5
      How difficult can it be to eat simple, real food? You stick to the outside edges of the grocery store and frequent the Farmer's Market, right? Apparently not. It is more tricky than that, although forming those habits is helpful. Much of this book is concerned with authenticity in the naming of products and consumer fraud. For instance, most people understand that the Kraft product in the green can labeled "Parmesan" is not the product of Italy named "Parmigiano-Reggiano" and that there is a huge difference in taste and quality. Sometimes you get what you pay for. However, are they aware that the bottle of "Port" produced in America which they are paying as much or more for than the "Port" produced in Portugal is an almost completely different and inferior product? At first I didn't agree with the author that American cheeses and wines should not be allowed to label themselves after the European product which they are trying to be similar to. After all, I am probably not going to be in the market for the more expensive authentic articles, but I might be able to purchase a similar product made here in America. Then the author pointed out that many of the authentic products are either less expensive, or not much more than the domestic inferior product. Now the fact is, that America can and has produced some very fine regional wines and cheeses of our own, it is high time that we start building a market and name for them. America needs to get its food act together. We need to move beyond the "industry" and into the quality, reliability and safety of food.However, that is only the tip of the disturbing information in this book. When the author went on to describe how corrupt our seafood and olive oil industry is, and how the FDA has failed us in their labelling procedures, not to mention purity and inspections, it turned my stomach. Happily, the author provides some shopping tips and clues at the end of each chapter to try to avoid the worst of these, there is no other word for it, scams.I will value my copy of this book as a reference source for all the Designated Origins and other acronyms which will help me to know that the money I am spending on my food is actually for the food I want to spend it on. I don't care if I ever eat a real Kobe steak, but I do want to be sure that the olive oil I use every day is the healthy food of the gods I thought it was when I purchased it.
    • 4/5
      Author Larry Olmsted’s book “Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do about It” will be an inspiration to all readers. I found this book to be a great reminder regarding carefully selecting food sources / ingredients in commercially purchased foods, prior to purchase. People need to be aware that there are differences between genetically engineered (GMO) foods, chemically farmed foods, and organic foods. Many are still unaware of these differences and therefore cannot vote with their pocketbooks, which is a most powerful strategy for obtaining the healthiest foods.The author has provided a book on selected food categories, packed with food history. The facts in Olmsted's book are a real eye-opener.
    • 3/5
      Olmsted has researched his subjects in depth, and offers some interesting history of specific food items discussed in the book. His focus is mainly how a few specific foods are sold to consumers as one thing,but are actually of a lesser quality. He offers a few tips at the end of each chapter to help the reader find and use the highest quality food. It's too bad that so few foods are discussed because it's obvious there is a lot of corruption in the food industry. For example, selling extra virgin olive oil that actually contains lesser quality oils and is a blend.