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Swallow This: Serving Up the Food Industry's Darkest Secrets

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Swallow This: Serving Up the Food Industry's Darkest Secrets

By: Joanna Blythman
Narrated by: Jessica Ball
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About this listen

From the author of What to Eat and Shopped, a revelatory investigation into what really goes into the food we eat.

Even with 25 years experience as a journalist and investigator of the food chain, Joanna Blythman still felt she had unanswered questions about the food we consume every day. How ‘natural’ is the process for making a ‘natural’ flavouring? What, exactly, is modified starch, and why is it an ingredient in so many foods? What is done to pitta bread to make it stay ‘fresh’ for six months? And why, when you eat a supermarket salad, does the taste linger in your mouth for several hours after?

Swallow This is a fascinating exploration of the food processing industry and its products – not just the more obvious ready meals, chicken nuggets and tinned soups, but the less overtly industrial – washed salads, smoothies, yoghurts, cereal bars, bread, fruit juice, prepared vegetables. Forget illegal, horse-meat-scandal processes, every step in the production of these is legal, but practised by a strange and inaccessible industry, with methods a world-away from our idea of domestic food preparation, and obscured by technical speak, unintelligible ingredients manuals, and clever labelling practices.

Determined to get to the bottom of the impact the industry has on our food, Joanna Blythman has gained unprecedented access to factories, suppliers and industry insiders, to give an utterly eye-opening account of what we’re really swallowing.

©2015 Joanna Blythman (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Business & Careers Diets, Nutrition & Healthy Eating
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Critic reviews

"Praise for What to Eat: "Joanna Blythman has one of the sanest food heads in the Western World - and this brilliant book encapsulates her admirably clear thinking in a wonderfully accessible, entertaining way. Everyone who cares what they eat and how they feed their family - that's all of us, right? - should read it." (Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall)
"A rare book, practical, sensible, and passionate. Joanna Blythman writes with clarity, sanity and humanity. Anyone interested in food and cooking should read it." (Matthew Fort)
"A succinct and badly needed encyclopaedia of facts and common sense on food and nutrition for which I am truly grateful. The introduction alone is worth the price of the book." (Darina Allen)
"Everyone who cares about what they eat and how they feed their family should read this" ( Daily Mail)

What listeners say about Swallow This: Serving Up the Food Industry's Darkest Secrets

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Phenomenal

This book is incredible! It highlights the bond-like villainy of the food industry and opened my eyes (and closed my mouth) to so many foods. If you thought e numbers and horse meat was bad, just wait until you hear this...

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I learned a lot

Really enjoyed this book, there's a ton of good information here and the narration was great. Highly recommended

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a revelation

This book has very much changed the way I think about the food I'm eating.

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Good facts but not an easy listen

I really struggled to listen to this book. The facts presented are really interesting but I'm afraid it's a dull listen. I know there's not a particularly interesting way to read numbers aloud, but it's a shame there wasn't more life put into the narration.

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Scary, but important

Joanna takes complex processes and makes them easy to understand. It doesn't feel like a negative rant, more a gentle stroll through a very dark experience, and provides you with the chance to ask...." do I want to eat that?" Everyone should read this.

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Will change the way you eat.

This audio book was very informative if a little scary and gross sometimes.
Since starting this book I have change the way I eat. It makes you think twice before eating any food let alone processed food.
Some of the "extra" ingredients lists got a bit long and boring. But highlight what processes most if not all the food we eat "fresh" or not.
A great listen.

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An eye opener.

Very interesting and informative. The scary bit is that now I can't eat anything - know too much.

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An eye opening book even for a health coach

This is such a blessing that there are determined enough people like the author to pursue truths about food industry. Highly recommended!

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Scary

Scary but it's important we know the truth and how industrialised the food industry is and that it's profit not public health that it has in mind.

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Really good inside information

Good. Will need to listen again as there is lots of detailed information. The processed food industry is pretty repulsive!

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