The Dinner Diaries or Shock

The Dinner Diaries

Author: Betsy Block

A harried mother of two, Betsy Block is in pursuit of the perfect family meal: local, toxin-free, humane, and healthful. But soon she finds herself in a mealtime maze beset by conflicting, often unrealistic advice, and further complicated by two picky kids and a finicky husband. Determined not to give up the good-food fight, she comes up with a creative ten-step makeover plan. She consults experts, visits farms, and overcomes the pitfalls, struggles, and triumphs of eating well when busy schedules, surreptitious lunch trades, snack machines, permissive grandparents, and willful temptations intervene.

As entertaining as it is informative, The Dinner Diaries is for any family who wants to change the way they ear—one forkful at a time.

Includes charts, food lists, recipes, tips, and suggested culinary and farm programs for kids.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

In this healthy living self-help memoir, food writer Block makes the decision to improve her family's diet based on the latest research in nutrition and sustainable, earth-friendly food sources; with that choice, she and her husband find themselves rowing against the strong currents of popular culture, powerful food lobbies and reluctant children. Beset by conflicting expert advice, Block manages to carve out a narrow path between what her family should eat and what they actually will eat. Each chapter takes a semi-comic look at serious issues like child-targeted advertising, fish farming, school lunches, picky eaters and sourcing local produce. With plenty of research on each issue, Block presents her arguments from all sides, and her role as mother to two active children makes her an authentic and relatable source. Her keen sense of humor doesn't hurt either; after finding a local source of organic meat, she happily reports, "Andy gets both bacon and a content wife; I get a healthier family and world; daughter Maya gets pasta, as usual." Though not as straightforward as the latest hide-the-veggies cookbook for sneaky moms, this guide to healthy, responsible family eating is a practical, insightful read for any concerned parent.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents:

Contents

Introduction

Food Fight

Chapter 1

Expert Advice

Chapter 1 1/2

At the Table: Take 1

Chapter 2

Holiday Hurdle

Chapter 3

Some Animals Are More Equal

Chapter 3 1/2

At the Table: Take 2

Chapter 4

Easier Said Than Done

Chapter 4 1/2

At the Table: Take 3

Chapter 5

Fishy

Chapter 5 1/2

At the Table: Take 4

Chapter 6

The Vexing People Problem

Chapter 7

The Aisle Not Taken

Chapter 8

Do It Yourself (or Not)

Chapter 9

If Mama Ain’t Happy (Ain’t Nobody Happy)

Chapter 9 1/2

At the Table: Take 5

Chapter 10

Where the Ideal Meets the Real

Appendix

Tips, Charts, Recipes, and Places to Go

Go to: The 4 Day Diet or Yoga

Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy

Author: Kitty Dukakis

Kitty Dukakis has battled disabling depression for more than 20 years. Coupled with drug and alcohol addictions that both hid and fueled her suffering, Kitty's despair was overwhelming. She tried every medication and treatment available; none worked for long. It wasn't until she got electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, that she could reclaim her life.

Kitty's dramatic first-person account of how ECT keeps at bay her illness is half the story of Shock. The other half, by award-winning medical reporter Larry Tye, is a captivating look at the science behind ECT and its dramatic yet subterranean comeback. Far from the grisly process that inspired films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and fostered a stigma that still persists, today's ECT is fast, safe, and presents a better prospect for relieving severe depression than even the best antidepressants or the sagest psychotherapist. And it is not just depression: ECT has an enviable success rate for a series of other debilitating mental conditions.

Shock looks at ECT's full picture, analyzing the treatment's risks along with its benefits. The book considers memory loss and other complications that have kept electroconvulsive therapy under a cloud of controversy, and it explores refinements that can minimize that loss if not defuse the controversy. ECT, it turns out, is neither a panacea nor a scourge, but a serious option for treating life-threatening ailments. Through Kitty Dukakis's moving account, and interviews with more than 100 other ECT patients, Shock separates scare from promise, real complications from lurid headlines. In the process it offers practical guidance to prospective patients and their families on whether ECT can help them battle depression, bipolar disorder, and other disabling mental diseases.