ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The three women to whom Food Matters is dedicated played huge roles in its production. Kerri Conan, my associate in the last several books I’ve written was, as usual, completely indispensable and a daily companion and co-conspirator. The idea for the book came to us while working with Suzanne Lenzer on a couple of smaller but seminal projects, and the three of us hatched it, developed it and, to a large extent, lived it. In a way, the traditional research, though long and grueling, was the easy part; developing a Food Matters diet—what we call a sane way of eating—was something we had to create.

In designing the book, Kelly Doe reshaped not only the way we thought it should look but the way it was organized. If it was not a completely different entity after she got her hands on it, it was certainly an improved one.

Sid Baker, my personal doctor for going on 30 years, was in part responsible for setting these wheels in motion by suggesting that I become a vegan despite knowing how ridiculous that suggestion was. The compromise between what Sid insisted and what was possible is essentially the Food Matters diet.

Sydny Miner, our editor, patiently and calmly stood by as we retooled many aspects of the manuscript and its design. This is as close to a breaking news book as I’ll ever write, and right down to the deadline there were changes I thought worth making; Syd saw that and tolerated it as long as she could. Behind her stands an entire team at Simon & Schuster that has been a complete joy to work with, starting with publisher David Rosenthal (whose enthusiasm for the concept was immediate and intense), and continuing with Michelle Rorke, Nancy Singer, Deirdre Amthor and Larry Pekarek; Mara Lurie and Susan Gamer; Aileen Boyle and Deborah Darrock, Jackie Seow, Victoria Meyer and Alexis Welby.

One could go back to Hippocrates to thank for inspiration here, because if your diet did you no harm you’d be way ahead of the game compared to most Americans. But I think it’s more helpful to thank those who are living, and there are (fortunately), some important heroes in the world of politics, nutrition, and food among us: Marion Nestle (whom I first heard utter the phrase “Food Matters,” when she was discussing possible titles for her invaluable book, ultimately called Food Politics); Michael Pollan; Peter Singer; Wendell Berry; Frances Moore Lappé; Lester Brown; and Joel Fuhrman; I hope that I’ve honored their work by building on it. It may seem odd to thank what amount to faceless entities, but we could not have done this book without the help of the CDC, the UN FAO, and even the USDA.

From the time I began writing about food, Chris Kimball, Trish Hall, Rick Flaste, Kerri Conan (again), and always—always—Angela Miller, have encouraged me to take the subject of food more seriously than was common as did, for a relatively brief but important (and long ago!) time, Scott Mowbray. In recent years, I’ve gotten similar support from Sam Sifton, Pete Wells, Nick Fox, Chris Conway, and Mike Hawley.

Finally, for their personal support in a year that was even more whirlwind than others, I’d like to thank John Willoughby, my beloved parents and children, Gertrude, Murray, Kate, and Emma, and my wife Kelly.

New York

October 2008