I Think Therefore I Eat: The World’s Greatest Minds Tackle the Food Question

It is a puzzle to a reviewer what readership author Martin Cohen envisioned for his rather hefty volume, I Think, Therefore I Eat. The book is all about food and our eating habits. Cohen emphasizes that he is not about to tell you what to eat but rather how to make well-informed choices about foods. He is quite verbose; the text is filled with fillers, and it is often difficult to tell what he is trying to say because there are so many digressions in his discussions. And certainly it is quite difficult to read–his writing style is poor and his points are lost in endless paragraphs and quotes. The book’s tone is negative–everything is black and white. Furthermore, it is somewhat technical, well beyond the interest of the average reader. Professionals would not have an interest in his arguments, and since he is a philosopher, readers would question the foundations of his advice and suggestions regarding foods. The research that is the basis of this book is commendable, as testified by a long list of notes and references. His twenty-page biographical notes are superfluous. His occasionally-included recipes are poor (“moderate amount of tomatoes, “pinch of ‘real salt’”).