Diet For A New America By John Robbins

John Robbins’ book was originally published when I was nine years old. During the 1980s, I was learning between Saturday morning cartoons that “Milk does a body good!” And then scampering off to tell my parents I wanted ice-cream.

But while I was dreaming of chowing down on my choice of Baskin-Robbins’ 31 flavors, the son of the company’s co-founder Irv Robbins was rebelling against his heritage.

How?

By writing a book extolling the benefits of a vegan diet, Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Your Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth. 

Spoiler alert: It turns out that the future of life on Earth does not depend on ice cream.

I just finished the book for the first time tonight and am having a hard time with the fact that this information has been around all these years to little avail.

How Diet for a New America Changed the Healthy-Diet Conversation

In his book, John Robbins thoroughly addresses:

• The abuses of factory farming
• The health benefits of eating a plant-based diet
• The negative environmental impacts of the meat, dairy, and egg industries.

As evidenced by the 800 endnotes he provides for reference and further research, Robbins left no stone unturned in uncovering all the “dirty practices” that big agriculture relies on to feed America.

Read what he discovered, and you’ll never look at a cheeseburger or plate of bacon and eggs the same way again!

While I didn’t know about Diet for a New America when I was young, it might have influenced my parents. More often than not, when I begged for ice cream, my dad’s answer was, “Eat your fruits and vegetables.”

I respected my father, so his food recommendations left a big impression on me. But so did all those milk and burger commercials!

These mixed messages ultimately resulted in my spending most of my adult life confused about the optimal diet.

At least now I know: Dad was right, and so was John Robbins.