How not to die – Michael Greger, MD

It is not necessary to be vegan to read this book. On the contrary: if you are not vegan, you must read it.

It doesn’t try to convince you to avoid meat, cheese and eggs because you hurt animals, but it shows scientific discoveries that explain you why to avoid them. Then, the decision is up to you. You can decide to go on eating cheesburgers and drink milk at every meal, but at least you won’t be surprised if you will get illness like high pressure, cancer, strokes and so on (ot at least, your odds will be much higher).

And thanks for not including the recipes on the last part of the book! This doctor just gives you some suggestions about the foods to be included in your diet, because they will boost up your immune system (beans, berries, fruits, cruciferous, greens, vegetables, flaxseeds, nuts, spices, Whole grains, green tea and… exercise).

About one third of the books is made by notes. Well, this should be a sufficient reason to read it.

Excellence patterns of Italian craftsmen in food branch

The Italian title of this essay is “The alchemist craftsman“. This research tries to understand wich are the ingredients of excellence in the food branch of the North-East Italy, and the question arises because, despite the crisis and the pessimism, these realities have grown.

Well, when I say that an Italian artisan firm has grown, please do not look for a giant in the American way. I mean that such firms are going better than before, that they are developing on a turnover and innovation point of view.

It can seems strange to an American eye that a (often) family-based reality can get good results, but this is exactly what it happens. And still more curious, the dimensional growth is not always one of the purposes of these firms, because it could lead to a lower power of control on the final product.

This survey, made through interviews by the author (a sociologist) and his partners, can cancel a lot of preconceptions in your mind. For instance, you can believe that a family-based firm will have big problem during a generation passage and that the young people are forced to enter into relatives’ work because they have no other alternative. Or you can be convinced that you absolutely have to sell abroad, that artisans do no make any kind of marketing and that the hands are their first and unique production instrument.
Well, you will see that your ideas are not so reliable!

The study of these 20 firms shows that the issues are not due to size. Some problems can arise from the lack of an istitutional training, from a too closed credit system or from a very silly bureaucracy, and we hope that this book will give some starting-points to work on in the future.

In the meanwhile, if you want to give a look to author’s curriculum, you can see his Linkeding profile here.