
Formerly Known as Food
How the Industrial Food System Is Changing Our Minds, Bodies, and Culture
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jennywren Walker
-
By:
-
Kristin Lawless
About this listen
From the voice of a new generation of food activists, a passionate and deeply-researched call for a new food movement.
If you think buying organic from Whole Foods is protecting you, you're wrong. Our food - even what we're told is good for us - has changed for the worse in the past 100 years, its nutritional content deteriorating due to industrial farming and its composition altered due to the addition of thousands of chemicals from pesticides to packaging. We simply no longer know what we’re eating.
In Formerly Known as Food, Kristin Lawless argues that, because of the degradation of our diet, our bodies are literally changing from the inside out. The billion-dollar food industry is reshaping our food preferences, altering our brains, changing the composition of our microbiota, and even affecting the expression of our genes. Lawless chronicles how this is happening and what it means for our bodies, health, and survival.
An independent journalist and nutrition expert, Lawless is emerging as the voice of a new generation of food thinkers. After years of "eat this, not that" advice from doctors, journalists, and food faddists, she offers something completely different. Lawless presents a comprehensive explanation of the problem - going beyond nutrition to issues of food choice, class, race, and gender - and provides a sound and simple philosophy of eating, which she calls the "Whole Egg Theory".
Destined to set the debate over food politics for the next decade, Formerly Known as Food speaks to a new generation looking for a different conversation about the food on our plates.
©2018 Kristin Lawless (P)2018 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Hooked
- Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions
- By: Michael Moss
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows how hard it can be to maintain a healthy diet. But what if some of the decisions we make about what to eat are beyond our control? Is it possible that food is addictive, like drugs or alcohol? And to what extent does the food industry know, or care, about these vulnerabilities? In Hooked, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss sets out to answer these questions - and to find the true peril in our food.
-
-
Empowering Read
- By Lorena Kazmierski on 04-04-21
By: Michael Moss
-
Eating to Extinction
- The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them
- By: Dan Saladino
- Narrated by: Dan Saladino
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past several decades, globalization has homogenized what we eat, and done so ruthlessly. The numbers are stark: Of the roughly 6,000 different plants once consumed by human beings, only nine remain major staples today. Just three of these - rice, wheat, and corn - now provide 50 percent of all our calories. Dig deeper and the trends are more worrisome still.
-
-
Must read
- By Morgan German on 10-06-22
By: Dan Saladino
-
The Cult of Smart
- How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice
- By: Fredrik deBoer
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively: academic potential varies between individuals, and cannot be dramatically improved.
-
-
Part of the Content from Human Diversity
- By Amazon Customer on 10-28-20
By: Fredrik deBoer
-
Long Live Latin
- The Pleasures of a Useless Language
- By: Nicola Gardini, Todd Portnowitz
- Narrated by: Todd Portnowitz
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Long Live Latin, Gardini shares his deep love for the language - enriched by his tireless intellectual curiosity - and warmly encourages us to engage with a civilization that has never ceased to exist, because it’s here with us now, whether we know it or not. Thanks to his careful guidance, even without a single lick of Latin grammar listeners can discover how this language is still capable of restoring our sense of identity, with a power that only useless things can miraculously express.
-
-
Pronunciation of Latin is lacking
- By C on 04-01-21
By: Nicola Gardini, and others
-
Food: A Cultural Culinary History
- By: Ken Albala, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Ken Albala
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."
-
-
One of my top 3 favorite courses!
- By Jessica on 12-28-13
By: Ken Albala, and others
-
A Bold Return to Giving a Damn
- One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food
- By: Will Harris
- Narrated by: Will Harris
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised as a fourth-generation farmer, when Will Harris inherited White Oak Pastures he was a full-time commodity cowboy who played hard and fast with every tool the system offered–chemicals, antibiotics, steroids, and more. His ancestors had built a highly profitable, conventionally run machine, but over time he found himself disgusted with the excess, cruelty, and smalltown devastation this system entailed. So he bet the farm on forging a different way of doing things. One that works with nature not against it, and bridges the quickly widening delta between consumers and their food.
-
-
Lie after lie. Complete NARCISSIST!!! Don’t waste your time
- By Roni Crone on 11-24-23
By: Will Harris
-
Hooked
- Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions
- By: Michael Moss
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows how hard it can be to maintain a healthy diet. But what if some of the decisions we make about what to eat are beyond our control? Is it possible that food is addictive, like drugs or alcohol? And to what extent does the food industry know, or care, about these vulnerabilities? In Hooked, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss sets out to answer these questions - and to find the true peril in our food.
-
-
Empowering Read
- By Lorena Kazmierski on 04-04-21
By: Michael Moss
-
Eating to Extinction
- The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them
- By: Dan Saladino
- Narrated by: Dan Saladino
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past several decades, globalization has homogenized what we eat, and done so ruthlessly. The numbers are stark: Of the roughly 6,000 different plants once consumed by human beings, only nine remain major staples today. Just three of these - rice, wheat, and corn - now provide 50 percent of all our calories. Dig deeper and the trends are more worrisome still.
-
-
Must read
- By Morgan German on 10-06-22
By: Dan Saladino
-
The Cult of Smart
- How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice
- By: Fredrik deBoer
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively: academic potential varies between individuals, and cannot be dramatically improved.
-
-
Part of the Content from Human Diversity
- By Amazon Customer on 10-28-20
By: Fredrik deBoer
-
Long Live Latin
- The Pleasures of a Useless Language
- By: Nicola Gardini, Todd Portnowitz
- Narrated by: Todd Portnowitz
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Long Live Latin, Gardini shares his deep love for the language - enriched by his tireless intellectual curiosity - and warmly encourages us to engage with a civilization that has never ceased to exist, because it’s here with us now, whether we know it or not. Thanks to his careful guidance, even without a single lick of Latin grammar listeners can discover how this language is still capable of restoring our sense of identity, with a power that only useless things can miraculously express.
-
-
Pronunciation of Latin is lacking
- By C on 04-01-21
By: Nicola Gardini, and others
-
Food: A Cultural Culinary History
- By: Ken Albala, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Ken Albala
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."
-
-
One of my top 3 favorite courses!
- By Jessica on 12-28-13
By: Ken Albala, and others
-
A Bold Return to Giving a Damn
- One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food
- By: Will Harris
- Narrated by: Will Harris
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised as a fourth-generation farmer, when Will Harris inherited White Oak Pastures he was a full-time commodity cowboy who played hard and fast with every tool the system offered–chemicals, antibiotics, steroids, and more. His ancestors had built a highly profitable, conventionally run machine, but over time he found himself disgusted with the excess, cruelty, and smalltown devastation this system entailed. So he bet the farm on forging a different way of doing things. One that works with nature not against it, and bridges the quickly widening delta between consumers and their food.
-
-
Lie after lie. Complete NARCISSIST!!! Don’t waste your time
- By Roni Crone on 11-24-23
By: Will Harris
-
Ultra-Processed People
- Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food
- By: Chris van Tulleken
- Narrated by: Chris van Tulleken, Dr. Xand van Tulleken
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How much of our daily caloric intake comes from ingesting substances that, technically speaking, do not meet traditional definitions of “food”? Chances are, if you’re eating something that came wrapped in plastic and contains a funky ingredient you don’t have in your kitchen, it's most likely—almost definitely—ultra-processed food, or UPF.
-
-
ridiculously biased take on data
- By Brit_TV_fan on 11-25-23
-
Infinite Powers
- How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
-
-
Not written to be read aloud
- By A Reader in Maine on 02-21-20
By: Steven Strogatz
-
Perception
- How Our Bodies Shape Our Minds
- By: Dennis Proffitt, Drake Baer
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perception marries academic rigor with mainstream accessibility. The research presented and the personalities profiled will show what it means to not only have, but be, your unique human body. The positive ramifications of viewing ourselves from this embodied perspective include greater athletic, academic, and professional achievement, more nourishing relationships, and greater personal well-being. The better we can understand what our bodies are - what they excel at, what they need, what they must avoid - the better we can live our lives.
-
-
The body-mind connection well explained
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 12-11-22
By: Dennis Proffitt, and others
-
Evil Geniuses
- The Unmaking of America: A Recent History
- By: Kurt Andersen
- Narrated by: Kurt Andersen
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the 20th century, America managed to make its economic and social systems both more and more fair and more and more prosperous. A huge, secure, and contented middle class emerged. All boats rose together. But then the New Deal gave way to the Raw Deal. Beginning in the early 1970s, by means of a long war conceived of and executed by a confederacy of big business CEOs, the superrich, and right-wing zealots, the rules and norms that made the American middle class possible were undermined and dismantled.
-
-
History through a far left lens
- By Josh on 09-03-20
By: Kurt Andersen
-
Metabolical
- The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine
- By: Robert H. Lustig
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author of Fat Chance explains the eight pathologies that underlie all chronic disease, documents how processed food has impacted them to ruin our health, economy, and environment over the past 50 years, and proposes an urgent manifesto and strategy to cure both us and the planet.
-
-
painfully political
- By jonathan blake on 06-06-21
By: Robert H. Lustig
-
The Communist Manifesto
- By: Karl Marx
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 1 hr and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
‘It was a sweet finish after the bitter pills of floggings and bullets with which these same governments, just at that time, dosed the German working-class risings’. The Communist Manifesto is, perhaps surprisingly, a most engaging and accessible work, containing even the odd shaft of humour in this translation by Samuel Moore for the 1888 English edition.
-
-
Forcibly over throw anyone who owns land?
- By Austin Hair on 02-13-20
By: Karl Marx
-
Science Fictions
- How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth
- By: Stuart Ritchie
- Narrated by: Stuart Ritchie
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Science is how we understand the world. Yet failures in peer review and mistakes in statistics have rendered a shocking number of scientific studies useless—or, worse, badly misleading. Such errors have distorted our knowledge in fields as wide-ranging as medicine, physics, nutrition, education, genetics, economics, and the search for extraterrestrial life. As Science Fictions makes clear, the current system of research funding and publication not only fails to safeguard us from blunders but actively encourages bad science—with sometimes deadly consequences.
-
-
Needed Now More Than Ever
- By Todd on 08-06-20
By: Stuart Ritchie
-
What Your Food Ate
- How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health
- By: David R. Montgomery, Anne Biklé
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David R. Montgomery and Anne Bikle take us far beyond the well-worn adage to deliver a new truth: the roots of good health start on farms. What Your Food Ate marshals evidence from recent and forgotten science to illustrate how the health of the soil ripples through to that of crops, livestock, and ultimately us. Navigating discoveries and epiphanies about the world beneath our feet, they reveal why regenerative farming practices hold the key to healing sick soil and untapped potential for improving human health.
-
-
I might have to read rather than listening
- By Kindle Customer on 09-08-22
By: David R. Montgomery, and others
-
The Future of Nutrition
- An Insider’s Look at the Science, Why We Keep Getting It Wrong, and How to Start Getting It Right
- By: T. Colin Campbell PhD
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why, despite the many advances in science and technology over the past few decades, does our health only seem to be getting worse? Why, despite so much time and energy spent studying the foods we eat, are we more confused than ever about nutrition - what good nutrition looks like, and what it can do for our health? The Future of Nutrition offers a fascinating deep-dive behind the curtain of the field of nutrition - with implications both for our health and for the practice of science itself.
-
-
His problem is the problem he has with others
- By abatista on 02-10-21
-
The Sprout Book
- Tap into the Power of the Planet's Most Nutritious Food
- By: Doug Evans
- Narrated by: Doug Evans, Jonathan Todd Ross, Kathryn Carroll
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sprout Book is a transformative plan to empower listeners to embark on a plant-based way of eating that’s low-cost and accessible. With a foreword by Joel Fuhrman, MD, this book introduces sprouts, one of the most nutritious sustainable foods on earth, by adding a few dishes to a diet and then shifting into a raw, whole foods plant-based diet.
-
-
where is the PDF?
- By Ann Alpert on 01-03-21
By: Doug Evans
-
The Jungle
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few books have so affected radical social changes as The Jungle, first published serially in 1906. Exposing unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry in Chicago, Sinclair's novel gripped Americans by the stomach, contributing to the passage of the first Food and Drug Act. If you’ve never read this classic novel, don't be put off by its gruesome reputation. Upton Sinclair was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who could turn even an exposé into a tender and moving novel.
-
-
Why We Have Unions
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-29-17
By: Upton Sinclair
-
The Revolution
- A Manifesto
- By: Ron Paul
- Narrated by: Bob Craig
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Revolution, Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has exposed the core truths behind everything threatening America, from the real reasons behind the collapse of the dollar and the looming financial crisis, to terrorism and the loss of our precious civil liberties. In this book, Ron Paul provides answers to questions that few even dare to ask.
-
-
Worth your time
- By Sierra Bravo on 11-16-08
By: Ron Paul
Critic reviews
“Unless you make it yourself, you have no idea what you are eating and Kristin Lawless explains why. You better read this book before you put another bite of food in your or your kids mouths!” (Laurie David, Academy Award winning producer of An Inconvenient Truth and Fed Up)
What listeners say about Formerly Known as Food
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. DeVoss
- 02-21-24
Expected more science and less hyperbole
Highlights nutritional studies but fails to explain the limitations of these studies. Undercuts its own argument. Not recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Collin
- 01-25-23
A MUST READ!! WOW!
If you are wondering about the industrialization of our food system, it’s history & consequences— this book lays it out beautifully! It will change the way you eat & think!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Katherine
- 09-02-20
Healthcare Reform = Food Reform
The author builds a solid case on why significant changes are needed in the food supply for the United States. Although I find myself with a few views that I differ with her politically and policy wise, I’m grateful the author was fearless in her attacks all which are credible and deserving of recognition and argument for best solutions. I have low marks for the audio quality and reading. These could have been better.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jerri
- 02-07-21
EVERYONE who EATS needs to read THIS BOOK!
Wow! Just terrifying. Big ag doesn't need to exist. we were better off before. There are solutions out there. we need to demand them. NOW. This f'd up capitalism doesn't belong in food systems. We need real farms and gardens and living wages to buy and cook REAL beyond organic food.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- robertg993
- 05-12-19
Very informative
I found the book very interesting. The narrator was excellent. I have to admit hearing her point out the problems with our food is very disheartening. In order for change to occur we must know what must change .
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Justina
- 08-07-18
The hidden truth
I would recommend it to everyone. it's telling the truth about how we have been fouled.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jennifer Lyons
- 08-24-18
Wow!
An incredibly informative book that provides a roadmap for Americans to address the major issues in our food system and environment that have been caused by our industrial agriculture and food systems.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Saul
- 08-07-18
Woa how easily we fall prey in this day of age.
Its an eye opener for us that have been trained to believe that we are doing everything right when its obvious we are still children learning from our mistakes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Fred
- 10-23-23
Very informative
I would recommend this book. It it’s a necessary read for many. The only negative is that this book leans in a direction that seems to portray the Democrat party as the only answer to a healthy country. Otherwise this is an easy read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carol Parker
- 08-18-18
Don't waste a credit here
This book appears to be a nonstop rant about all the things that are wrong with our food system. If you believe this author, there is nothing you can do except join a revolution where we must all be involved in bringing food into our communities. Sorry. I have no time to join a revolution or contribute to a coop. I barely have time to spend with my friends doing what I'd like to do. I don't accept the rant that the only thing that is worth doing is to join a revolution. And this author's histrionic talk about various aspects of our food supply is over the top. The narrator really adds to it with her over the top emotion. If you thought you would learn something about how to eat in a more healthy way, you'll be disappointed. If you want a non-stop rant about Gosh Aint It Awful--then maybe this is the book for you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful