Bookstores censor low-carb books?

[Guest guest]

Dana Carpender, author of a number of low-carb cookbooks, has a come out

with a new one called, bizarrely enough, _The Every Calorie Counts

Cookbook_. Why, when she knows perfectly well the title simply isn't

true? Here's her explanation:

>Now that my new book is listed on Amazon.com, some people have expressed

>alarm at the title: The Every Calorie Counts Cookbook. People want to know

>why, and if I've decided low carb is dead. So it's time to explain this

>book to you all:

>

>I do not believe that low carb is dead; surveys show that as many people

>are eating low carb now as were eating low carb a year ago. But the two

>major book chains, Borders and & Noble, have stated that they will

>not, for the foreseeable future, be stocking any new cookbooks with the

>words " low carb " on the front cover. It does no one any good for me to

>write books that can't get into the stores.

You can read the rest of her letter to her puzzled readers here:

http://www.holdthetoast.com/httblog/

Borders and & Noble are both chains of super-stores containing far

more inventory than bookstores used to, so I don't buy for a moment the

idea that they're doing this because books with " low carb " in the title

take up valuable shelf space without selling adequately. What's actually

going on here, I'm sure, is much more analogous to something Sally Fallon

and Enig wrote about in their article " The Great Con-ola " :

>Canola oil began to appear in the recipes of cutting edge health books,

>such as those by Weil and Barry Sears. The technique was to extol

>the virtues of the Mediterranean diet and olive oil in the text, and then

>call for " olive oil or canola oil " in the recipes. One informant in the

>publishing industry told us that since the mid 1990s, major publishers

>would not accept cookbooks unless they included canola in the recipes.

The rest of their article is here:

http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/conola.html

I intend to boycott both chains now (Amazon and Half.com offer better

prices and greater convenience anyway) and I'm going to write them to

explain why. I encourage you to do the same.

Here is the online contact info for both chains:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/customer_service/morehelp.asp?userid=YG2oXRBC\

Q4

ccare@...

Here are the snail mail addresses for both chains:

Mr. Riggio

CEO, & Noble, Inc.

122 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10011

Mr. Greg fowicz

CEO, Borders Group, Inc.

100 Phoenix Drive

Ann Arbor, MI 48108

734.477.1100

Please consider either posting them a letter or doing that and emailing

them. Email is quick and easy, but it's often ignored. A paper letter

tells a company that you care enough to take the time and make the effort

to write to them in the old-fashioned way, and it's much more likely to be

effective.

And here is a simple letter you might consider using or adapting to save

yourself time:

Dear Sir or Madam:

Due to your company's recent decision to refuse to stock any new cookbooks

with the words " Low Carb " in the title, I have decided not to purchase any

books of any kind whatsoever from you. Instead, I'll take my business to

independent bookstores and online vendors like Amazon and Half.com.

Censorship like this is simply un-American, and almost as importantly,

low-carb eating is well-established by both experience and science as an

essential way for millions of people to lose weight and improve their health.

If at some point in the future you reconsider your decision, I will once

again patronize your business. Until then, I am encouraging all my friends

and acquaintances to join me in boycotting you.

Sincerely,

Idol

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