SuperFreakonomics

I recently finished the sequel to the first book reviewed in the most recent instantiation of this blog. SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is an enjoyable read, but is a sequel in a real sense of the word.

This book feels more like a set of case studies than the first book which had more emphasis on theory and motivation. By reading the first book, one gets the direction they are going and can see more clearly what is going on in this second book. The case studies are more interesting (and controversial) than the first book for sure, but let me strongly encourage you to read Freakonomics before embarking on SuperFreakonomics.

As you can see on the cover, the subtitle presents us three of the interesting case studies they consider in this book. All of the information in the book is, at the least, thought provoking, but for the sake of brevity (and to keep from ruining the book for you), I'm going to stick to the subtitled ones. I'll touch on these in reverse order.

After the multiple terrorist attacks (and attempted attacks) around the globe, governments have become much more concerned with trying to stop terrorists before they attack. They have tried to come up with a logarithm that will accurately determine who is and is not a terrorist before they perform an act of terrorism. Among the different things considered in the logarithm is whether or not the individual has life insurance. Common sense would tell us that if you knew you were going to kill yourself, there would be little point in owning life insurance. Come to find out, this is a key indicator as to the likelihood that someone might be a terrorist. So if you're a terrorist and want to be successful, buy life insurance. Now, before you think that they've just disclosed a huge national security secret, they make it clear that there is an indicator that is by far the most reliable indicator to determine whether someone is a terrorist or not, and they do not even think of disclosing it. But, it is true that if you are a suicide bomber and you don't want to get caught, buying life insurance is one way that may make it a bit harder to catch you before you do it.

Now one may legitimately wonder, what in the world is going on with patriotic prostitutes? Sadly, the idea of a patriotic prostitute was minimally explained, just pointing to the fact that in a park in Chicago, the number of prostitutes available during the Fourth of July weekend is drastically increased (as are the prices) over a normal time. Basically, when there is a greater demand for prostitutes and a greater amount to be earned, these incentives lead to some women being a prostitute for one weekend of the year and making out really well. Once again, the drive of incentives that we saw in the first book comes up here. They say some other really interesting things about prostitution (and the correlation--not causation--between the decrease in the number of women prostitutes and the decrease of American education), but I'll let you read the book to learn those things.

The last part of the subtitle is by far the most controversial. They are not arguing that the earth is cooling and working with the assumption that the earth is warming and humans are behind it.* They are talking about possible ways (if needed) to help cool the earth temporarily in order to allow time to develop efficient alternative fuel sources and fend off the rising oceans and destroyed coastline that would come about from that happening. Needless to say, the solution offered is incredibly interesting, quite affordable (it is projected to cost significantly less than Al Gore's foundation spends each year just on trying to educate people on global warming), apparently safe for the environment, could quickly be completed, temporary, adjustable, and easily reversible. I won't ruin it for you, but it really caught me off-guard why I had never heard of this as a possibility, particularly given how bad the situation we're in is explained to be.

Much of this book focuses on rethinking conventional wisdom, or at least encouraging us to be willing to question things that we do not understand. The heavy emphasis on incentives found in the first book is weaker in the sequel, but still underlies a lot of the thinking. However, the ultimate focus is that we should be willing to question the status quo, but question in a way that digs for something deeper, not just simply to be contrarian, as some have accused these men as being.

I think both Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics are books that would be good to read along with a book like The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark, particularly in an Introduction to Philosophy class. I'm in the process of putting final touches on a syllabus for Introduction to Philosophy that would be called "Questioning Questions" or "Doubting Doubt", but the focus would be on searching for truth, and the role that questions and doubt play in coming to truth. We would read Dark's book, some Platonic dialogues, Descartes' Meditations, something from Kierkegaard or Nietzsche, and end by looking at some controversial issue, encouraging the students to work through the issue of that semester from a questioning mindset, rather than as an attempt to prove what they already think or disprove what they already disagree with. I think a chapter or two from either Freakonomics or SuperFreakonomics would fit perfectly into a class like that.

Regardless, I recommend that you read Freakonomics, and once you've read that (or if you already have), to read SuperFreakonomics. You may not agree with everything they say. You may not change your mind on anything. But at the very least, you'll be challenged to at least reevaluate why you see the world as you do.

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*Disclaimer: I personally believe that whether the earth is warming or cooling, and whether humans had anything to do with that, we were created to be stewards of God's creation, regardless whether there are or are not negative consequences for irresponsible action and whether we can or cannot make a positive difference on the problem of climate change by changing the way we live. In other words, as Christians, whether the problem of climate change is real or an illusion, we should always be living in a way that takes our original role in creation seriously.

Eat for Health

For Christmas, Jess got a set of books entitled Eat for Health by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. She started reading the books and quickly became convinced that both of us needed to read the books and that we needed to start taking some of the steps that are talked about in these books. Initially I was skeptical that these books were setting us up for a fad diet, but to humor my wife, I decided I would read the books.

Once I started reading Book One - The Mind Makeover, I became hooked. Dr. Fuhrman explains clearly the method behind his plan. It is not a diet, in that, you eat a particular way in order to lose way. Instead, it is a lifestyle change. This way of eating is based on the idea that our bodies are built to take care of many of the physical problems we have. The reason we end up needing medication or surgery is largely because we don't give our bodies the nutrients they need to take care of themselves.

Dr. Fuhrman makes a distinction between macronutrients (calories, proteins, and fats) and micronutrients (think vitamins). We give our bodies far too many macronutrients and far too few micronutrients. The lack of micronutrients is due largely to the lack of fruits and vegetables in what we eat. He argues that our focus should be on eating nutrient dense food, that is, food that has many nutrients per calorie. Fruits and vegetables are the most nutrient dense food that we can eat. Because these foods are so dense, Dr. Fuhrman allows you to eat as much of these foods as you want. Although some may be concerned with calories, 300 calories of fruits and veggies will fill your stomach, whereas 300 calories of chicken barely fills a quarter of your stomach and 300 calories of oils barely fills any part of your stomach. In other words, you can eat your fill of veggies and will consume so few calories and so many nutrients that it will not work against you.

Dr. Fuhrman would like to see people eating 90% of their daily calories from fruits and veggies. However, he has a four phase plan to help people adjust. He makes it clear that you can stop at any phase and it will help your body out from the way you are eating now. The first phase he wants you to eat a half a pound of veggies a day and a half a pound of fruits a day. This may seem like a lot, but if you spread it out over multiple meals or munch on some fruits and veggies as snacks, you hit the half pound marks really quickly. Additionally, he advocates that you eat till you liquify your food, as many fruits and veggies often do not give us the nutrients they have as we do not break them down enough. The second phase increases the fruits and veggies to a pound a day each, while the final phases focuses much more on reducing animal products, oils, and non-fruits/veggies. Again, you don't have to make it to phase four. If you do, you'll see drastic changes in many different areas of your life. However, making it to phase one or two will still do good things for you. Phase three and four only become necessary when you start dealing with things like diabetes and heart disease, for you can help your body deal with these diseases without having to become dependent on meds for the rest of your life.

The thing to keep in mind in this process is that you can still eat other things. If you want to eat the birthday cake and ice cream, you can. If you want a steak, you can. However, the idea is to focus on making sure your body is getting the micronutrients, because here in America, we have no problem at all getting our macronutrients. (I was surprised to find out the protein and calcium content of many fruits and veggies!) If you try to get the bulk of your calories from fruits and veggies, you'll go a long way toward accomplishing that goal.

The second book is basically a cookbook full of recipes that help implement the kind of lifestyle needed. We haven't tried many of the recipes, but look forward to bringing more and more into our supper rotation.

I've been trying to eat more fruits and veggies and reducing some of my animal products. I'm somewhere between phase one and two on my fruit and veggie intake, but lagging in the animal products, although I've accepted that I love my milk and cheese too much to ever get to phase three or four. Over the last month (while being somewhat inconsistent due to traveling), I've dropped 6 pounds, while doing nothing in the way of extra exercise. Both Jess and I are trying to add more physical activity to our lives. However, the focus is not on losing weight, but rather on eating healthier and being healthier people. Thanks to Dr. Fuhrman, I think we're on our way!

I highly recommend this set of books if you're looking to find a way to eat healthier in a way that is not a fad diet. I made a vegetarian chili tonight that turned out incredibly well and will be cooking with eggplant for the first time tomorrow night. It's changing the way we look at food and encouraging us to try to live healthier lives. I hope it can do the same for you!