Ingredients

Cheese puffs, coffee, sunscreen, vapes - George Zaidan reveals what will kill you, what won't, and why.


Explained with high-octane hilarity, hysterical hijinks, and other things that don't begin with the letter H, INGREDIENTS offers the perspective of a chemist on the stuff we eat, drink, inhale, and smear on ourselves. Apart from the burning question of whether you should eat that cheese puff, Zaidan explores a range of topics. Here's a helpful guide:


Stuff in this book: How bad is processed food? How sure are we? Is sunscreen safe? Should you use it? Is coffee good or bad for you? What's your disease horoscope? What is that public pool smell? What happens when you overdose on fentanyl in the sun? What do cassava plants and Soviet spies have in common? When will you die?


Stuff in other books: Your carbon footprint. Food sustainability. GMOs. CEO pay. Science funding. Politics. Football. Baseball. Any kind of ball really...


Zaidan, an MIT-trained chemist who cohosted CNBC's hit Make Me a Millionaire Inventor and wrote and voiced several TED-Ed viral videos, makes chemistry more fun than Hogwarts as he reveals exactly what science can (and can't) tell us about the packaged ingredients sold to us every day. Sugar, spinach, formaldehyde, cyanide, the ingredients of life and death, and how we know if something is good or bad for us - as well as the genius of aphids and their sweet butts - are all discussed in exquisite detail at breakneck speed.


PRAISE FOR INGREDIENTS


'Ingredients lifts the film from our eyes with humour and reassurance.' Hank Green, author of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing


'At last, a book on nutrition that tries to make you understand how little we know instead of offering blanket prognostications. If instead of a simple solution, you want a guide to how to think about health, this is it.' Zach and Kelly Weinersmith, New York Times best-selling authors of Soonish


'Ingredients, is everything that should lead you to expect: funny, edgy, fascinating, dismaying, reassuring, and overall just incredibly smart.' Deborah Blum, Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Poison Squad


'You should buy Ingredients because it teaches you how to think better - like a smart, informed, and wickedly funny scientist.' Sam Kean, author of The Disappearing Spoon


'Omfg this book is FABULOUS! It's hilarious, insightful, sassy, and reassuring. A delightful roller-coaster of science communication.' Kallie Moore, Co-host of PBS Eons