Life After Death by Damien Echols
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have been following the story of the West Memphis Three since the beginning. I was a teenager during the mid-90s Satanism scare, and I remember clearly when Damien Echols became the wide-eyed face that symbolized it. He looked like my friends and I never could believe he was guilty.

After watching the Paradise Lost trilogy on HBO I was certain he wasn't guilty and couldn't believe that he remained on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Now that I have read his memoir, “Life After Death” I am in awe of the railroading of his case.

I didn't have high expectations for a memoir written by an (unwilling) high school drop-out, but Echols totally delivered. His writing is lyrical, honest and very evocative. He describes the grinding poverty in which he grew up in such stark detail that I felt like I was experiencing it myself.

As his story comes closer and closer to his arrest it becomes clear that Echols was a victim of zealous, perhaps even mentally disturbed police and a corrupt court system. He was harassed for years by the police, incarcerated and even placed in a mental institution with little to no grounds. His arrest on the Robin Hood Hill murders seemed almost inevitable – like the police had been cultivating him as a suspect. And his family were so ignorant and complacent, that they did nothing to defend him or protect him from the harassment.

His journals from his years in prison are heartbreaking. Echols leans heavily on spirituality, mysticism and meditation. Given no other option, he retreats deep into his own psyche. Much of his journal entries are filled with his struggle to attain deeper and deeper meditative states.

The other major theme from his prison journals was about his wife, Lorri. Echols is deeply in love with her, and keeping their relationship healthy was a great focus of life while he was incarcerated. He praises her for all of her tireless work on his case, and credits her for giving him a reason to keep on living while he was hopeless on death row.

“Life After Death” is a terrific memoir. It leads the reader through the perils of poverty in the Deep South, teenage angst, the terrors and helplessness of the justice system, and the absolute gray numbness of prison. If you are looking for an incredible story, Echols has one that is an absolute page-turner.


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The Problems with Processed Foods

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Salt Sugar Fat” has ruined grocery shopping for me. I’ve never been a fan of highly processed foods. I am not one to throw Kraft Cheesy Skillets, or Lunchables into my grocery cart. I know that processed foods are bad for you and full of empty calories. But this book took that point of view and radically expanded it.

So much of what we think of as “food” contains little to no actual food! And it is a worse problem than just obesity. These “foods” contribute to high blood pressure, organ failure, heart failure, altered taste buds, and even cancer! Manufacturers of these products know their dangers and don’t eat them. I wouldn’t eat a meal at a fancy restaurant that the chef wouldn’t touch, so why would I eat a meal in a box that the CEO of Kraft wouldn’t touch?

“Salt Sugar Fat” is broken up into three sections that address each ingredient’s role in processed foods. First is Sugar, and this section is a real eye opener. We all know about the sugars involved in sodas, but what was really frightening to me was the secret sugars that are added into all manner of foods in order to mask other chemical “off” flavors. This is the section that first introduces the concept of the “Bliss Point”. According to Moss’ research, people’s bliss points for sugar are higher and higher due to early exposure to high sugar foods in infancy. If you grew up drinking soda and other sweet drinks, you are doomed to crave higher and higher sugar contents in your foods for the rest of your life.

The Salt section has similar information to the sugar section. People are developing higher and higher tolerances to salts in their foods. Even children, who normally don’t like a lot of salt, are being trained by processed foods to crave it. Again, salt is added to EVERYTHING. It provides better mouth feel for a lot of products, preserves products, and masks metallic and other off flavors.

I was ready to be hit hard by the fat section, and I was not let down. Fats are not going away from processed foods. Fat is essential to their success. Moss’ research shows that when salt and sugar are combined with fats, our brains/bodies do not identify how much fat we are ingesting. Basically, the key components of processed foods work together to turn off our natural satiety. That’s terrible news for the consumer, but great news for processed food manufacturers.

Don’t read this book if you aren’t prepared to go to the grocery store armed with your new found information on processed food. You will be checking the labels on everything and evaluating and translating the information therein. Nothing is as it first appears. “Low Fat” or “Diet” varieties often harbor secret stashes of extra salt or sugar that keep the calories ridiculously high. But if you are ready for some hard truths that might just save your life, get this book today.


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