That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles: 64 All-New Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life. Joe Schwarcz. Toronto, ON: ECW Press, 2002. 273 pp., pbk., $17.95. ISBN 1-55022-520-0. Subject Heading: Chemistry-Popular works. Grades 9 and up / Ages 14 and up. Review by Barbara A. McMillan. ***1/2 /4

Joe Schwarcz is renown for popularizing science and trying to clear up common misconceptions about chemistry, particularly chemical aspects of food, nutrition, drugs, health, cosmetics, and the environment. That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles is the third in a series of books focused on the "fascinating chemistry of everyday life." Even those who may believe that "fascinating chemistry" is a contradiction of terms will find that, in the writing of Schwarcz, chemistry is just this, captivating and exceedingly interesting as the following excerpt from "Paprika's Peppery Past" reveals.

Paprika made from ground red peppers, is to Hungarian cuisine what tomatoes are to Italian, what curry is to Indian, or what soy is to Asian. Cooking without it is unimaginable. It is also unimaginable that any Hungarian would tamper with this national institution, but that is exactly what happened in 1994. A third of the paprika samples tested by the government that year were found to contain lead oxide. Officials launched the investigation when over forty people had to be hospitalized with lead poisoning after eating food flavoured with paprika. The country went into a state of shock. Sales of paprika were halted. The government of the nation that already had the highest suicide rate in Europe braced itself for the worst. Cooks staggered about aimlessly in their home or restaurant kitchens, and rumor had it that a few had actually resorted to buying Spanish paprika.

The police unleashed a huge manhunt, which netted fifty-nine suspects, thirty-seven of whom were eventually charged with paprika adulteration. Their motive? Greed. Hungarians consume about a pound of paprika per person per year - or roughly ten million pounds. Lead oxide, a red pigment, looks a lot like paprika, and it's cheap. The ideal extender, if you don't care about the health of the consumer. Restaurateurs, of course, do care about their clients' health as well as their palates. The image of patron stricken with lead poisoning is not good for business.

The paprika adulteration episode cut deeply into the Hungarian psyche. The spice is not only essential to the taste buds but also a source of great scientific pride. After all, it played a major role in the discovery of a factor present in certain foods that can prevent scurvy. (Pp. 76-77)

     Schwarcz continues the story with the introduction of Hungarian physician, Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who isolated hexuronic acid from paprika. Hexuronic acid was the anti-scurvy factor found in citrus fruits and is known today as citric acid or Vitamin C. It also turns out that the pigment that gives paprika its natural colour is capsanthin. Capsanthin is a potent antioxident, which Schwarcz describes on pages 21 and 51 as compounds that prevent LDL cholesterol from being converted into the oxidized form that damages arteries and triggers heart attacks. The extreme toxicity of lead is described in the context of the Roman Empire, King George III of England, and Beethoven on pages 148-153. Such historical vignettes and diverse connections are interwoven throughout the book, often with wit. Each essay is as engaging as the next and rarely is a background in chemistry necessary to make sense of Schwarcz's language and understanding of science - an understanding that he argues keeps the quacks and charlatans at bay.

     That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles is divided into four sections with the headings "Healthy Science," "Everyday Science," "Looking Back" and "Poppycock." The sixty-two commentaries describe, among other things, the benefits of nutraceuticals (e.g. live cultures of acidophilus or bifido bacteria in yoghurt, insulin in Jerusalem artichoke, beta glucan in oats, and folic acid in spinach), poisoning by botulin, arsenic, and mercury, gluten intolerance and Celiac disease, artificial sweeteners, genetic engineering, stain removal, histories of the match, nylon, Plexiglas, vulcanized rubber, and the colour mauve, and nonsense that masquerades as science (e.g. Energems, Pi Water, and Miracle Thaw). All are interesting topics and topics made interesting by Schwarcz's presentation. Regrettably, as in his previous two books, Schwarcz has chosen not to include a bibliography of the references he has certainly drawn upon. He does, however, attribute the degree to which a cookie crumbles to the protein content of the flour and the amount of saturated fat.

Highly Recommended.

Barbara McMillan is a professor of early years science education in the Faculty of Education, the University of Manitoba.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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