Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and CultureWhy are human food habits so diverse? Why do Americans recoil at the thought of dog meat? Jews and Moslems, pork? Hindus, beef? Why do Asians abhor milk? In Good to Eat, best-selling author Marvin Harris leads readers on an informative detective adventure to solve the worlds major food puzzles. He explains the diversity of the worlds gastronomic customs, demonstrating that what appear at first glance to be irrational food tastes turn out really to have been shaped by practical, economic, or political necessity. In addition, his smart and spirited treatment sheds wisdom on such topics as why there has been an explosion in fast food, why history indicates that its bad to eat people but good to kill them, and why children universally reject spinach. Good to Eat is more than an intellectual adventure in food for thought. It is a highly readable, scientifically accurate, and fascinating work that demystifies the causes of myriad human cultural differences. |
From inside the book
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... fish as they can afford, especially where ecological conditions prevent the raising of dairy cattle. Buddhists in Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia are great aficionados of fish, which they consume fresh, dried, MEAT HUNGER 23.
... cattle and sheep possess. (More about these “vats” later on.) To live on fibrous plants, an animal must spend most of the day eating. Some of the great apes display many of the characteristics of animals that are adapted to a high-fiber ...
... cattle, pigs, and chickens with grains, fish meal, growth hormones, and antibiotics, the problem with most meats was that they were too lean to achieve a protein-sparing effect. Modern high-fat carcasses are 30 percent or more fat. In ...
... cattle. But Hindu holy men and numerous cowprotection societies continue to agitate for a total ban on cattle slaughter. In 1966, rioting by 125,000 nude cow-protectionists threatened to shut down the Indian parliament in New Delhi, and ...
... cattle in the world—about 180 million Bos indicus (plus 50 million buffalo), a situation which might reasonably be attributed to the fact that no one seems to want to kill or eat them. India also has the distinction of possessing the ...
Contents
13 | |
19 | |
47 | |
The Abominable Pig
| 67 |
Hippophagy
| 88 |
Holy Beef USA
| 109 |
Lactophiles and Lactophobes Milk Lovers and Milk Haters
| 130 |
Small Things
| 154 |
Dogs Cats Dingoes and Other Pets
| 175 |
People Eating
| 199 |
Better to Eat
| 235 |
References | 249 |
Bibliography | 258 |
Index | 275 |