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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... dietary inventory of most human groups seems quite narrow. We pass up some items because they are biologically unsuited to be eaten by our species. For example, the human gut simply cannot cope with large doses of cellulose. So all ...
... dietary status quo. Yet rather than argue that the national diet is already adequate and that more meat is unnecessary, the government has met each crisis by promising more meat. At great cost to the rest of the economy, it raised meat ...
... diets. If meat is not accompanied by calorie-rich carbohydrate foods, the protein in the meat will be used as a source of energy and will not be available for other physiological functions. Virtually every band or village society ...
... diets based on plant foods. If one eats cereals along with legumes, the essential amino acid balance can be considerably improved. For example, a relative lack of the essential amino acid lysine limits the protein utilization efficiency ...
... dietary vitamin D often becomes critical, and animal foods, especially eggs, fish, and liver, are the best sources ... diets that are deficient in fiber to cancer of the colon must be taken seriously. One theory is that in the absence of ...
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 |