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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... less meat and easily remain well nourished, yet they are willing to spend a good part of their lives in an exasperating pursuit of more meat and other animal products. Why? One might suppose that the Polish government would be trying ...
... less than a gram per day per capita, but that is because all kinds of animal foods are in scarce supply in relation to the huge population. Agricultural expert Narayanan Nair claims that for most Hindus, goat, sheep, and poultry are a ...
... less than 1 percent of the world's population voluntarily spurns every type of flesh food, and less than one-tenth of 1 percent are bona fide vegans. Involuntary rather than voluntary abstinence characterizes the animal food patterns of ...
... less rather than more is a puzzle we'll come to much later on.) And anyone who has intestinal or blood parasites, wounds, or burns falls into a similar category. If people in any of these risky situations are already deriving most of ...
... less good to eat than my argument requires. For example, much evidence links the overconsumption of cholesterol and saturated animal fats with coronary heart disease. Dietary cholesterol only occurs in animal foods, especially in eggs. We ...
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 |