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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... food habits, one has to accept the fact that most of it is really difficult to ... foods convey messages and have symbolic meanings. But which come first, the ... plant life, and other aspects of the environment. As I hope to show, major ...
... planting crops. In contrast, the most herbivorous cuisines are associated with dense populations whose habitat and food production technology cannot support the production of animals for meat without reducing the amount of proteins and ...
... foods alone—meat, fish, poultry, and dairy products—enough to satisfy the recommended daily allowance without counting on proteins from plant foods at all. As for calories, they were consuming over three thousand per capita per day. By ...
... food riots, the Soviet Union, for example, spends huge sums to import about 40 million tons of soybeans, maize, and ... plants for food. Expressed in energy terms, it takes nine additional calories to provide one calorie for human ...
... foods and plant foods play fundamentally different biological roles in human foodways. Despite recent findings which link the overconsumption of animal fats and cholesterol to degenerative diseases in affluent societies, animal foods ...
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 |