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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... body's ability to absorb the precursor of vitamin A, which can lead to a form of blindness known as xerophthalmia, a disease about which I shall have more to say much later on. The increasing unpopularity of animal foods as a source of ...
... body fat, and then walk away, leaving the animal to rot, if the signs were negative. Archaeologists have also long puzzled over ancient bison kill sites in the American Great Plains from which only a few parts of the slain animals were ...
... bodies were adapted to the consumption of about 788 grams of red meat a day, which is four times the average per capita consumption of the amount of beef, pork, sheep, and goats Americans now consume. Our ancestors also probably ...
... body's defenses. What has made it possible for us to live long enough for this to occur? In the rush to reduce the toll of heart disease and cancer, some of us may be in danger of forgetting that increased consumption of animal foods ...
... body at 330 million. “Serving and praying to the cow will lead to Nirvana for 21 generations to come.” To assist a departed loved one's soul in its journey to salvation, relatives donate money for feeding herds of cows kept by Hindu ...
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 |