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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... nutritional concept of “protein-sparing” 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 ...
... nutritional point of view in order for meat distributions to take a quarrelsome turn. As among the Poles, groups such as the Yanomamo are generally well nourished, average as much as seventy-five grams of animal protein per capita per ...
... nutritional physiology of our species. In addition we seem to have descended from a long line of meat-hungry animals. Not so long ago anthropologists believed that monkeys and apes were strict vegetarians. Now, after closer and more ...
... in plant foods. The nutritional importance of protein is that the body uses it to promote and regulate tissue growth. Muscles, organs, cells, hormones, and enzymes all consist of different kinds of proteins MEAT HUNGER 31.
... nutritional value of plants and animals as sources of protein? Not at all. Both quantitatively and qualitatively animal foods remain a better source of proteins than plant foods. Perhaps I also need to clairfy how the controversy over ...
Contents
13 | |
19 | |
The Riddle of the Sacred Cow
| 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 |