The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food Is Wrong - Hardcover

Glassner, Barry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060501219 ISBN 13: 9780060501211

Publisher: Ecco, 2007

Synopsis

Enjoy what you eat.

From the author of the national bestseller The Culture of Fear comes a rallying cry to abandon food fads and myths for calmer and more pleasurable eating.

For many Americans, eating is a religion. We worship at the temples of celebrity chefs. We raise our children to believe that certain foods are good and others are bad. We believe that if we eat the right foods, we will live longer, and if we eat in the right places, we will raise our social status. Yet what we believe to be true about food is, in fact, quite contradictory. Offering part exposé, part social com-mentary, sociologist Barry Glassner talks to chefs, food chemists, nutritionists, and restaurant critics about the way we eat. Helping us recognize the myths, half-truths, and guilt trips they promulgate, The Gospel of Food liberates us for greater joy at the table.

About this title

About the Author:

Barry Glassner is the author of the national bestseller The Culture of Fear. He is a professor of sociology at USC, and he lives in Los Angeles.

From Publishers Weekly:

In his latest debunking project (after The Culture of Fear), sociologist Glassner argues that "everything you think you know about food is wrong." And Glassner really does take on almost everything, from Atkins to vegans, with particularly hard jabs at those who, in the name of nutrition, take the fun out of food. This includes some well-known food writers, the manufacturers of "fat-free" foods, as well as "natural" and "organic" offerings—but surprisingly, he stands up for irradiated "Frankenfoods" and for some processed fast food. Later, he tackles the American obesity "epidemic." Here, too, he finds conventional wisdom more mythic than real, with so much conflicting evidence (the book is formidably researched and footnoted) that he finds himself wondering if obesity really matters and concludes that it probably doesn't, much. Only two conventional bits of wisdom survive Glassner's skeptical approach: the rich really are thinner than the poor, and four-star restaurant cooking really is delicious. Glassner's myth-busting information is useful, but at times he takes jabs in too many directions, losing narrative focus. (Jan. 2)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0060501219
• ISBN 13: 9780060501211
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304