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

By Barry Glassner

Book Overview

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 expos , 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060501219
• ISBN13: 9780060501211
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Loved It

This is a great book for anyone who eats and thinks. If you liked The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals or In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, then you will probably enjoy this one quite a bit.

I devoured it.

This book is completely fascinating, and it has achieved the goal of actually changing the way that I think about food and eating. Not the way that I eat - that doesn't seem to be Glasser's aim - but the way I approach it. Glasser's approach seems to be that food is a source of pleasure from which society has stripped all pleasure. And in between visits to conventions and laboratories he finds time to rhapsodize about a particularly enjoyable dish. Not only is the subject matter interesting, but Glasser avoids the irritating pitfalls of almost all nonfiction writers. On the rare instance that he does share his opinion, he actually manages to come across as nonjudgemental, and freely admits when he finds out he's been wrong. Glasser is never snide, avoids politics, and does an exemplary job of presenting balanced arguments. For example, while Glasser admits that he prefers organic foods, he states that this preference is based on responsible farming practices, etc., rather than the typical scaremongering tactics often employed by the organic food industry. I can't wait to read 'The Culture of Fear' as well. I hope that Glasser's next book is about childrearing; I'd *love* to see him skewer our society's take on that.

A breath of fresh air

Glassner has certainly done his homework, and the result is a very readable, refreshing and pragmatic book, full of solid reasoning and common sense. If you're at all curious as to how and why every year some new food fad or fad diet comes along, and if you wonder what happens when you read between the lines of the latest "scientific" food studies, then this book is a MUST for your library. As he did in his excellent book "The Culture of Fear," Glassner has investigated the claims and counter-claims of various "experts," as well as the truth behind the statistics, and what he discovered is fascinating. Highly recommended.

Amen!

Gospel of Food is a wonderful book -- straightforward, honest and real. Highly recommended for anyone interested in truth and reality. Shakes up your preconceptions and gives you an inside glimpse of the food and nutrition industry. Revolutionary, impeccably researched, and a great read!

If You Eat, Do Not Miss This Book

I've closely followed all of the food books of the past year (Pollan, Buford, Kamp, etc.), and "The Gospel of Food" stands apart for several reasons. Glassner is a sociologist and - if not as "literary" a writer as Pollan et al - his book is clearer, more astringent and freer of romantic authorial stances. "Gospel" provides an excellent opportunity to assess the food wisdom of the past years while adding immeasurably to the public's knowledge. Loving the counter-intuitive argument, Glassner (also author of bestseller "The Culture of Fear"), makes us reconsider our superstitions and most entrenched and most beloved ideas about food and culture. Fast food: not as universally evil as Morgan Spurlock and others would have you believe. Restaurant culture in American: about as democratic as Versailles under Antoinette. Health professionals: Mostly P.T. Barnums, armed with unbelievably spurious data. Make no mistake, this is an important book for anyone who cares about how we live now.