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

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.

Contents

Preface: Eating Is Believing
1. False Prophets: Culinary Correctness Gone Awry
A Satisfaction Not Easy to Attain
Walking on Eggs
The Wit to Eat Whole Yogurt
Where Hot Dogs Trump Spinach
A Lone Voice of the New York Times
Eating Isn’t Smoking
The Danger in Crying Wolf
My Brilliant Diet
Dangers Too Big to See
2. Safe Treyf: Pretending to Be a Saint
Skinny Pigs
Where the Flavor Comes From
What “Natural” Means
Exercises in Excess
Men’s Bread, Women’s Bread
How About an Oat-Bran Beer with That Soy Burger?
Dip Your Blueberries in Chocolate
3. Promises of the Fathers: How the Food Industry Sells Its Wares
An Organic Lunch
My Chat with the Top Food Cop
Size Matters
Why I Can’t Bring Myself to Demonize Big Food
Trouble in Paradise
Classy Dining
4. Restaurant Heaven: Defining Culinary Greatness
The Anonymity Myth
Important Personages
Making a Scene
Lights! Cameras! Bad Food!
Defining Culinary Greatness
A Restless Quest
Outreach
5. The Food Adventurers: In Search of Authenticity
Another Kind of Hunger
For Extra Credit, Define Delicious
Inauthentic Authenticity
The Adventurer Wears Prada
Going Mainstream
Where to Find Consistent Chinese Food
Unexpected Authenticity
Beef Tacos and Orange-Flavored Chicken
6. Restaurant Hell: The Dissing of McDonald’s
Beware Whom You Call Stupid
The Ultimate Populist Place
Making Burgers Safe for the Suburbs
It’s All McDonald’s Fault
A Paean to the Cheeseburger
In and Out of Work
Similar Work, Different Food
Can a Burger Be Pure?
7. What Made America Fat?: Hint: It’s Not Just the Food
A Red Herring
The Law of Unintended Consequences
Why Fast Food Takes the Fall
The Nostalgia Trap
Go on a Diet, Gain Weight
Lose Weight, Become a Hermit
America’s Number Two Killer?
The Weight-Centered View of the Universe
Money Triumphs over Fat
Blinded by the Lithe
8. Conclusion: The Perils of Perfectionism
Out of Left Field
Whose Guidelines Are These?
Big Claims in Small Packages
How the Almond Got Its Halo
An Orgy of Evidence
How Much Is That Scientist in the Window?
The Terroir of Genetically Modified Foods
Family Magic
Eat and Let Eat

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