The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know about Food Is Wrong [Hardcover]

"Call it the perfectibility trap, this impulse to idealize some foods while devaluing others that are plenty good for their intended purposes but don't further a pet view of proper eating." - Barry Glassner

Perhaps you know someone whom THE GOSPEL OF FOOD author Barry Glassner would call a "devotee of the doctrine of naught", i.e. one who eats food based on what it doesn't contain - too much in the way of calories, fat, sodium, cholesterol, sugar, animal products, preservatives, genetic modifications, or whatever - rather than what it does. And once an acceptable foodstuff is decided upon, it's portioned and weighed and toted up for the day's ration. To such a person, mention of any yearning for a cheeseburger incurs a look of scornful contempt that would wither the most blithe of souls. Such a person is an unofficial member of the Food Police. ("Badges!? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!!")

Perhaps you're one of them.

A professor of sociology at USC, Glassner hopes to persuade the reader to accept a more balanced perspective of the food they eat that can perhaps be summarized as, "Eat what you want in moderation; eat food for what it is rather than what it's not; enjoy one of life's great pleasures because you've only one life to live."

Glassner is, of course, at odds with the hand-wringing government nannies and assorted self-proclaimed nutritional do-gooders that say you're too fat because you eat the wrong foods - especially fast foods - and are doomed to a premature death. With that in mind, perhaps the most interesting chapter in THE GOSPEL OF FOOD is "What Made America Fat", in which Barry examines the reasons ranging from the probable, such as the binge eating of constant dieters, to the interestingly plausible, such as adenovirus-36, to the downright improbable, such as inadequate breast feeding as an infant. Indeed, after referencing the iconoclastic book by law professor Paul Campos,The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health- see my 6/14/2005 review entitled "Recommended reading for all past and present 'husky boys'" - Glassner reiterates:

"... not a single published study demonstrates that heart disease among the overweight and moderately obese results from their heft rather than from other factors that contribute to obesity and heart disease, such as smoking, poverty, stress, genetic predisposition, physical activity, depression, and quality of medical care."

I give my read books away to friends, usually in pristine condition. This one, I fear, has a stain of Secret Sauce and a smear of french fry grease on page 173 because I, like Glassner:

"... can't help but wonder how hundreds of millions of people have enjoyed fast-food burgers and lived to tell the tale if Mother Nature had entirely different plans."

On my death-bed - perhaps sooner, perhaps later - I may have cause to remember a particularly delicious meal I once ate. I can assure you that it won't be my dear wife's stir-fried veg with tofu chunks, which, bless her good intentions, is edible enough. Rather, it may be that deep-dish, pepperoni, sausage and mushroom pizza dripping with melted cheese and grease, and washed down with a cold beer, because, for an all too fleeting span of time, it contributed to a life worth living. I think Glassner would agree.

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.

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.