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

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"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.

I absolutely loved this book and after checking it out from the library and reading it in a single day had to buy it for my bookshelf. The title can be misleading though. Some folks may be seriously disappointed or even angered if they got this book in the hopes of finding a diet plan or something that was going to tell them what foods they should eat. But anyone already familiar with the writing of Barry Glassner will not be disappointed. It provides an illuminating and entertaining examination of America's at times bizarre food habits, skewering many of our fads, beliefs and snobbery surrounding food.

Unfortunately, this books reads rather like a gospel in that it has a few good ideas that quickly get buried under its more rambling anecdotes. The discussion on "nonundelows" is good, as is the deconstruction of "the hot peppers will give you stomach cancer" experiment. However, the book rapidly disintegrates into a largely incoherent attack on strawmen.

If you are looking for a reasoned, methodological analysis of why popular conceptions on food might be wrong, this is not the book to read. Glassner cheerfully rails against isolated Harvard studies, but he does not offer a good break-down on why one might reconsider a well researched paradigm like the "Harvard Food Pyramid." He extorts you to eat whatever you like, and provides a few studies that would back up reasons for doing so, but does not address the large bodies or research going to why you may or may not want to follow the Mediterranean model of eating.

Glassner is quite right about there being entirely too much emphasis on what not to eat in some circles. And certainly he is correct in that the fat-free movement has been shown to grounded on false premises (by those reviled folks at Harvard, no less... going back to their food pyramid). His "doctrine of naught" is an interesting idea, but one that has been explored more effectively by far more coherent authors. Even a short book like Guiliano's "Why French Women Don't Get Fat" provides a much more informative discussion on the topic.

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.

Having read this book, as well as Michael Pollan's and Eric Schlosser's books, I can safely say that if you can lead the life of food that these books outline, great. What Glassner focuses on, and what the other authors, neglect, is class issues when it comes to food. You may find frozen foods unhealthy, but if your a single parent with kids, a quick and inexpensive meal is quite handy. Glassner's book also shines the light on the weight loss industry and health fanatics to show that they every incentive to skew studies in their favor just as much as McDonalds does.
Throwing studies around with contradicting results won't solve the obesity epidemic, if their is in fact one. Diets come and go, but we still seem to gain the weight back. There is a genetic pre-disposition to Obesity, which very few people have. The key to keep the weight off is not to starve yourself, but eating enough while not over-eating.
Drinking whole milk won't kill us, nor will indulging in a Ice Cream Sundae once a week. The take home message of this book is eat in moderation and till you're full, eat reasonably healthy, and stay physically active. I would also recommend Fat Politics by Eric Oliver if you are looking for a book with similar conclusions, but with a more social scientific approach.

I was hooked on this book after the first few pages and the discussion of "nonundelows" and the study where more nutrition was taken in by food enjoyed by subjects.

The book does seem to meander in the middle, taking so much time to talk about restaurant critics and expensive restaurants, but it ties together in the end somewhat.

Glassner goes to the sources of the "facts" quoted in many studies and finds them lacking or debatable or that the study never existed. The analysis of the studies and consideration of the reports so many "facts" are based upon makes this book worth reading.

This book gives a different, and much appreciated perspective on nutrition and eating. For years I've suspected that the diet fascists were wrong. One day it's oat bran, then it's olive oil, then it's trans fat free....where does it end? We're on fat free diets and getting fatter than ever. This book offers a dose of sanity to the diet craziness.

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!