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

Glassner rips down the curtains on our ideas on food and eating and leaves the reader powerless and confused on what to believe. This is not meant as a slam to the writer because that's his point: we don't know a whole lot about food.

Hearsay, poorly designed studies and conflict of interest taint what we do "know". Read the book to figure out what you don't actually know.

this book reminds me of his other book, the culture of fear, as well as freakonomics and other books that question conventional wisdom, and don't really make any strong conclusions. i found the sections on restaurants to be boring, but other than that it was interesting. i liked his points about the demonization of fast food as a class thing and how in reality many other restaurants engage in all the same practices. i also liked what he said about food companies adding all those vitiamins and stuff to cereal and water, when really it hasn't been proven to do much. i'm not sure this book really convinced me of anything, but just pointed out how complicated and intertwined issues of food, nutrition, and class are. some parts challenged me show more to think more about my "food snob" tendencies. also, it is important not to stress out so much about what you eat and just enjoy the whole process that goes along with eating. show less

An interesting discussion of the US' obsession with food; at the high end with ultra-expensive restaurants, at the low-end with claims of how fast food is responsible for every ill in modern America, and in between with the various bizarre claims of "scientists have proved" everything and anything about how what you eat affects your body and mind.

A book like this could easily have become boring, but I found that I was entranced by most of it, excluding perhaps only the chapter on restaurants of the rich and famous which was just too removed from my life.
In particular, the first few chapters, on food myths and on food science (how industrialists create new food products) are quite fascinating.

There were interesting passages in this book, and several valid points. It was, I thought, both too long and too wandering. The author spent an inordinate amount of time citing studies to show that (other) studies can't be trusted. I'm not sure why the studies he cites are presented as irrefutable. I kept thinking about "lies, damned lies, and statistics" throughout the whole book.

The book itself is discursive and meandering, though obviously well-meaning and written by a food lover.

While I don't buy the current foodie gospel entirely, neither do I buy all of Glassner's points.

A disjointed account of various aspects of the American diet. Certain parts of the book are interesting and fresh--I enjoyed the accounts about eating at fabulous restaurants and the parts encouraging us to enjoy food. Other parts seemed well-worn and out of place (like some of the diet and nutrition advice). All in all, there wasn't a cohesive message in this book.

GREAT BOOK!!!!! I wish I could have finished reading it (due too soon and holds at the library), but it was fun to read and confirmed what we already knew - just about EVERYTHING is good for you in moderation; forget special diets