num_pages: 416
description: A provocative look at how and what Americans eat and whya flavorful blend of The Omnivores Dilemma Salt Sugar Fat and Freakonomics that reveals how the way we live shapes the way we eatFood writer and Culinary Institute of America director Sophie Egan takes readers on an eye-opening journey through the American food psyche examining the connections between the values that define our national characterwork freedom and progressand our eating habits the good and the bad. Egan explores why these values make for such an unstable and often unhealthy food culture and paradoxically why they also make Americas cuisine so great.Egan raises a host of intriguing questions: Why does McDonalds have 107 items on its menu? Why are breakfast sandwiches protein bars and gluten-free anything so popular? Will bland soul-less meal replacements like Soylent revolutionize our definition of a meal? The search for answers takes her across the culinary landscape from the prioritization of convenience over health to the unintended consequences of perks like free meals for employees; the American obsession with having it our way to the surge of Starbucks Chipotle and other chains individualizing the eating experience; from high cultureartisan and organic and what exactly natural meansto low culturethe sale of 100 million Taco Bell Doritos Locos Tacos in ten weeks. She also looks at how Americas cuisinelike the nation itselfhas been shaped by diverse influences from across the globe.Forked weaves together insights from the fields of psychology anthropology food science and behavior economics as well as myriad examples from daily life to create a powerful and unique look at food in America.
language: English
title: Devoured: From Chicken Wings to Kale Smoothies--How What We Eat Defines Who We Are
publisher: William Morrow