Matt Siegel

This is an interesting book. It has a lot of good information and some of it was funny.

I didn't like the last three chapters of the book much. They seemed cluttered and were more focused on contemporary foods.

Chapter 1: How humans and food evolved together.

Chapter 2: More than I thought there was to know about pie.

Chapter 3: Cereal and the creepy people who made it possible.

Chapter 4: Corn and how it's in everything imaginable.

Chapter 5: Possibly more than I wanted to know about honey.

Chapter 6: Vanilla and the history of ice cream.

Chapter 7: Ancient holidays and the food associated with them.

Chapter 8: Too much about modern fast food and the different varieties of Oreo cookies.

Chapter 9: Hot peppers and why people eat them.

Chapter 10: Mostly a boring summary.

The narration by Roger Wayne was good.… (meer)

A fascinating volume on where our food comes from and how our food choices have changed through history. There is chapter on the development of our modern breakfast cereals starting with the Kellogg brothers. Honey, where it comes from and how it may be contaminated with something as harmless as water but also other materials that are more harmful is a wakeup. Olive oil is another important food that is frequently augmented with other liquids as dangerous as machine oil but usually with other edible oils such as sunflower. Two thirds to 90% of olive oil sold in the USA is not pure olive oil.

Some of the most fun in the book is when Siegel describes what people in the Medieval period ate. As well, chapter on corn describes how this crop is in a lot of our food. A chapter on vanilla may make you appreciate why it is so expensive.… (meer)