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Paul Rozin's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Paul Rozin recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Paul Rozin's favorite book recommendations of all time.

1
The human tongue has somewhere up to eight thousand taste buds to inform us when something is sweet, salty, sour, or bitter—or as we usually think of it—delicious or revolting. Tastes differ from one region to the next, and no two people’s seem to be the same. But why is it that some people think maple syrup is too sweet, while others can’t get enough? What makes certain people love Roquefort cheese and others think it smells like feet? Why do some people think cilantro tastes like soap?

John Prescott tackles this conundrum in Taste Matters, an absorbing exploration of why...
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Recommended by Paul Rozin, and 1 others.

Paul RozinLiking food means primarily liking its taste or flavor. Prescott is very interested in understanding the role of taste—not just sweet, sour, or salty, but also the textures in your mouth and of course the smell that comes out of the food into your nose. (Source)

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2
Here is a witty look at the powerful appeal of that ubiquitous American classic and universal food phenomenon, the cheeseburger platter. Elisabeth Rozin traces the historical, cultural, and culinary roots of each element - burger, cheese, bun, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, fries, and, of course, Coca Cola - in search of the significance of its tantalizing allure. After all, this unique combination of red meat, fat, sugar, and salt violates all that is nutritionally and politically correct in the 90s, yet we can't resist it. The Primal Cheeseburger is an entertaining exploration of... more
Recommended by Paul Rozin, and 1 others.

Paul RozinThe book deconstructs the cheeseburger—the bun, its toppings and condiments—and talks about where each of these components come from and how they are produced. The history of each of these cheeseburger components contain independent revelations. (Source)

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3
A rollicking indictment of the liberal elite's hypocrisy when it comes to food.

Ban trans-fats? Outlaw Happy Meals? Tax Twinkies? What's next? Affirmative action for cows?   
     A catastrophe is looming. Farmers are raping the land and torturing animals. Food is riddled with deadly pesticides, hormones and foreign DNA. Corporate farms are wallowing in government subsidies. Meat packers and fast food restaurants are exploiting workers and tainting the food supply. And Paula Deen has diabetes!
     Something must be done. So says an emerging elite in this country...
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Recommended by Paul Rozin, and 1 others.

Paul RozinLusk argues we’ve gotten obsessed with organics and that there’s not really any justification for that. Organic foods, in his view—and there’s evidence for this—are not healthier. (Source)

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4
The Hungry Soul is a fascinating exploration of the natural and cultural act of eating. Kass brilliantly reveals how the various aspects of this phenomenon, and the customs, rituals, and taboos surrounding it, relate to universal and profound truths about the human animal and its deepest yearnings.

"Kass is a distinguished and graceful writer. . . . It is astonishing to discover how different is our world from that of the animals, even in that which most evidently betrays that we too are animals—our need and desire for food."—Roger Scruton, Times Literary...
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Recommended by Paul Rozin, and 1 others.

Paul RozinThe book is about how food is a form of expression for civilizations, from pre-Roman days to the present. Kass tells us that we eat and how we eat becomes part of who we are. (Source)

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5
What should we have for dinner? For omnivore's like ourselves, this simple question has always posed a dilemma: When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life. Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder. The omnivore's dilemma has returned with a vengeance, as the cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet confronts us with a... more

Barry EstabrookMichael Pollan looks at food production through four meals. One is a fast-food meal, the other is an industrial-scale organic meal, then there is a small-scale organic meal and finally he actually goes out and either grows or kills, in the case of the meat, the entire meal himself. That is the narrative. (Source)

Gabriel CoarnaMichael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" --more precisely, the first 3rd of it-- was what first made me realize how badly the Earth, as an ecosystem, is out of balance. (Source)

Tristram StuartHe concludes that there is food out there that tastes good, is good for us and is good for the planet. (Source)

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