Can I read Why Some Like It Hot : Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity on EtoBox?

Why Some Like It Hot : Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity by Gary Paul Nabhan is a science book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Why Some Like It Hot : Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity about?

Do your ears burn whenever you eat hot chile peppers? Does your face immediately flush when you drink alcohol? Does your stomach groan if you are exposed to raw milk or green fava beans? If so, you are probably among the one-third of the world's human population that is sensitive to certain foods due to your genes'interactions with them. Formerly misunderstood as'genetic disorders,'many of these sensitivities are now considered to be adaptations that our ancestors evolved in response to the dietary choices and diseases they faced over millennia in particular landscapes. They are liabilities only when we are'out of place,'on globalized diets depleted of certain chemicals that triggered adaptive responses in our ancestors. In Why Some Like It Hot, an award-winning natural historian takes us on a culinary odyssey to solve the puzzles posed by'the ghosts of evolution'hidden within every culture and its traditional cuisine. As we travel with Nabhan from Java and Bali to Crete and Sardinia, to Hawaii and Mexico, we learn how various ethnic cuisines formerly protected their traditional consumers from both infectious and nutrition-related diseases. We also bear witness to the tragic conseq

Who reads Why Some Like It Hot : Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity?

Author

Gary Paul Nabhan

Publisher

Washington: Island Press/Shearwater Books

Published

2004

Language

EN

ISBN

9781559634663

Category

science

Subjects

Cooking, Anthropology, Folklore

Rating

3.72 / 5 (18 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-13