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NO SPECIES has a more complex relationship with food than we do. There are few edible items that, somewhere in the world, humans do not eat. The evolutionary benefits of a diverse diet are obvious. Yet unlike other omnivores, our diets are tightly interwoven into the fabric of our society. There are perfectly palatable foods that some people will not eat, for example. Others have an aversion to food altogether. Where鈥檚 the evolutionary sense in that?
After a slow start, John S. Allen鈥檚 The Omnivorous Mind becomes an authoritative, if rather stoic, guide to the ways in which humans eat with their minds as much as their stomachs. This includes the relationship between food and memory, language and diets, and the importance of categorising foodstuffs.
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Allen often strays far from the principal subject, so those hoping for a focus on food may lose interest. But anyone curious about the human condition will welcome the diversity.
The Omnivorous Mind: Our evolving relationship with food
Harvard University Press