Devoured, Sophie Egan
Devoured, Sophie Egan
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Devoured
From Chicken Wings to Kale Smoothies -- How What We Eat Defines Who We Are

Author: Sophie Egan

Narrator: Ann Richardson

Unabridged: 12 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 05/03/2016


Synopsis

A provocative look at how and what Americans eat and why—a flavorful blend of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Salt Sugar Fat, and Freakonomics that reveals how the way we live shapes the way we eat.Food writer and Culinary Institute of America program 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 character—work, freedom, and progress—and 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 America’s cuisine so great.Egan raises a host of intriguing questions: Why does McDonald’s have 107 items on its menu? Why are breakfast sandwiches, protein bars, and gluten-free anything so popular? Will bland, soulless 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; from the American obsession with “having it our way” to the surge of Starbucks, Chipotle, and other chains individualizing the eating experience; from high culture—artisan and organic and what exactly “natural” means—to low culture—the sale of 100 million Taco Bell Doritos Locos Tacos in ten weeks. She also looks at how America’s cuisine—like the nation itself—has been shaped by diverse influences from across the globe.Devoured weaves together insights from the fields of psychology, anthropology, food science, and behavioral economics as well as myriad examples from daily life to create a powerful and unique look at food in America.

About Sophie Egan

Sophie Egan is the Director of Health and Sustainability Leadership and Editorial Director at The Culinary Institute of America. Based in San Francisco, Sophie is a contributor to The New York Times' Well blog, and has written about food and health for Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bon Appétit, WIRED, and Sunset magazine, where she worked on The Sunset Cookbook and The One-Block Feast book. She holds a master of public health from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on health and social behavior, and a bachelor of arts with honors in history from Stanford University. In 2016, she was named one of the UC Global Food Initiative’s 30 Under 30.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kater

When I think about food, it's usually in the context of "what am I going to make for dinner" or gnashing my teeth in irritation about coworkers evangelizing about their latest fad diets. Food is a huge part of our culture and our identity, (a fact that I was made well aware of when creating a faerie......more

Goodreads review by Biblio

Covers a lot of the same ground as Pandora's Lunchbox, Salt Sugar Fat, The Dorito Effect, but if you enjoy those books, as I have, you'll like this one too. Sophie Egan has a conversational style and seems ready to try anything. A few of the topics in Devoured that I don't recall seeing in the other......more

Goodreads review by Austin

Sophie Egan's Devoured: How What We Eat Defines Who We Are probes the mores of American food culture to find out what unites and divides us. Egan argues that food mirrors the American mindset, reflecting our common habits, tendencies, and livelihoods. There are several themes she seems to develop th......more

Goodreads review by Sarah

Fascinating! It's no secret I find the subject of food interesting but this comprehensive exploration of American food culture exceeded my expectations. To use a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad pun - I devoured it! Author Sophie Egan discusses in depth how and why we eat the way we do here in......more