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

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Summary: Connections between human health & what is eaten and drunk
Review: Why Some Like It Hot: Food, Genes, And Cultural Diversity by ethnobiologist and nutritional ecologist Gary Paul Nabhan is a personal and scientific survey focused upon the connections between human health, what is eaten and drunk, and how health and diet are impacted by cultural and genetic heritages. Why Some Like It Hot is replete with stories of how native foods and cultures have co-evolved in some fairly fascinated ways. Nabhan takes the reader to the cliffs of Sardinia, where fava beans help ward off malaria due to a genetic trait in the ethnic population; the highlights of Crete where the native's olive-oil-soaked diets are healthy for their bodies, but not for western visitors; as well as the American Southwest and neotropical Mexico where fiery chile peppers help kill meat-spoiling microbes so prevalent in desert and tropical climates. Why Some Like It Hot also reveals the dire consequences to human health represented by homogenous diets and the lost of traditional foods with such effects as the rampant onset of adult diabetes among 100 million indigenous peoples and the historic rise in heart disease in peoples of European decent. Indeed, Nabhan's attention to this phenomena was initiated by the lost of a Native American friend to a combination of diabetes and alcoholism. Strongly recommended for both academic library reference shelves as well as community library collections, Why Some Like It Hot is that rare combination of academic excellence and non-specialist general reader accessibility.