A Short History of the American Stomach
by Frederick Kaufman
Published by Harcourt Trade Publishers
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Reviewed by Paul Markowitz
It has become common knowledge that America suffers from a severe feast and famine mentality. If we couldn’t tell by our own observations, any survey of recent news articles proclaims the raging epidemic of obesity in our culture. A little less obvious, but of equal concern, are the high rates of bulimia and anorexia also in our society.
What Frederick Kaufman makes abundantly clear in his short gastrological history is that these seemingly contradictory urges of feast and famine have been with us from the very beginning. It is deeply enmeshed in our societal psyche. It has strong religious, philosophical, and even physiological components. In fact, “stuffing and starving” is rooted in our bones, or more accurately, in our stomachs.
Although Kaufman certainly covers a lot of history of food consumption in this country, from Cotton Mather and Washington Irving, to Emeril Legasse and Sara Moulton, his book is permeated with the philosophical ramblings of a knowledgeable food fanatic.
During the course of his social history of American food and its consumption, Kaufman covers a series of loosely related topics: the rise of the Food Network, the religious fervor of raw food adherents, the allure of kosher food, the vast number of diet books produced over 200 years, the plethora of competitive eating contests, and the inevitable growth of genetically modified foods.
Although Kaufman sometimes seems to be reaching a bit too far to make a point, his thoughtful and sometimes humorous deliberations on “mutant ninja oysters” or the gastroporn aspects of Rachael Ray on the Food Network, make for a witty, interesting, and informative read.