Summer Reading: Devoured

If you’re looking for provocative summer reading about food—specifically how your clients’ lifestyles inform their food choices—Devoured (HarperCollins 2016) is the book for you.

Sophie Egan, MPH, RD, food writer and program director at The Culinary Institute of America, takes readers on an eye-opening journey through the American food psyche, examining connections between our eating habits and the values that define our national character—work, freedom and progress. Egan explores why these values enable such an unstable and often unhealthy food culture while, paradoxically, making America’s cuisine really impressive.

She 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?

Devoured weaves together insights from psychology, anthropology, food science and behavioral economics to create a powerful, unique look at food in America.