From Publishers Weekly
With 21st-century science promising better living through genetic engineering, and myriad diet fads claiming to be the answer to obesity and disease, this exploration of the coevolution of communities and their native foods couldn't be more timely. Ethnobiologist Nabhan (Coming Home to Eat) investigates the intricate web of culture, food and environment to show that even though 99.9% of the genetic makeup of all humans is identical, "each traditional cuisine has evolved to fit the inhabitants of a particular landscape or seascape over the last several millennia." Sardinians are genetically sensitive to fava beans, which can give them anemia but can also protect them from the malaria once epidemic in the region. Navajos are similarly sensitive to sage. In both cases, traditional knowledge allows safe interactions with these powerful medicine/poisons through cooking methods or food combinations. Nabhan questions the wisdom of genetic therapy, which "normalizes" the "bad" genes that can cause sickness but also enhance immunity. Most inspiring in this bioethnic detective story are Cretans, maintaining their health for centuries through traditional living, and Native Americans and Hawaiians, whose communities, devastated by diabetes, find an antidote by returning to their traditional foods, customs and agriculture. Mixing hard science with personal anecdotes, Nabhan convincingly argues that health comes from a genetically appropriate diet inextricably entwined with a healthy land and culture. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
The question posed by the title of Why Some Like It Hot: Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity (Island Press, $24) doesn't produce a terribly interesting answer. To oversimplify, some (like author Gary Paul Nabhan himself) prefer their food hot because they have taste buds very different from those of other people (like one of Nabhan's hapless old flames -- their romance might have gone further if he had offered her flowers rather than a home-cooked meal.) An ethnobiologist who heads the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, Nabhan addresses fascinating issues: why half the world's population can tolerate lactose while the other half can't, why it's beneficial that teenage boys in Sardinia develop an anemia-like malaise every spring, why some ethnic groups have a predisposition to alcoholism, how genes can mutate due to changes in diet. To explain how a culture's choice of food affects -- and is affected by -- its genetic characteristics, the author went to the highlands of Crete to sample the supposedly super-healthful Mediterranean diet. There Nabhan, winner of a MacArthur "genius" award in 1990, learned firsthand that many modern people just aren't equipped to digest so much olive oil. Nabhan writes compassionately about indigenous groups -- like Native Americans and ethnic Hawaiians -- that are threatened by globalization. Our Fast Food Nation is overwhelming these cultures; just as important, it is jeopardizing their health. But for those of us whose genes have been stewing for generations in the American melting pot, what's the point?One of the points is that we all should be wary of gene therapy, of genetically modified foods, of even the now-common fortification of foods with nutrients like folic acid. Although all of these interventions have real or promised benefits, such tinkering can be risky. Nabhan's overall message is that while we are what we eat, we are also what our forebears ate, and that some don't like it hot because too much heat can be deadly. You Are What You EatCopyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

From Booklist
Ethnobotanist and nutritional ecologist Nabhan continues the paradigm-altering investigation into the matrix of food, place, ethnicity, and well-being that he's been conducting in such influential books as Coming Home to Eat (2002). A leading voice in the slow-food movement and a thoroughly engaging guide, Nabhan now delineates the evolutionary dimension of newly recognized interactions among cuisine, culture, and genetics that inspired him to modify an old adage: "We are what our ancestors ate and drank." He teases out the evolutionary secrets of chili peppers and explains why some folks like them hot and others can't take the heat. Since it's easiest to see the hidden benefits of ethnic cuisines in isolated island societies, he travels to Sardinia, where, for centuries, fava beans have protected the populace from malaria, and to Hawaii, where natives have discovered that traditional yet neglected taro dishes control diabetes. With millions of people suffering from little-understood food-related maladies, Nabhan's revelations of the complexities of our inherited interactions with food, the true significance of the healthful "synergies" of traditional ethnic cuisines, and the essentiality of both biodiversity and cultural diversity are as critical as they are fascinating. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Book News, Inc.
Nabhan, an ethnobiologist and nutritional ecologist, examines how our ethnicity determines our digestion. He explains why modern native Americans are prone to diabetes, why Mediterranean diets generally work best for those whose forbears actually came from the Med, and why we should not rely on hot peppers as an infallible aphrodisiac. He urges us to learn about the foods our particular ethnic group used to stay healthy in the home country, and to apply that knowledge to the choices we make as we face globalized victuals. The text is double-spaced.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Book Description

Do your ears burn whenever you eat hot chile peppers? Does your face immediately flush when you drink alcohol? Does your stomach groan if you are exposed to raw milk or green fava beans? If so, you are probably among the one-third of the world's human population that is sensitive to certain foods due to your genes' interactions with them.

Formerly misunderstood as "genetic disorders," many of these sensitivities are now considered to be adaptations that our ancestors evolved in response to the dietary choices and diseases they faced over millennia in particular landscapes. They are liabilities only when we are "out of place," on globalized diets depleted of certain chemicals that triggered adaptive responses in our ancestors.

In Why Some Like It Hot, an award-winning natural historian takes us on a culinary odyssey to solve the puzzles posed by "the ghosts of evolution" hidden within every culture and its traditional cuisine. As we travel with Nabhan from Java and Bali to Crete and Sardinia, to Hawaii and Mexico, we learn how various ethnic cuisines formerly protected their traditional consumers from both infectious and nutrition-related diseases. We also bear witness to the tragic consequences of the loss of traditional foods, from adult-onset diabetes running rampant among 100 million indigenous peoples to the historic rise in heart disease among individuals of northern European descent.

In this, the most insightful and far-reaching book of his career, Nabhan offers us a view of genes, diets, ethnicity, and place that will forever change the way we understand human health and cultural diversity. This book marks the dawning of evolutionary gastronomy in a way that may save and enrich millions of lives.

About the Author
Gary Paul Nabhan is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University. He is the author or coauthor of more than 12 books, 65 technical journal articles, and 200 published magazine articles. Among the honors Nabhan has received are a MacArthur Fellowship, 1990-1995; Pew Scholarship for Conservation and the Environment, 1991; John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, 1986; Lannan Literary Award, 1999; Lifetime Achievement Award from Society for Conservation Biology.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"One-third of the world's human population is sensitive to certain foods due to your genes' interactions with them." "Formerly misunderstood as "genetic disorders," many of these sensitivities are now considered to be adaptations that our ancestors evolved in response to the dietary choices and diseases they faced over millennia in particular landscapes. They are liabilities only when we are "out of place," on globalized diets depleted of certain chemicals that triggered adaptive responses in our ancestors." In Why Some Like It Hot, an award-winning natural historian takes us on a culinary odyssey to solve the puzzles posed by "the ghosts of evolution" hidden within every culture and its traditional cuisine. As we travel from Java and Bali to Crete and Sardinia, to Hawaii and Mexico, Nabhan offers us a view of genes, diets, ethnicity, and place that will forever change the way we understand human health and cultural diversity. This book marks the dawning of evolutionary gastronomy in a way that may save and enrich millions of lives.

SYNOPSIS

Nabhan, an ethnobiologist and nutritional ecologist, examines how our ethnicity determines our digestion. He explains why modern native Americans are prone to diabetes, why Mediterranean diets generally work best for those whose forbears actually came from the Med, and why we should not rely on hot peppers as an infallible aphrodisiac. He urges us to learn about the foods our particular ethnic group used to stay healthy in the home country, and to apply that knowledge to the choices we make as we face globalized victuals. The text is double-spaced. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly