Gary Paul NabhanReseñas

I was hoping for a really thoroughly researched, encyclopedic book about all sorts of different flavors and their genetic, historic and anthropologic rationales. In retrospect, that was a really tall order, so the fail to meet expectations needs to be put in that context.

And the book isn't bad. Parts are quite good: the conversation about the diversity of human diet and evolution since paleolithic times and the hypothesis that dependent on different genetic makeup people need different foods in order to be healthy (although he seems to view this in a very prescriptive fashion, leaving those of us with mixed genetic ancestry, which, I mean, is nearly everyone these days, to wonder if we need to whole genome sequence ourselves just to answer "what's for dinner?")

I also really enjoyed the chapter on different tasters. I knew that I was a bitter taster from high school bio taste tester strips, but I like many classically bitter foods -- cruciferous vegetables, very dark chocolate, etc., so I had always discounted the idea of chemical tasters, but the chapter really helped explain the spectrum of phenotype and expand it to things that I am averse to (grapefruit, orange pith).

The chapter on G6PD is decent. Anyone who reads popular science with any avidity already knows G6PD, but the speculation about its coincidence not just with regions with malaria but also the timing of the fava season to the malaria season expanding the discussion.


There was a very long discussion at the beginning about Native Americans, alcoholism and diabetes. These topics have been covered at length and certainly Dr. Nabhan explores his personal ties to these issues, but this part is not very scientifically interesting.

His section on MTHFR is probably the poorest -- people are at a cardiac disadvantage if they carry the polymorphism and don't ingest enough folate, and then he concludes that the polymorphism flourished in Northern Europe because it encouraged folate dependence and therefore encouraged selective mating (i.e. mates who did not have access to folate would become sick, allowing people of mating age to select only those with access to folate.) However, that is a pretty flimsy explanation for why there would be a selection advantage for the mutation (versus the wildtype, which would appear fit regardless of access to folate.) It's clear Nabhan is not a geneticist!

Another complaint is that he is obsessed with the idea that we have nutritional diseases. He keeps alluding to the fact that food intolerances are growing and that we as a population are increasingly unhealthy (and hypothesizes it's because we don't eat our specific ancestral food, which, see above re: genelogical prescriptivism.) This is just a pet peeve of mine -- people are mostly getting healthier as time passes.

My biggest complaint overall, though, is how thin the volume is: it includes the chapters I mentioned and another exploring why we eat spicy food and why different people tolerate it more than others and that's it.

A different sort of book - the author discusses seeds and plants and their origins while walking a long trek through Italy.

There is a lot of interesting anecdotes about spices, their history, and uses, but this is not at all a rigorous study, but a very idiosyncratic view which excludes about the same number of facts as it includes and includes complete speculation as fact.½

I enjoy this mix of personal encounters with Papago relating to farming and native plants, and his scientific explanations of what they've learned thru experience.I especially appreciate the extensive notes at the end of the book which give more details about his sources, and inspire further reading. If I lived in a desert I would be attempting to put into practice (and learning more details) the practices of the Tohono O'Odham. One thing I can do right here: The Papago practice to use rainwater instead of well water has been supported by a comparison study of the same crop raised both ways. The rainwater foods were higher in protein and other nutrients, and were more productive. The Papago saya the well water just doesn't taste the same. So this spring I put containers out during a rain, and drank the fresh sweet rainwater. They are right.½

A fascinating tale of the relationship between the spice trade and culinary imperialism. The author's family lineage dates back to the time they were spice traders in the Arabian peninsula. Frankincense was discussed very knowledgeably and was a fascinating story in itself.

Nabhan writes of how trading in spice and precious plant products predates the Christian era (CE) of records. His work and those of his colleagues, Gene Anderson, Paul Buell (an ethnobotanist and a food historian, respectively) have credibly demonstrated that the uncanny similarities between recipes in disparate parts of the world point to a cuisine-based dissemination of knowledge.

Nabhan's book often wanders from point to point and back again, occasionally devolving into arcane aspects of history that may not interest the casual reader. However, there was much to gain from reading the book and certainly new insights about how Asian and North American centres of origin for specific crops came to be so widely dispersed.½

When I picked up this book, I thought it would be about our taste buds and why some people like spicy food and others don't. I didn't read the subtitle. However, it was still an interesting book about how ethnic populations can avoid diseases such as diabetes by eating their traditional foods.

I am not a scientist or in the medical profession so, although this book makes sense, I am unaware if there are other studies or theories that contradict what Nabhan is saying. I wish he would have included a chapter on people of Northern European descent. He did mention they need more folic acid, but that was about it.

He concentrated on the cultures he has worked with and is most familiar with - the Mediterranean, the Hawaiians, the native tribes of Mexico and Arizona.

All in all, a quick read and an interesting premise that makes sense.

This book has been on my shelves for a VERY long time, since we lived in Arizona (at least fourteen years?). I finally only got around to reading it because of a prompt for a reading challenge.

This book made me wildly nostalgic for Tucson and made me wish I'd spent more time hiking/in the mountains when I'd been there. It was also a nice addition to having recently read Death Comes for the Archbishop and thinking about how cultures/agriculture/religion changed among indigenous peoples as Europeans and later white Americans pushed West.

Despite having friends in Tucson who spent a lot of time with the O'Odham, I knew very little about them as a people prior to this book. I especially enjoyed the chapter on cactus wine, because, as Nabhan points out -- an outsider's understanding of the annual saguaro fruit harvesting is highly romanticized. Nabhan's representation is both grittier and more beautiful.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

"Gary Paul Nabhan is a first-generation Lebanese American. [He] is an Agricultural Ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother and author whose work has focused primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert Southwest." Source: www.wikipedia.com Stephen Trimble teaches writing in the Honors College and Environmental Humanities program at the University of Utah. . .[He has] a distinctive voice as a humanities-based naturalist. . ." Source: www.steventrimble.net/bio
Robert Michael Pyle, author of 'The Thunder Tree,' wrote of this work, saying, ". . .a ditch somewhere--or a creek, meadow, woodlot, or marsh. . .These places of initiation, where the borders between ourselves and other creatures break down, where the earth gets under our nails and a sense of place gets under our skin. . .Everybody has a ditch, or ought to. For only the ditches and the fields, the woods, the ravines--can teach us to care enough for all the land."

Ok, but not great.

A beautifully illustrated and dramatic call to recognize, celebrate, and conserve the great diversity of foods that gives North America its distinctive culinary identity and reflects our multicultural heritage.

An informative book.
Depending where you originated, what you eat may affect your bodies and health in different ways.
Surprising facts, well written and easy to understand.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Island Press via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

Good info on the history, cultural traditions, and botanical/agricultural significance of assorted heirloom peppers, plus some tasty recipes and important statistics on land subsidence (especially in coastal growing regions). I appreciated their information on seed saving, biodiversity, and foodprints, but they referred to themselves as "gastronauts" way too often. Read it before you place your next seed order.½

I number of years ago I had researched diets and not too long ago I did again because of my problem with high blood pressure starting at a young age. I always wondered if it could be genetic based when learning about certain health problems in college nutrition classes.I never could find any research. As I was reading this book I again decided to do a quick search.This time I did find a possible link due to my dutch Mennonite heritage. The recent research on genes and foods is really impressive and this book really gives a great insight to some of the connections known for quite a long time and recent findings. I really recommend this book for anyone interested in finding a diet that is connected to your genes and culture more closely than the Plato or other hunter gather type of diet plans found at this time. This book was an exciting find for me.

A thought provoking book indeed. Disclaimer, I'm a vegetarian, so the sequences about slaughter of nicely raised critters just provoked in my mind "really, you don't need to do that!". But fascinating details about the food plants of the Sonora desert region with passionate meanderings about the WTO, GMO, and so on. The author comes across as something of a fanatic prig, and I imagine I would not care to spend much time in his presence, but the book is worth reading and thinking about. It's 10 years old, but the debates are still quite current.

Collection of essays. My favorite was Learning Herps . . . but enjoyed them all.

A book on chiles that lacks bite, what else do I need to say? The idea is good and usually I enjoy mister Nabhan's books, but this is a no no.

A discussion of the intersection of science and poetry, nowhere near as interesting as I would have expected, being myself both a scientist and a poet. I was very disappointed, especially since I had enjoyed his other book so very much. The writing style was the same casual, friendly style, but he didn't render his subject as vividly.½

The author tells a good story, bringing the characters to life, as he describes his year of eating locally. He would eat nothing for a year but that which was grown in his own locality - a difficult task, since he lives in the American southwest. His descriptions of growing, harvesting, and preparing food made me wince, even as I enjoyed the story. It brought home to me very starkly how much time our ancestors had to devote just to feeing themselves, leaving much less time for other things that might be considered equally important to some of us. A good entry in the slow food genre.½

This really two books in one, both required reading on the subject of crop diversity and its importance to food security. The first is the incredible biography of N. I. Vavilov, the Stalin-era Russian plant scientist who traveled five continents studying crop diversity and collecting seeds for the first modern seed bank. The second is Nabhan's retracing of some of Vavilov's travels and commenting how the changes he is seeing illustrate how climate change, economics, and genetic engineering are affecting the world's food supplies.

Nabhan is a scientist as well as a great storyteller and travel writer, telling a fascinating tale that matters.

Better books have come out on the topic since this was published. Nevertheless, it is a light read that touches on many of the environmentalist minded points about the relationship between food and place.

Examines the potential for marketing the heritage value of Arizona's place-based foods.

The cultural legacy of American foods told in twenty stories of imperilment as well as success stories of foods pulled from the brink of extinction.

This book could have been so much more. The idea was great but it missed a lot. Where was the Olympia blueberry? And the Chehalis apple? I believe it was a collaborative effort by a group of Seattle chefs. It would have been a better book if they had included people involved in growing the food of this area. I hope that someone writes a new expanded edition.

Quite thorough on subject.

An interesting read, not what I was expecting from the title, but it was still interesting. The primary thesis is that indigenous people have adapted to (and with) their local food supply. I found chapter 4 about the Mediterranean diet particularly interesting since my doctor had recently suggested that I follow it.