The Taste of Sweet: Our Complicated Love Affair with Our Favorite Treats
by Joanne Chen
List Price:
Our Price: $7.98
You Save: $16.97 (68%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Joanne ChenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-18
ISBN: 0307351904
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Crown
Book Reviews of The Taste of Sweet: Our Complicated Love Affair with Our Favorite Treats
Book Review: A satisfying treat
Summary: 4 Stars
About:
Chen writes about all things sweet. Sugar, fake sugar, how we taste sweetness, the history of sugar, tastes and baked goods around the World, how and why you get full, how flavors are made, how sweets became "bad" and their relationship with weight are all covered.
Things I thought were interesting:
Some folks are "super tasters"
The idea that there is a "taste map" on the tongue where different areas taste different things (bitter, sweet, etc.) is a myth.
If you tell folks that a wine is from South Dakota and tell some other folks that the exact same wine is from California, they'll say the California wine tastes better.
Companies adjust the taste of their products to localities. A drink may be sweeter in one country than another.
If a restaurant sells zucchini cookies but starts calling them Grandma's zucchini cookies, not only will sales increase, but consumers will say they taste better.
In a study on chocolate cravings, only an actual chocolate bar curbed the craving as opposed to a pill capsule with cocoa in it. But people who fast and are shown favorite foods have the same brain area light up as an addict craving drugs.
People eat more when distracted, i.e. when watching TV.
Slim-Fast has 180 calories and 4 tablespoons of sugar per can and is supposed to make people thin. A can of cola has 150 calories and 3 tablespoons of sugar and is supposed to make us fat. Granted, one is supposed to be a meal replacement but still....
The 3 cheapest fruits are apples, bananas and oranges.
Anything under 5 calories per serving can be reported as having no calories. No calorie Splenda really has 4 calories.
More than a dozen feedback loops affect human food consumption.
Pros:
Fascinating and well written in an accessible style that makes scientific concepts easy to understand. Sources cited. There is a yummy looking cookie on the cover.
Cons:
I thought it odd that Chen includes a shot from her knees up as her author photo. It's as if she needs to prove she's not fat even though she wrote a book on sweets. She mentions that 12 different processes affect food consumption in humans but provides no source for this fact. Lacks a satisfying conclusion.
Summary of The Taste of Sweet: Our Complicated Love Affair with Our Favorite Treats
Dismissed as d?class? by gourmands, blamed for the scourge of obesity, and yet loved by all, the taste of sweet has long been at the center of both controversy and celebration. For anyone who has ever felt conflicted about a cupcake, this is a book to sink your teeth into. In The Taste of Sweet, unabashed dessert lover Joanne Chen takes us on an unexpected adventure into the nature of a taste you thought you knew and reveals a world you never imagined.Sweet is complicated, our individual relationships with it shaped as much by childhood memories and clever marketing as the actual sensation of the confection on the tongue. How did organic honey become a luxury while high-fructose corn syrup has been demonized? Why do Americans think of sweets as a guilty pleasure when other cultures just enjoy them? What new sweetener, destined to change the very definition of the word sweet, is being perfected right now in labs around the world?
Chen finds the answers by visiting sensory scientists who study taste buds, horticulturalists who are out to breed the perfect strawberry, and educators who are researching the link between class and obesity. Along the way she sheds new light on a familiar taste by exploring the historical sweet?scape through the banquet tables of emperors, the pie safes of American pioneers, the corporate giants that exist to fulfill our every sweet wish, and the desserts that have delighted her throughout the years. This fabulously entertaining story of sweet will change the way you think about your next cookie.
Essays Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Essays Books
Kitchen Table Wisdom 10th Anniversaryby Rachel Naomi Remen
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2006-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in Chinaby Fuchsia Dunlop
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-04-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
The Man Who Ate Everythingby Jeffrey Steingarten
Vintage; Published: 1998-10-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.70
Price in other shops:
Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafoodby Taras Grescoe
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2008-04-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.64
Price in other shops:
Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and Other Southern Specialties: An Entertaining Life (with Recipes)by Julia Reed
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2008-07-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.62
Price in other shops:
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Foodby Jennifer 8 Lee
Twelve; Published: 2008-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bonesby Anthony Bourdain
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2007-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops:
Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and DrinkRandom House; Published: 2007-10-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.46
Price in other shops:
Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amisby Kingsley Amis
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops:
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchenby Harold McGee
Scribner; Published: 2004-11-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Moose: A Memoir of Fat Campby Stephanie Klein
William Morrow; Published: 2008-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops:
Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredientsby Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2008-10-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.10
Price in other shops:
Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass LookBig, Or Why Pie is Not The Answerby Jen Lancaster
NAL Trade; Published: 2008-05-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.88
Price in other shops:
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberationby Elizabeth Berg
Random House; Published: 2008-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.50
Price in other shops:
Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoirby Jennette Fulda
Seal Press; Published: 2008-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.01
Price in other shops:
Insomniacby Gayle Greene
University of California Press; Published: 2008-03-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.95
Price in other shops:
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Foodby Jennifer 8 Lee
Twelve; Published: 2008-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.40
Price in other shops:
Love the One You're Withby Emily Giffin
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.79
Price in other shops:
Unaccustomed Earthby Jhumpa Lahiri
Knopf; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.49
Price in other shops:
Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real Worldby Lisa Lillien
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2008-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.98
Price in other shops: