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Why Some Like It Hot

Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity

by Gary Paul Nabhan

Island Press, August 2004, Hardcover, 240 pages

Nabhan, an ethnobiologist and nutritional ecologist, examines how our ethnicity determines our digestion. He explains why modern native Americans are prone to diabetes, and why Mediterranean diets generally work best for those whose forbears came from the Mediterranean. 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 food choices we make.

Praise for Why Some Like It Hot

"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." — Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents of Why Some Like It Hot

1. Discerning the histories encoded in our bodies
2. Searching for the ancestral diet
3. Finding a bean for your genes and a buffer against malaria
4. The shaping and shipping away of Mediterranean cuisines
5. Discovering why some don't like it hot
6. Dealing with migration headaches
7. Rooting out the causes of disease
8. Reconnecting the health of the people with the health of the land

About Gary Paul Nabhan

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