Cooked summary

Lots of people would gladly add bacon to just about anything. But why has bacon become so popular?

The recent obsession with this cured pork product is inspired by the human affinity for a unique taste also present in mushrooms, meaty broths and dried anchovies.

Just 20 percent of the money households spend on food is directed to the people who produce the food. So where does the rest of that money go?

America’s “food-industrial complex” consists of more than just massive farms. This system is made up of food manufacturers, advertising executives and marketers, which, decades ago, worked to create a surplus of industrially-processed food. This quickly became the basis of the American diet.

Whether eating out or cooking at home, the sandwich remains the most common American meal. And what’s more important for making a sandwich than the bread?

Bread has become a staple of the American diet for many reasons. When humans learned to make bread, they tapped into massive energy stores previously locked up in grasses and grains.

Americans get around 20 percent of their calories from wheat, which in itself isn’t problematic. However, 95 percent of the wheat we consume comes in the form of white flour, which has little nutritional content.

In fact, eating white flour isn’t much different than eating pure sugar.

If extraterrestrials came to study humans on earth, they might conclude that we are some type of superorganism, as hundreds of different species cohabitate each human body.

These countless organisms perform essential functions without our even being aware. We really are superorganisms composed primarily of microbes.

When the fruit of the durian tree drops to the ground and begins to rot, it’s only a matter of time before visitors of all shapes and sizes gather to reap the spoils. Among them are tigers, wild pigs and rhinos, all seeking the spontaneously fermented alcohol that this process produces.

Alcohol is the most popular fermented food, not just across cultures but also the animal kingdom. While humans are the only animals that make alcohol – although there have been reports of monkeys in China fermenting fruit to drink the alcoholic result – many animals have it made for them.