Pollan starts and ends the book discussing America's lack of a single culinary tradition (see pages 5, 296-303). What do you think are the dangers of living in a society without a single culinary tradition? He names several... Are there any benefits?
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Well, one clear danger is what we are seeing now in US diets - gullability based on lack of any real established tradition. It can be bad, if you are easily tricked into the latest fad diet.
Another problem is that instead of making one cuisine and working on quality, we end up trying to make everything and are often more concerned with quantity (i.e., will it fill me up?)
But, on the other hand, let me compare Italy fore example. There you have one single cuisine - Italian. Many restaraunts will have the same courses, but they focus more on the quality of it (i.e., if the sauce is based on an old secret recipee, or how al dente to make the noodles). While this makes for some amazing Italian food, it is also primarily the only food you can get in many cities. Of course, this criticism is coming from someone who doesn't have a culinary tradition, however, I would say that America's 'jack of all traits' attitude toward food is not necessarily a bad thing.
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