How We Eat with Our Eyes and Think with Our Stomach

September 18, 2017
Journalist Mühl and psychologist von Kopp briskly answer more than 40 amusing, creative questions about why, how, and what people eat. By learning about subconscious influences on food choices, they propose, readers may be able to make better ones. To that end, Mühl and von Kopp reveal, among other things, how a waiter’s size can affect a food order and what a “fondness for spicy food reveal about your character.” Each chapter includes a lighthearted title (“Carb Phobia”), a provocative question (“How do you listen to what you eat?”), and a peppy explanation typically featuring an entertaining anecdote (a chapter titled “The Color of Flavor” involves Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and LSD). The book also contains more trenchant commentary, dismissing the detox craze by commenting that the body already “has a near-perfect, organic cleansing system that conveniently works day and night.” The authors present their information in such a delightful fashion that even readers who have never asked, “Why do cats sit on your lap and cows on your plate?” will be glad to have the answer to that question, and many others. Agent: Rebekka Göpfert, Mohrbooks Literary.