Il riposo della polpetta e altre storie intorno al cibo - Massimo Montanari

Divertente collezione di piccoli articoli sul cibo et la cucina.  Racconta la storia di certi cibi, parla di cibi storici et dimeticati, tradizioni della tavola, etc. 
Vale la pena di leggerne alcuni.

The Big Fat Surprise - Nina Teicholz

Subtitled:  Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet

Teicholz's book pretty much turns upside down everything that has been gospel about healthy diet for over 40 years.  Turns out butter, meat, etc don't raise cholesterol, or rather, they do, but it is the good HDL cholesterol they raise.  Turns out LDL cholesterol levels show no relation to heart disease risk. Turns out vegetable oils, especially when hydrogenated or heated, show a much stronger relation.
Looks like heart disease, diabetes and obesity are also related to consumption of carbohydrates, especially processed ones.  The food pyramid with grains at the bottom is a recipe for the kind of health epidemics we have been seeing for decades.

This is all very interesting and mind-boggling, but the real underlying issue is how the scientific community's consensus could be so wrong.  The seminal studies behind our modern diet guidelines are highly flawed and show poor scientific rigour.  The results have been reported in a highly biased manner, focusing only on the data bits that have supported the dominant hypothesis.  Challengers to the current field consensus have been humiliated, hounded, shunned and denied funds to pursue their work.  The role of outsized egos, career status and research dollars in creating this "scientific" consensus is shocking.  A prime example of how dangerous and unreliable field experts and accepted norms can be.
Scientific studies must be treated with extreme caution - probably best ignored unless you are personally willing to read it over and verify both its method and true results.

Ancient Wine - P. E. McGovern

Not a particularly great read - too much arcane methodology discussion.

Some interesting facts, though:

- wine seems to have first appeared around 5500 BCE, which is remarkable; almost contemporaneous with the appearance of farming - wine and cheese, some of our earliest foods

- first records are in the Zagros mountains above the plains of Babylon - also along the highlands in Turkey above the Syrian plain and in the Caucasus - basically the edges of the fertile crescent where elevations created slightly cooler, wetter growing conditions

- the method of fermenting wine in clay containers buried in the ground is one of the earliest methods, and is still practised in Georgia

- flavoured wines were very common in early period - spices and other flavourings helped preserve the wine from turning to vinegar - retsina (or pine resin) is only one of the additives - frankincense myrrh, a selection of herbs and spices were also used - oaking wine is a very ancient practice; it is basically adding the flavour/chemical substance in oak to the wine by storing it in barrels, and served to preserve as well as mellow the wine by interacting with some of the chemicals in the wine

- Christianity is so deeply rooted in the preceding mythology and ancient culture of the middle east, not only in its Old Testament mythology and stories, but also in its cult of wine - wine has been an integral part of religious rites and offerings since its first appearance in the Middle East

- makes wine all the more fascinating and enjoyable...