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How do certain ideas and beliefs emerge and become entrenched in public opinion? And what price did humanity pay before a particular human civilisation developed an established system of cultural codes that have already transcended national development and govern human behaviour? The eternal need to eat has played a fundamental role in the history of mankind, its cults, rituals, secret and overt, traditions, both ancient and modern, social systems hardened by wars, cataclysms, evolutions and revolutions, famine, cannibalism, epidemics and diseases that humanity is still fighting. Culture as a system of rules and taboos, shaped by the brightest minds, enriching human existence at the same time, Paolo Rossi, the Italian cultural philosopher and author of this journey through the centuries, prepares his exquisite and fascinating story by skilfully combining science and art. He argues that the era when only anthropologists and psychologists with university degrees were concerned with food and nutrition has come to an end. In the post-information era, the corporeal and the spiritual, the culture of physical and intellectual consumption - dual processes in inseparable combination and interpenetration - are an integral part of our lives. Even the impossibility of establishing what is "right" and what is wrong only shows that there are no failed experiments in the laboratory, and these experiments are ongoing, and each of us is a participant in them.

If you haven't heard of flavour #5 - «umami» - it doesn't mean you haven't learnt it yet. What we call taste is a form of sensation that is controlled by a separate sensory system and underlies taste sensations such as sweet, salty, sour and bitter (and others that don't have names). But, as the author of the book argues, there are a number of other sensations inherent in the mouth and nose that cannot be attributed to either tastes or smells. Is it true that once upon a time, food was "natural", that what our grandparents and great-grandparents ate was "real" and "tasted better"? The author searches for and finds answers to many questions and debunks dangerous myths of mass culture, because he has been researching the history of ideas and cultures for decades, so his extremely interesting and extraordinary reflections on the (for some) mundane topic of food consumption are hunger and obesity, fasting and holiness, food as a mania, globalisation and apocalypse, natural and unnatural food, anorexia, phobias, fashion - will allow you to look at the history of civilisation from a different angle, will be a revelation and a real discovery for a wide range of readers.