Eating is a major source of pleasure for almost all people. Food and drinkaccount for 21 percent of all spending in Western countries and more than 50 percent in some Third World nations. Immigrants seem to retain their ethnic identity through food long after they become assimilated in other ways. And eating plays a central role in our development: Nothing is mare important in early life than learning what is edible and what is not.

Yet despite its importance in our lives, food has been virtually ignored by academic psychologists. In the most recent editions of eight leading introductory psychology textbooks, the average number of pages voted to what humans eat is 0.4 out of 668 total pages. In comparison, an average of 12.5 pages are devoted to sleep.--University of Pennsylvania psychologist Paul Rozin, Ph.D., in Current Directions in Psychological Science.

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