2.24.14: Modern & Monastic Food

Prepare your palate, because we're bringing you a smorgasbord of stories; today's Word of Mouth is all about food! But taste with caution, sandwiched between stories of slime and frozen meat are stories of monastic meals and heavenly... beer? That's right, beer that was divinely sanctioned. Grab a snack and take a listen. You'll never think of food the same way again.

Listen to our full show and click Read More for individual segments.

Salt, Sugar, Fat

• According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss, once you pop that Pringles can, you really can’t stop.  In his book, Salt Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, he goes deep inside the 1-trillion-dollar processed food industry – and why it’s engineered to make us eat like a nation of impulsive teenagers.

• Beyond the salt, sugar, and fat, processed foods also hook you with their colorful packaging and their siren song: the jingle. We asked you for the snack food jingles that can’t leave your head on our Facebook page. And we leave you with this montage. Our apologies in advance.

99% Invisible: Monastic Beer

• Roman Mars’ of the show 99 Percent Invisible brings us this story of a group of Trappist monks who brew the highest-rated beer in the world, all for the glory of God.

A Hermit’s Cookbook

• Let’s look back to a time before food conglomerates and agribusiness: The Middle Ages. What did diets look like back then? To shed light is Andrew Jotischky, professor of medieval history at Lancaster University. He is the author of A Hermit’s Cookbook: Monks, Food, and Fasting in the Middle Ages.

The Meat Racket

• Christopher Leonard is author ofThe Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business. In it he profiles the rise of Tyson, and the other mega-food companies that have quietly gained unprecedented control of the America’s meat market, and re-shaped its rural economies.