After spending much of his life shifting between various omnivore and herbivore eating habits, the author presents a thought provoking look at why and how humans choose their diets. Delivering the pros and cons of eating meat, he invites readers on an insightful exploration into the many facets of food. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir, and his own detective work, this book explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits, from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth, and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting.