Food on Foot Review

Food on Foot- A History of Eating on Trails and in the Wild, by Demet Guzey, Rowman and Littlefield, 2017, hardcover, 199 pages.

The foreword and introduction to Food on Foot started off slowly. My thoughts were I wouldn’t be able to get through the book. Wrong! The second chapter, which covers what the DeSoto expedition through the American southeast ate, the cannibalism of the Donner party, how the first attempt at crossing Australia ended in disaster, began a book-full of fascinating reading. I did not want to put this book down.

I’ve always found histories of the Arctic and Antarctic explorations fascinating. Scott’s Last Voyage has a place in my bookshelf. After reading Food on Foot I understand more than ever the difficulties and hardships these explorers faced every day as they struggled to reach the poles and return to civilization. In many cases they did not return, and Food on Foot explains why. Any expedition reduced to boiling and eating their shoes suffered from poor planning, poor luck, or both. Apparently eating pemmican is similar to chewing on a candle. Pemmican has more nutritional value, though.

Guzey discusses the foods taken on ocean voyages, mountain expeditions, desert crossings, holy pilgrimages, and Army campaigns, going back to the earliest summits of the Alps, Marco Polo’s adventures, the Crusades, and the Roman Army. During the German Blitzkrieg of World War 2, German soldiers were fed methamphetamine to decrease their hunger and increase their endurance. Who knew?

This book was full of fascinating facts and was exceptionally well-researched.

Quirks of syntax within the book makes me suspect the book was written in another language and translated, or, if written in English, English is not Guzey’s first language. These quirks do nothing to harm the book’s readability though. If anything, they add to the interestingness of it, to make up a word.

Every human who has ever walked this planet has interacted with food constantly. Most of us are intensely interested in food. Food on Foot is a fun and engrossing read about a subject that’s close to all of our hearts (and stomachs). It has this reviewer’s highest recommendation.

John Kumiski
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