Summary and Analysis

In "The Magic in Food," McKenna discusses the unappreciated role of plants in mediating human culture and relationships. Foods can elicit specific emotional responses and behaviors. Additionally, plants can serve medicinal purposes as in the example of the Aspilia leaves which contain bacteria-killing properties and are commonly used to treat wounds and stomachaches.

The conversion of the human as an omnivore - an organism that ate anything foodlike, including plants and other animals - gave rise to eating as an experience and to genetically variant individuals, which would increase human success. Humans and plants co-evolved, each mutually benefiting from the other in a shared relationship.

Human evolution has been markedly fast compared to typical courses of evolution. The brain of early hominids increased in both size and complexity over a relatively...