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Book ID: CBB001452069

Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health (2013)

Biltekoff, Charlotte (Author)

Duke University Press
Publication date: 2013
Language: English

ISBN: 9780822355441

Publication Date: 2013
Physical Details: 208 pp.; ill.

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Weight management Human body Health Food and foods Nutrition; dietetics Public health Public understanding of science Medicine and politics 19th century 20th century United States

This work is a powerful critique of dietary reform in the United States from the late nineteenth-century emergence of nutritional science through the contemporary alternative food movement and campaign against obesity. Here the author analyzes the discourses of dietary reform, including the writings of reformers, as well as the materials they created to bring their messages to the public. She shows that while the primary aim may be to improve health, the process of teaching people to "eat right" in the U.S. inevitably involves shaping certain kinds of subjects and citizens, and shoring up the identity and social boundaries of the ever-threatened American middle class. Without discounting the pleasures of food or the value of wellness, the author advocates a critical reappraisal of our obsession with diet as a proxy for health. Based on her understanding of the history of dietary reform, she argues that talk about "eating right" in America too often obscures structural and environmental stresses and constraints, while naturalizing the dubious redefinition of health as an individual responsibility and imperative -- From publisher's website. SUBJECT(S) Descriptor: Nutrition -- United States. Diet -- United States. Food habits -- United States. Diet -- United States. Food Habits -- United States. Cultural Characteristics -- United States. Politics -- United States. Buddhism and politics. Food habits. Nutrition. Ernährung. Ubergewicht. Gesundheit. Kultur. Named Conf: DIET (Event) Geographic: United States. USA.

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Reviewed By

Review Knupfer, Anne Meis (2014) Review of "Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health". American Historical Review (pp. 1702-1703). unapi

Review Gilman, Sander; Gilman, Sander (2014) Review of "Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 587-589). unapi

Review Ruis, A.R. (2014) Review of "Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health". Medical History (pp. 448-450). unapi

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