Eating Right in America – The Cultural Politics of Food and Health

"Eating Right in America is a must-read for anyone interested in modern dietary reform. I say that as a scholar who has studied the subject for more than twenty-five years. This concise, well-researched, and provocative book is an instructor's dream, and it is certainly a book that every student and practitioner of nutrition, dietetics, and food science should read and ponder."—Warren Belasco, author of Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food"This is the book I dreamed of—without having the grown-up words for it—when I was a chubby little kid who rode her bike everywhere and ate her veggies and still got picked on for being fat. A brilliant, intersectional analysis and a thoroughly enjoyable read, Eating Right brings long-overdue skepticism to the insalubrious history of food- and weight-related finger wagging in America."—Marilyn Wann, author of FAT!SO?
"Eating Right in America is a must-read for anyone interested in modern dietary reform. I say that as a scholar who has studied the subject for more than twenty-five years. This concise, well-researched, and provocative book is an instructor's dream, and it is certainly a book that every student and practitioner of nutrition, dietetics, and food science should read and ponder." - Warren Belasco, author of Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food "This is the book I dreamed of - without having the grown-up words for it - when I was a chubby little kid who rode her bike everywhere and ate her veggies and still got picked on for being fat. A brilliant, intersectional analysis and a thoroughly enjoyable read, Eating Right brings long-overdue skepticism to the insalubrious history of food- and weight-related finger wagging in America." - Marilyn Wann, author of FAT!SO?

Figures viii
1. The Cultural Politics of Dietary Health 1
2. Scientific Moralization and the Beginning of Modern Dietary Reform 13
3. Anxiety and Aspiration on the Nutrition Front 45
4. From Microscopes to "Macroscopes" 80
5. Thinness as Health, Self-Control, and Citizenship 109
6. Connecting the Dots: Dietary Reform Past, Present, and Future 150
Notes 157
Bibliography 185
Acknowledgments 199
Index 203