The availability, range, cost and quality of food in Western
societies have never been more favourable, yet food is also the
focus of a great deal of anxiety. There are concerns that our
current diets will mean we will get steadily fatter and more
unhealthy while consuming 'junk food', with consequences for our
quality of life, our children's behaviour and even the
environment.
This book challenges these ideas and places the food debate in a
wider context. As the political imagination and the scope of social
policy have narrowed, the focus on the personal and corporeal has
filled this gap, creating an inward, individualised perspective
that breeds a personal sense of vulnerability and distracts from
issues of broader social importance.
The book also examines the current use of 'food as metaphor' - the
way that 'bad food' and obesity, for example, have become code
words for an elite disdain for the masses, implicitly promoting the
idea that the consequences of poverty are the fault of the poor,
and that a solution to the problems of social inequality lies in
the consumption of five fruit and veg a day.
The author also discusses how health fears around food are used as
a lever for greater official control of our everyday lives, from
lunchbox inspections and school food crusades, to endless media
health advice and scientifically-dubious 'healthy labelling'
initiatives. The upshot of these connected trends is misplaced
anxiety and wasted effort fixing what, for the most part, does not
need to be fixed. Our modern food system allows us to be healthier
than ever before, while transforming food from fuel into a source
of entertainment, pleasure and choice.
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