The way we eat now : how the food revolution has transformed our lives, our bodies, and our world

Title:

The way we eat now : how the food revolution has transformed our lives, our bodies, and our world

Author:

Wilson, Bee

ISBN:

9780465093977

Physical Description:

xxix, 356 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Subject:

Gastronomy

Food habits

Food

Diet

Available:*

Library	Collection	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Cobourg Branch	Searching... Unknown	Adult Non-Fiction Book	641.01 Wil	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

An award-winning food writer takes us on a global tour of what the world eats--and shows us how we can change it for the better
Food is one of life's great joys. So why has eating become such a source of anxiety and confusion?
Bee Wilson shows that in two generations the world has undergone a massive shift from traditional, limited diets to more globalized ways of eating, from bubble tea to quinoa, from Soylent to meal kits.
Paradoxically, our diets are getting healthier and less healthy at the same time. For some, there has never been a happier food era than today: a time of unusual herbs, farmers' markets, and internet recipe swaps. Yet modern food also kills--diabetes and heart disease are on the rise everywhere on earth.
This is a book about the good, the terrible, and the avocado toast. A riveting exploration of the hidden forces behind what we eat, The Way We Eat Now explains how this food revolution has transformed our bodies, our social lives, and the world we live in.

Author Notes

Bee Wilson is a celebrated food writer, food historian, and author of five books, including First Bite: How We Learn to Eat and Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat . She has been named BBC Radio's food writer of the year and is a three-time Guild of Food Writers food journalist of the year. She writes a monthly column on food in the Wall Street Journal . She lives in Cambridge, England.

Reviews (4)

Kirkus Review

A wide-ranging look at how food today is killing us through its abundance.British food historian Wilson (First Bite: How We Learn to Eat, 2015, etc.), who writes a monthly column on food for the Wall Street Journal and has been named BBC Radio's food writer of the year, avers that diets are getting worse across most of the world. "We snack more, we eat out more, and yet we often enjoy food less," she writes. In her view, we are in the fourth stage of diet transitions, following the low-fat one of prehistoric hunter-gatherers to the cereal-rich one of the agricultural revolution to the third healthier, more varied one that followed. In stage four, diets are getting sweeter, fatter, and meatierand not just in the rich countries. The author has talked to researchers, economists, and other experts, gathering data from around the world. Happily, she presents the data in an appealing, informal, almost chatty fashion. If readers want to know more about, say, the decline in cooking oil prices in China or the rising cost of green vegetables relative to ice cream in the U.K., a few charts provide this information. More interesting is Wilson's discussion of trendy foods, where she exposes frauds and fads; she gives close attention to such foods as quinoa, yogurt, skyr, kale, pomegranate juice, and coconut water. The author also explores the dilemma of eating out versus cooking at home and examines the rise in popularity of meal kits, which provide customers with all the ingredients and instructions for making a home-cooked meal. She optimistically predicts that we may be entering another dietary transition to healthier foods, and she offers tips for enjoying our food while waiting for this new food culture to emerge. Though Wilson offers an enjoyable reading experience, her failure to consider potential future food shortages as climate change reduces arable land and the population grows makes some of her predictions questionable.Though not a complete picture, this book is an entertaining choice for naturalists, foodies, and health-conscious readers. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

This compelling overview of global eating habits by acclaimed food writer and Wall Street Journal columnist Wilson (Consider the Fork, 2012) seesaws back and forth between alarming paradoxes. We eat to live, but what we eat is killing us. Food is often readily available (and sometimes even hard to escape), but overly processed fast food contains few nutrients, resulting in simultaneously malnourished and obese populations. And so it goes, as Wilson's entertaining text compares how humans used to eat before mass consumerism, when considerable time was devoted to preparing and enjoying meals with how we eat now, when food choices, dining styles, and meal times have become so markedly individualized. After about 200 pages of delivering dining angst, the book starts offering hopeful and helpful alternatives. Scale back portions, reform school lunches, elevate and celebrate the art of cooking, enact legislation against sugary drinks and junk food, and increase global consumption of vegetables. The epilogue offers even more focused advice: ditch plastic and Styrofoam in favor of ceramic and glass, drink plain water, skip the snacks, think about what you're putting in your mouth, and slow down. Wilson's many fans and new converts alike will find her arguments convincing. This diet advice goes down easy.--Kathleen McBroom Copyright 2019 Booklist

New York Review of Books Review

CONVICTION, by Denise Mina. (Mulholland, $27.) Anna McDonald, at loose ends while her philandering husband takes their children on vacation, decides to clear an old friend's name after hearing him slandered on a true-crime podcast. Mina's incredible new mystery seems to have been written in a white-hot rage. THE GUARDED GATE: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America, by Daniel Okrent. (Scribner, $32.) In 1920s America, a mix of nativist sentiment and pseudoscience led to the first major law curtailing immigration. Okrent focuses on eugenics, which argued that letting in people of certain nationalities and races would harm America's gene pool. FALL; OR, DODGE IN HELL, by Neal Stephenson. (Morrow/HarperCollins, $35.) Stephenson tackles big questions - what is reality? how might it be simulated? - via the tale of a billionaire whose mind survives in the digital world long after his physical death. A THOUSAND SMALL SANITIES: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism, by Adam Gopnik. (Basic Books, $28.) This charming and erudite book challenges both authoritarian populists and illiberal leftists, arguing in favor of a liberal tradition that supports both social progress and individual liberty. LAST DAY, by Domenica Ruta. (Spiegel & Grau, $27.) Ruta's darkly glittering novel flits among characters - including a trio of astronauts, a 15-year-old girl and a tattoo artist - during the planet's final hours. Despite the heavy subject matter, comic moments leaven the book, and Ruta sprinkles in startling observations. THE BODY IN QUESTION, by Jill Ciment. (Pantheon, $24.95.) In this deliciously acerbic and intelligent novel, two jurors meet at a murder trial, and, sequestered at an Econo Lodge, begin a passionate affair with unexpected reverberations on their lives and the legal proceedings. Among the book's other pleasures, Ciment knowingly but matter-of-factly depicts class distinctions. THE way THE WAY WE EAT NOW: How the Food Revolution Has we eat now Transformed Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World, by Bee Wilson. (Basic Books, $30.) In this useful and informative book, a British journalist delves into the ways globalization has revolutionized our relationship THE BURIED: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution, by Peter Hessler. (Penguin Press, $28.) In stories of everyday life in Cairo, Hessler captures a country looking to make sense of what the Arab Spring has wrought. MIND FIXERS: Psychiatry's Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness, by Anne Harrington. (Norton, $27.95.) Harrington argues that the "biological revolution," which rejects Freud to seek a physical basis for mental illness, has overreached. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books

Library Journal Review

English food writer and historian Wilson explores the evolution of food and changing tastes around the world. This latest work, after First Bite and Consider the Fork, shares research and insight on the transformation of global cuisine and eating habits in recent decades, from sustainability to satisfying cravings. While our tongues may drive our food tastes and preferences, Wilson considers all of the other determining factors of what ends up on our plates, including corporations and economics (or what's profitable for us to consume), busy schedules that have eliminated the time to cook, and diets and fads. The author delves into the reasoning why both food insecurity and obesity are co-occurring and epidemic, and her research includes trends currently driving Western diets, including keto/paleo, fasting, and orthorexia (the trend of "clean eating" to a disordered level). Occasionally, the chapters are tangential in an attempt to include the most information possible, much like an overfilled buffet plate. However, the research is solid and readers will come away with a new understanding of what we eat and why. VERDICT Much more than another culinary history, this is a fascinating read for both foodies and sociologists alike.--Jennifer Clifton, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis

Introduction: The Gatherers and the Hunted	p. xv
Chapter 1 The Food Transition	p. 1
And They Never Went Hungry Again	p. 1
Where the Balance Falls	p. 6
Stage Four	p. 15
The Global Standard Diet	p. 19
The Mythical Banana Kingdom of Iceland	p. 27
A Short History of Eating Too Much	p. 33
Bending the Curve	p. 42
What We Ate Next	p. 47
Chapter 2 Mismatch	p. 53
The Thin-Fat Baby	p. 56
The Thirst Conundrum	p. 61
The Stigmatized Majority	p. 67
Chapter 3 Edible Economics	p. 73
A Hidden Sea of Oil	p. 75
Never Tasted Before	p. 81
The Price of Bread	p. 89
Engel's Law	p. 96
Give Us This Day Our Daily Meat	p. 101
Value for Money	p. 108
Chapter 4 Out of Time	p. 113
The Death of the Lunch Hour	p. 117
Like a Rest in Musk	p. 126
Wasting Time or Wasting Food	p. 130
The Rhythm of Modern Life	p. 134
The Woman Who Never Snacks	p. 136
Snack Foods for the World	p. 143
"He's Not Really Big on Food"	p. 146
The Healthy Snack	p. 149
Eating Alone Together	p. 152
Chapter 5 The Changeable Eater	p. 158
What's Salsa?	p. 161
New but Not Really	p. 166
Now Comes Quinoa	p. 170
Fads and Frauds	p. 174
Chapter 6 Dinner Without Duty	p. 180
The Democratic Restaurant	p. 183
Calories and Convenience	p. 188
Dinner on a Bike	p. 193
Self-Service	p. 196
The Inequalities of Choice	p. 202
Chapter 7 Eating by the Rules	p. 208
Bleeding Beetroot	p. 212
The Healthiest of All Possible Diets	p. 217
The Enigma of the Protein Bar	p. 223
Beyond Food	p. 227
The Opposite of a Cucumber	p. 230
Chapter 8 The Return to Cooking	p. 238
The Dabbler Cook	p. 241
Cooking by Numbers	p. 247
The Land of Cooks	p. 253
New Kitchen Rules	p. 258
Chapter 9 Crossing the Bridge	p. 262
The Sweet Green Grass	p. 265
Killing the Cartoon Characters	p. 269
"If I Had Maths Results Like This I'd Be Out of a Job"	p. 274
Celebrate with Olives	p. 278
The Joy of Greens	p. 283
Recipe for a Seed	p. 287
Epilogue: New Food on Old Plates	p. 295
Acknowledgments	p. 307
Bibliography	p. 311
Notes	p. 327
Index	p. 347

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