You Aren't What You Ea...

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Steven Poole

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You Aren't What You Eat: Fed Up with Gastroculture

by Steven Poole

3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 · rating details · 45 ratings · 16 reviews

We have become obsessed by food: where it comes from, where to buy it, how to cook it and—most absurdly of all—how to eat it. Our televisions and newspapers are filled with celebrity chefs, latter-day priests whose authority and ambition range from the small scale (what we should have for supper) to large-scale public schemes designed to improve our communal eating habits....more

ebook, 170 pages

Published September 28th 2012 by Signal (first published January 1st 2012)

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May 03, 2013 Evan Rail rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just reviewed this wonderful short book for the TLS. When my editor proposed the title —book review ideas come from the publication, not from the writer —I hadn't yet heard of Steven Poole. I wish I had. "You Aren't What You Eat" is a funny, funny, witty and well-educated rant against "foodism," the term that Steven Poole uses for the current oversaturated interest in food and drink. His take is wide-ranging and omnivorous: he drops names likeBarthes, Baudrillard and Debord from French critica...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Deborah Ideiosepius rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who likes eating food, reviewing food, discussing food.

Shelves: goodreads-givaways, foodie, non-fiction

You Aren’t what you eat is all about debunking food myths and gastro cults. Along the way the author, Steven Poole visits some of the more insane claims made by diet moguls, pokes erudite fun at the many celebrity chefs and pretentious ‘reality food shows’ and points out some of the flaws inherent in dining on aerosols and gels. To me, this book is ultimately about examining the ways in which western society currently relates to food and eating, some of those ways being really very strange indee...more You Aren’t what you eat is all about debunking food myths and gastro cults. Along the way the author, Steven Poole visits some of the more insane claims made by diet moguls, pokes erudite fun at the many celebrity chefs and pretentious ‘reality food shows’ and points out some of the flaws inherent in dining on aerosols and gels. To me, this book is ultimately about examining the ways in which western society currently relates to food and eating, some of those ways being really very strange indeed.

The early chapters trace the evolution of the current language of food including the oh so chic word “foodie” (Poole proposes “foodist” as an alternative). We then get deft introductions to consumerism, the history and the fashions of food and eating. I found the section dealing with fad diets and naturopathic claims as to what food can do for all that ails you especially interesting because, as a scientist who knows a moderate amount about food I have been horrified over the years at some of the claims made by people about diet. My tactic has been to close my ears to insanities such as the ‘blood type diet’. Steven Poole’s tactic however is to get together a nice amount of information on the topic and make fun of the gurus while elegantly debunking some of the stupidities.

I grew up in a family that loved food; my mother thought nothing of designing and cooking a four course meal for a family birthday party, I was dining in restaurants before I learned to speak and dinner time discussions involved eager dissection of the flavours that one experienced while eating. So I love the fact that food is a universal interest, different international restaurants are everywhere and the growing availability of unusual ingredients available at the most basic convenience stores. What I have not loved so much is the gradual feeling I have got over the years that the actual flavour and quality of food and the enjoyment of it does not seem to be the main interest for a lot of people. I have occasionally been bewildered by people who consider themselves ‘foodies’ are constantly in search of the new hottest restaurant, are willing to pay high prices for food and yet cannot seem to differentiate the flavour of well cooked food from food that is very average indeed. This book actually explains the phenomena of the ‘foodie’ who does not really get the food they are eating.

The chapters cover different themes and I will mention one; in chapter nine ‘back to nature’ the book looks at the organic movements, their pro’s and con’s and how realistic some of the sustainability premises of these movements are. While I don’t actually agree with everything that Poole has to say about the organic and related trends, I don’t have to and disagreeing with the views does not in fact lessen the worth of the critical element because it is well written. That is actually the overall feeling of the book; well written, well researched (with an excellent bibliography and notes section), and well presented. I certainly learned a lot from it about the more expensive and less sensible food trends.

Criticisms (and I can always find something to criticise); The Author has a journalistic background and this comes through really strongly in the writing style with its short sentences, punchy conclusions and attention getting tactics. This is really not a negative as such because it suits the style of the book but the writing style is so flamboyant that it sometimes overcomes the subject.

Language; I adore the English language it’s idiosyncrasies and general weirdness’s, clearly Poole does also and he seems to have reserved all the words that never get used and given them their moment in the sun. Or maybe he goggled for unusual words? In any case, in the prologue I came across no less than four words that I had never encountered before and I don’t think that has happened to me since I was about twelve. However to quote Douglas Adams and the Hitchhikers Guide; “After a while the style settles down a little...” and after that it is all plain sailing.

In accordance with the terms and conditions, I am obliged to say that this book was a Goodreads giveaway. In actual fact it is the first give-away from Goodreads that I have read and I could not imagine a better start; I finished this book fast with a sense of regret that it was over so soon. I see the Author has other books published – must look into those.
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Oct 24, 2012 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I’ve been a fan of Steven Poole for a while, having read and enjoyed his previous books (‘Trigger Happy’ on video games, ‘Unspeak’ on political language) and followed his columns in the Guardian and Edge magazine, so I was reasonably sure I’d enjoy this. And enjoy it I did. Poole’s writing generally combines a waggish sense of humour with serious philosophical intent, and like ‘Unspeak‘ this book is mostly given over to calling out bullshit as he sees it. It seems like it’s not enough for the bu...more I’ve been a fan of Steven Poole for a while, having read and enjoyed his previous books (‘Trigger Happy’ on video games, ‘Unspeak’ on political language) and followed his columns in the Guardian and Edge magazine, so I was reasonably sure I’d enjoy this. And enjoy it I did. Poole’s writing generally combines a waggish sense of humour with serious philosophical intent, and like ‘Unspeak‘ this book is mostly given over to calling out bullshit as he sees it. It seems like it’s not enough for the bullshit to be untrue; for a subject to catch the author’s attention, it must also have an aspect which is dangerously misleading (hence his recent essay on popular neuroscience literature).

In this case, the chief target of the book is ‘foodism’, which the author defines as: ‘not itself an eating disorder but a disorder of culture’, with the foodist being an individual who ‘operates under the prejudices of a governing ideology, viewing the whole world through the grease-smeared lenses of a militant eater’. It’s not simply about eating nice food: a foodist will define themselves and others by what they eat to the extent that food becomes ‘not only spiritual nourishment but art, sex, ecology, history, fashion and ethics. It even becomes, in the mind of its more addled fanatics, a universal language.’ Poole rejects utterly the idea that you can ‘communicate’ through cookery, ‘just as you cannot communicate bodily nourishment through writing’.

While there is an aspect of moral condemnation here (as though foodism were a kind of degeneracy) it’s also an extremely funny book, and part of the pleasure in reading it is watching the author eloquently skewer even the most self-evidently ridiculous of targets. We all know that Gillian McKeith has an obsession with poo, that Elizabeth Gilbert writes like a maniac, and that Ferran Adrià and Heston Blumenthal produce some fairly odd things; but refreshingly, Poole has little patience for the high-concept approach to food. I particularly enjoyed his wry dismissal of something called the ‘Childhood menu’ at Chicago restaurant Next, which as the title suggests is intended to evoke a kind of reverie of youth:

‘The ‘concept’ is authoritarian: you *shall* have childhood memories while eating this stuff. It is perhaps worthwhile to note that Marcel Proust’s madeleine did not inspire in him a yielding to insipid retro-infantilism but drove him to spend years concentrating ferociously in a cork-lined room in order to compose an enormous novel. Next’s Childhood menu would surely be the ideal gastronomic overture for the wealthy businessman who plans to go back to his hotel with an ‘escort’ and dress up in a nappy.’

There’s plenty more where this came from (I highlighted over 30 passages in my kindle edition alone) but I'm sure you get the idea. Waggish, he is.

Ultimately, the book is somewhat limited in scope. Certainly the author knows how we ought not to think about food, but by the end I was left unsure as to what a correct approach might look like. Where should we limit our experience of it, and at what point precisely does one become a foodist? There’s no thesis as such, no revelations proffered; food is nice, says the book, but perhaps we ought not to treat it like an ‘ersatz spiritualism’. A food is a food is a food.

The approach is diagnostic rather than prescriptive, which is perfectly fine as long as you don’t expect to be told how to live in the last few pages. Not such a bad thing, perhaps, but it might be nice to see the author turn his hand to writing about something he really enjoys for his next book.
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Mar 16, 2013 Mel Campbell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012, non-fiction

This was the best book I read in 2012. I have an embarrassing intellectual crush on Steven Poole now and really have to try hard not to be that cringey fangirl who tweets at him all the time. Basically, for a long time I've lacked the vocabulary to explain my distaste for the depravity of food culture. Poole is like my Betty Friedan; this book is like my Gastronomic Mystique.

I really enjoyed the relaxed erudition of the book and its absurdist humour. Poole wears his scholarship lightly, and pro...more

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Jun 14, 2013 Caitlin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a wonderful little book - while I can see people might not agree with a lot of Poole's concepts, it certainly was (oh no) "food for thought."

I found this quite intelligent and Poole incorporated ideas such as Rousseau in attempting to explain the cultural obsession with certain types of food - so while this is a fascinating polemic on food culture, this is also a good entry into some social and cultural theory.

I love books that poke a bit of fun at current cultural trends - and the foodi...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not sure that the food-obsessives described in Poole's polemic actually exist, at least outside of the weird and wonderful world of the broadsheet weekend supplements. But on the other hand, its an entertaining little rant (though its only 168 well-spaced pages long, if I had paid money for it I might feel short-changed).

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Apr 02, 2013 Mark Mills rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A valiant attempt to show that foodism is basically just like any other kind of snobbery. It's readable and broadly convincing. However, Poole does labour some points - especially the absurdity of gastro vocabulary - and it does quite often fall down on the wrong side of the line between polemic and diatribe.

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Nov 13, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012

Hilarious and very perceptive. Picks apart the pretensions and false consciousness of our "foodist" culture. What's not to like about such a swift, witty dissection that also manages to reference Adorno, Radiohead, Zizek, CS Lewis (!), and Proust (along with many, many celebrity chef and food writers).

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Feb 06, 2013 Pia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

- very well read author
- interesting division of chapters that make sense but the overall argument isn't as coherent as it could have been
- worthwhile to read as an alternative take on food
- lacking something though... possibly not as engaging due to writing style/ tone?

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Oct 21, 2012 Augustin Erba rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Written in lovely and precise prose, with its point at the "book shaped products" that dominates the non-fiction lists, it's a must read for anyone who've once tasted pretentioness from a dinner plate.

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May 02, 2013 Exoticbrett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

A polemic against some of the more bizarre aspects and attitudes to be found within the reigning "gastroculture" of modern Western society. Very refreshing.

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Feb 21, 2013 Gwen Wilson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Other than his discussion of the organic and local food movements, a good critique of foodie culture.

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May 09, 2013 Virginia Durksen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Funny, smart, and about time, too.

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Jun 11, 2013 Jim Ricker rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

wacky foodies!

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Jan 21, 2013 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks, food

Steven Poole examines the rise in "foodies" and the obsession with food.

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May 16, 2013 Andrew Schirmer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: polemic, food-wine

This was great! Review to follow shortly.

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Jun 12, 2013 Mycool666 is currently reading it · review of another edition

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Jun 07, 2013 Yannis is currently reading it · review of another edition

May 30, 2013 Tom Nailor marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 29, 2013 James T Harding rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

May 26, 2013 Patrick marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: ordered

May 25, 2013 Claire marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 25, 2013 Caroline Blake marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 21, 2013 Padraic rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, sex, society

May 20, 2013 CK marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 18, 2013 Totemcat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

May 18, 2013 Isaac Patterson marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: parenting-and-child-development

May 16, 2013 Lorrainel marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 16, 2013 Gynelle Murray is currently reading it · review of another edition

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