Food, the Body and the Self

by Deborah Lupton

Food and eating practices are at the center of concern in western societies about the body, self-control, health, consumption, and the construction of identity. While we enter the world with the need to eat in order to survive, from the moment of birth the ways in which individuals interact with other people and with cultural artifacts shape their responses to food and eating practices. In Food, Body, and the Self, author Deborah Lupton explores the relationship between food and embodiment and the connection between emotions and subjectivity. In so doing, she includes discussion of the intertwining of food, meaning, and culture in the context of childhood and the family, as well as the social construction of foodstuffs as gendered; food tastes; dislikes and preferences; the dining-out experience; and spirituality and the "civilized" body. She draws on a diverse range of sources, including representations of food and eating in film, literature, advertising, gourmet magazines, new reports and public health literature, and her own empirical research into people′s preferences, memories, experiences, and emotional responses to food.
This exciting, wide-ranging, and thought provoking volume will be essential reading for students and academics interested in the sociology of food and everyday life and consumption as well as those in the fields of medical anthropology, cultural studies, and particularly to those engaged in the study of diet and nutrition.

Genres: Food, Anthropology

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Gayle (OutsmartYourShelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book which examines the history of our food and eating practices. Deborah Lupton tells us that food is liminal: it transcends the boundaries, not only of our bodies, but of our culture, and the author deals with the issues in detail. The book looks at the rituals of mealtimes, the rise of 'healthy' foods, our natural disgust towards certain foods, and the historical religious, and now secular, asceticism around food consumption. A must-read if you want to understand why food is so much more than just what we eat. Rating: 4 stars.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am finishing a final cycling of reading for a new project on cities, fitness, health, bodies and digitization. The work of Deborah Lupton is integral to this final stage of research.

Her 1996 book, Food, the boy and the self, probes the historical dialectic of asceticism and consumption. There is attention to 'the disciplined feminine,' controlling body size as a proxy - a pretense - that women have control over their lives.

Well researched and theoretically rigorous, this book is highly recommended.