Between 1850 and 1950, experts and entrepreneurs in Britain and the United States forged new connections between the nutrition sciences and the commercial realm through their enthusiasm for new edible consumables. The resulting food products promised wondrous solutions for what seemed both individual and social ills. By examining products like Gail Borden's meat biscuit, Benger's Food, Kellogg's health foods, Fleischmann's yeast, and food yeast, Wonder Foods shows how new products dazzled with visions of modernity, efficiency, and scientific progress even as they perpetuated exclusionary views about who deserved to eat, thrive, and live. Drawing on extensive archival research, historian Lisa Haushofer reveals that the story of modern food and nutrition was not about innocuous technological advances or superior scientific insights but rather the powerful logic of exploitation and economization that undergirded colonial and industrial food projects. In the process, these wonder food products have shaped both modern food regimes and how we think about food.
By:
Lisa Haushofer
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Volume: 80
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9780520390386
ISBN 10: 0520390385
Series: California Studies in Food and Culture
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 27 December 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Contents List of Illustrations Introduction: Balloons over Indianapolis 1 • “Focussed Flesh” 2 • The Raw and the Civilized 3 • Digestive Economies 4 • A Physiology of Consumption 1 5 • The Brewer, the Baker, and the Health Food Maker Conclusion: Transparent Man on Man-Made Land Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index
Lisa Haushofer is a physician and historian of science, medicine, and food. She is currently Senior Research Associate in the History of Medicine Department at the University of Zurich.
Reviews for Wonder Foods: The Science and Commerce of Nutrition
"""Wonder Foods is well-written, clearly organized, and generously cited with reputable sources—an exemplary food history from the perspective of the history of science and medicine."" * Journal of the History of Biology * ""Lisa Haushofer’s Wonder Foods…urges us, through a historical lens, to reflect on the profound societal, economic, and environmental influences that our food production and consumption has had on the world, and more importantly, to be distinctly aware of who those choices affect, both historically and today."" * Society for US Intellectual History * ""Wonder Foods is well-written, clearly organized, and generously cited with reputable sources—an exemplary food history from the perspective of the history of science and medicine."" * Journal of the History of Biology *"
