Why read Modern Food, Moral Food?

Book cover of Modern Food, Moral Food

Book description

American eating changed dramatically in the early twentieth century. As food production became more industrialized, nutritionists, home economists, and so-called racial scientists were all pointing Americans toward a newly scientific approach to diet. Food faddists were rewriting the most basic rules surrounding eating, while reformers were working to reshape the…

Explore

Topics

Genres

American history

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Modern Food, Moral Food as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Anna Zeide

Author

I think the history books that hit the hardest are those that make you notice something you take for granted and realize it hasn’t always been this way.

Veit’s book, while on the surface being about food in World War II—already fascinating—made me realize that the modern-day American emphasis on being thin is a pretty new cultural construction. There was a time, not so long ago, that lots of advice pamphlets were written about how to be plump!

But the transformations that Veit describes from the early twentieth century changed these associations between diet, self-restriction, and moral strength in ways…

From Anna's list on how Americans came to eat so much processed food.