Our Troubles with Food

For millennia the normal, natural and pleasurable activity of eating has been surrounded by fear and anxiety. Religious traditions have long decreed what foods are right for their followers to eat, but secularisation and scientific progress have not made the situation easier. Our present obsession with health, obesity, ethics and science has seemingly developed from a society that is over-supplied with the necessities of life. For the first time, social historian Stephen Halliday looks at the history of our fascinating relationship with food, from Galen in the first century AD declaring that fruit was the worst kind of food to eat, to John Kellogg's belief that eating wholegrain cereals would prevent masturbation and bring people closer to God. Through modern fears and food scares such as mad cow disease to our current fascination with superfoods, 'friendly' bacteria and organic farming, Our Troubles with Food is a thorough analysis of our changing attitudes towards food and a reminder that we are not so very different from our forbears after all.

STEPHEN HALLIDAY is a lecturer, broadcaster and writer with a particular interest in the history of London from Roman times to the present day. His books include The Great Stink of London, The Great Filth, From Underground to Everywhere, Crossrail, and Fictional London. He has made many radio and television programmes and has contributed articles and reviews to a wide variety of publications