The Way We Eat Now: How the Food Revolution Has Transformed Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World - Hardcover

Wilson, Bee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465093973 ISBN 13: 9780465093977

Publisher: Basic Books, 2019

Synopsis

An award-winning food writer takes us on a global tour of what the world eats--and shows us how we can change it for the better
Food is one of life's great joys. So why has eating become such a source of anxiety and confusion?
Bee Wilson shows that in two generations the world has undergone a massive shift from traditional, limited diets to more globalized ways of eating, from bubble tea to quinoa, from Soylent to meal kits.
Paradoxically, our diets are getting healthier and less healthy at the same time. For some, there has never been a happier food era than today: a time of unusual herbs, farmers' markets, and internet recipe swaps. Yet modern food also kills--diabetes and heart disease are on the rise everywhere on earth.
This is a book about the good, the terrible, and the avocado toast. A riveting exploration of the hidden forces behind what we eat, The Way We Eat Now explains how this food revolution has transformed our bodies, our social lives, and the world we live in.

About this title

About the Author

Bee Wilson is a celebrated food writer, food historian, and author of five books, including First Bite: How We Learn to Eat and Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat. She has been named BBC Radio's food writer of the year and is a three-time Guild of Food Writers food journalist of the year. She writes a monthly column on food in the Wall Street Journal. She lives in Cambridge, England.

Review

"The Way We Eat Now is both useful and informative, thoroughly and enterprisingly reported. ... Wilson presents a remarkable array of data, often in unusual and striking charts, and delivers numerous surprises."―New York Times

"You have to read this book."―Nigella Lawson

"In a brilliant new book, The Way We Eat Now, food writer Bee Wilson warns: 'For most people across the world, life is getting better but diets are getting worse.'"―Evening Standard (UK)

"Wilson sets out to demonstrate how dysfunctional our attitude to taking nourishment from the world has become. She is adept at finding the bold headlines, Wilson is also good as the devastating detail. Unlike several other food writers, Wilson's solutions remain rooted and realistic."―Times Literary Supplement (UK)

"Given our current position, The Way We Eat Now could serve as a warning, even as a threat about what could happen if we don't buck up our ideas. But it doesn't read that way. Wilson's desire to preserve the pleasure around eating shines out of this book even when grappling with the stickiest of issues."―The Spectator (UK)

"In The Way We Eat Now Wilson questions the entire food system as she addresses the paradox of our age: why as we become progressively wealthier, our diets become ever poorer.... Processed foods, a voracious marketing machine, faddiness, Instagram, yo-yo diets, sedentary lifestyles, takeaway apps -- the villains of the piece are familiar and plentiful and Wilson lays them bare in her typically scholarly way."―The Times (UK)

"This compelling overview of global eating habits by acclaimed food writer and Wall Street Journal columnist Wilson seesaws back and forth between alarming paradoxes. We eat to live, but what we eat is killing us.... Wilson's many fans and new converts alike will find her arguments convincing."―Booklist

"Merging impressive data with an engaging narrative style, The Way We Eat Now tackles the unsustainability of global food systems. Bee Wilson once again proves herself one of the world's most compelling voices in journalism, revealing how food is in danger of becoming an inferior good and offering a blueprint for practical ways to return real food to its rightful place at the table. This book should be required reading for everyone."―Darra Goldstein, founding editor of Gastronomica

"Bee Wilson's deep dive into the causes and consequences of today's unsustainable -- but now worldwide -- eating patterns is nothing less than a call to action. We must change today's Global Standard Diet to one that promotes planetary as well as our own health."―Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, and author of Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat

"Bee Wilson weaves staggering information and fascinating insights into a gripping and inspiring story that is both fairytale and horror story. A brilliant must read about what touches us all."―Claudia Roden, author of Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0465093973
• ISBN 13: 9780465093977
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400