Eating Right in America

Eating Right in America chronicles the dietary reform movements that have shaped ideas about good nutrition and public health in the United States for more than a century. Charlotte Biltekoff's narrative begins in the late nineteenth century and culminates in accounts of two early-twenty-first-century phenomena, the alternative food movement and the campaign against obesity. Analyzing the history that she relates, Biltekoff contends that despite their scientific origins, dietary ideals are also cultural, subjective, and political. The primary aim of teaching people to "eat right" may be to improve health, but the process inevitably involves shaping certain kinds of subjects and citizens, a dynamic that is often overlooked because of our focus on the scientific aspects of dietary advice.
Charlotte Biltekoff is Assistant Professor of American Studies & Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. Previously, she was a chef at Greens, a well-known vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco.