The Rise of Obesity in Europe : A Twentieth Century Food History

Twentieth century Europe went through a dramatic transition from low income populations experiencing hunger and nutritionally inadequate diets, to the recent era of over-consumption and growing numbers of overweight and obese people. By examining the trends in food history from case studies across Europe, this book offers a historical context to explain how and why this transition has occurred and what we can learn in order to try and address the vitally important issues arising from obesity in contemporary Europe. Contents......Page 6 List of Figures......Page 8 List of Tables......Page 10 List of Contributors......Page 12 Preface and Acknowledgments......Page 14 1 Introduction......Page 18 Part 1 Trends in Food Consumption and Consumer Choice......Page 30 2 Century of Hunger, Century of Plenty: How Abundance Arrived in Alpine Valleys......Page 32 3 From Soviet Cuisine to Kremlin Diet: Changes in Consumption and Lifestyle......Page 50 4 Slovene Food Consumption in the Twentieth Century – From Self-Sufficiency to Mass Consumerism......Page 62 5 The Stop-Go Era: Restoring Food Choice in Britain after World War II......Page 76 Part 2 Industrial and Commercial Influences on Food Consumption......Page 92 6 How Food Products Gained an Individual 'Face'......Page 94 7 Labelling Standard Information and Food Consumption in Historical Perspective......Page 106 8 Food Labelling for Health in the Light of Norwegian Nutrition Policy......Page 122 9 Sugar Production and Consumption in France in the Twentieth Century......Page 134 10 Controlling Fat and Sugar in the Norwegian Welfare State......Page 148 Part 3 Social and Medical Influences......Page 162 11 Diet, Body Types, Inequality and Gender: Discourses on 'Proper Nutrition'......Page 164 12 Food Consumption and Risk of Obesity: The Medical Discourse in France 1850–1930......Page 178 13 Slimming Through the Depression: Obesity and Reducing in Interwar Britain......Page 194 14 Socialism and the Overweight Nation: Questions of Ideology, Science and Obesity in Czechoslovakia......Page 210 15 Separated, But Sharing a Health Problem: Obesity in East and West Germany, 1945–1989......Page 224 16 Conclusion......Page 240 Index......Page 252 Exploring the history of obesity in Europe, this text sets out the chronology of change from the uncertainties before and during World War II. It also identifies international attempts to create an ideal body weight model to assist food aid programmes Bringing together a range of case studies from nine European countries, this book provides a comprehensive examination of the transition from under-nutrition to obesity, offering the historical context to these vitally important contemporary issues