Food, Morals and Meaning: The Pleasure and Anxiety of Eating. Second edition.

Food, Morals and Meaning: The Pleasure and Anxiety of Eating. Second edition

Coveney J. Routledge, Abingdon, UK, 2006, 188 pages, $19.99, ISBN 9780415376211

This interesting book based on Foucaultian theory provides another valuable paradigm to explain the complex environment of food, diet, nutrition, and the health and wellbeing of man. The content has been drawn from much of the original text with no apparent change to the conclusions.

The chapter headings give a strong hint of what is to come, such as 'The nutritional policing of families' (Chapter 6) and the new content material found in 'The governmentality of girth' (Chapter 10) that is highly relevant to the obesity 'epidemic'.

Three questions are posed thesis-like in the introduction, form the main themes of the book, and are summarised in the conclusions. There is an index and extensive bibliography.

The reader immediately steps into the moral, ethical and social aspects of food and nutrition. Foucault theory analyses the results of discourse and the relationships between power and knowledge to develop a framework of technologies (strategies).

The waves of dietary reform through the ages are followed by critical examination of the historical models that have been used by other Australian authors (scientific, sociological, medical). In so doing, a different historical model of nutrition through food morality and governmentality begins to emerge.

Nutrition provides many opportunities to regard the body as a subject-object and wage war around and about it. Governmentality through the combination of science and moral conduct is apparent in most levels of current nutrition practice such as the state, the food supply, the institution, the school, the home and oneself.

The rich tapestry of thought-provoking content requires a fairly high level of understanding. The reader who is not versed in sociology may find it easier to read the 'Introduction' and 'Conclusions' (Chapter 11) and leave until later 'Foucault discourse, power and the subject' (Chapter 1).

This book is likely to stand the test of time and provide an outline for future debates about whether dietary reform is necessary and, if so, how it can be achieved. This book, which is significantly cheaper than the first edition, is essential reading in the fields of food and health policy, sociology, dietetics and nutrition, and will be of interest to all those fascinated by food.

Beverley Wood, PhD, APD 

Victorian Local Governance Association

Carlton, Victoria, Australia