In a fascinating discussion, Steven Shapin, Professor emeritus of the history of science at Harvard, delves into the intertwined history of food and identity. He explores how eating has evolved from moral and dietary practices to a focus solely on health. Shapin contrasts traditional dietetics with modern nutrition science, revealing how industrialization reshaped our understanding of food. He encourages a deeper appreciation of everyday dining experiences, urging listeners to reconsider the cultural narratives woven into our meals.
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insights INSIGHT
Dietetics Then and Now
Dietetics, historically central to daily life, has become less prominent in our modern vocabulary.
While the word "diet" is common, its meaning has narrowed, focusing mainly on weight loss.
insights INSIGHT
Dietetics: An Ordered Life
Dietetics, a branch of traditional medicine, was about maintaining health through an ordered way of living.
This included not just food, but sleep, exercise, emotional management, and even house location.
insights INSIGHT
Dietetics in Popular Culture
The language of dietetics, including humors and temperaments, was woven into everyday culture, evident in works like Shakespeare.
This suggests that such concepts were widely understood and part of the common cultural experience.
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Steven Shapin's "Eating and Being" explores the historical evolution of Western perspectives on food and eating, tracing the shift from traditional dietetics to modern nutrition science. The book examines how the concept of dietetics encompassed not only dietary choices but also broader aspects of life, including sleep, exercise, and emotional management. Shapin highlights the intertwining of medical and moral considerations in traditional dietetics, where moderation was valued as both a virtue and a path to health. He contrasts this with the rise of nutrition science, which introduced a focus on specific nutrients and calories, separating medical concerns from moral ones. The book ultimately prompts reflection on how these shifts have shaped our contemporary relationship with food and its impact on our well-being.
What we eat, who we are, and the relationship between the two. Eating and Being: A History of Ideas about Our Food and Ourselves (University of Chicago Press, 2024) is a history of Western thinking about food, eating, knowledge, and ourselves. In modern thought, eating is about what is good for you, not about what is good. Eating is about health, not about virtue. Yet this has not always been the case. For a great span of the past—from antiquity through about the middle of the eighteenth century—one of the most pervasive branches of medicine was known as dietetics, prescribing not only what people should eat but also how they should order many aspects of their lives, including sleep, exercise, and emotional management. Dietetics did not distinguish between the medical and the moral, nor did it acknowledge the difference between what was good for you and what was good. Dietetics counseled moderation in all things, where moderation was counted as a virtue as well as the way to health. But during the nineteenth century, nutrition science began to replace the language of traditional dietetics with the vocabulary of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and calories, and the medical and the moral went their separate ways. Steven Shapin shows how much depended upon that shift, and he also explores the extent to which the sensibilities of dietetics have been lost. Throughout this rich history, he evokes what it felt like to eat during another historical period and invites us to reflect on what it means to feel about food as we now do. Shapin shows how the change from dietetics to nutrition science fundamentally altered how we think about our food and its powers, our bodies, and our minds.
Steven Shapin is professor emeritus of the history of science at Harvard University.
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