CALORIES AND CORSETS: A history of dieting over two thousand years - Softcover

FOXCROFT, LOUISE

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846684269 ISBN 13: 9781846684265

Publisher: Profile Books, 2013

Synopsis

Today we are urged from all sides to slim down and shape up, to shed a few pounds or lose life-threatening stones. The media's relentless obsession with size may be perceived as a twenty-first-century phenomenon, but as award-winning historian Louise Foxcroft shows, we have been struggling with what to eat, when and how much, ever since the Greeks and the Romans first pinched an inch.

Meticulously researched, surprising and sometimes shocking, Calories and Corsets tells the epic story of our complicated relationship with food, the fashions and fads of body shape, and how cultural beliefs and social norms have changed over time. Combining research from medical journals, letters, articles and the dieting bestsellers we continue to devour (including one by an octogenarian Italian in the sixteenth century), Foxcroft reveals the extreme and often absurd lengths people will go to in order to achieve the perfect body, from eating carbolic soap to chewing every morsel hundreds of times to a tasteless pulp.

This unique and witty history exposes the myths and anxieties that drive today's multi-billion pound dieting industry - and offers a welcome perspective on how we can be healthy and happy in our bodies.

About this title

Review:

A compelling history of mankind's peculiar and often perverse relationship with dieting ... like a grown-up version of Horrible Histories ... her style is pacy and she has a wonderfully light touch (The Times 2012-01-07)

Immensely readable and very enjoyable, brilliantly researched and filled with fascinating, often hilarious facts (Arabella Weir)

This witty history of dieting is full of interesting facts ... a great reminder that the basic principles of weight loss never change (Elle)

Elegantly written and full of tasty morsels (Jemima Lewis Mail on Sunday 2012-01-08)

Astutely researched ... amusing, alarming and poignant by turns. (Nature)

Meticulously researched, Calories And Corsets is packed with intriguing details - some jaw-dropping, others laugh-out-loud funny - that make it an easy and enjoyable read. (Susan Swarbrick Herald 2012-01-14)

Anybody with an appetite for such unwholesome [dieting] texts should opt instead for Foxcroft's a slim and sensible history. (Helen Brown Daily Telegraph 2012-01-07)

Put down the diet book and pick up Louise Foxcroft's history of dieting... by the time you're finished you might see the weight-loss industry in a very different light... Foxcroft takes a briskly sceptical line on the global dieting phenomenon. (Jane Shilling Daily Mail 2012-01-06)

A book of such relentless good sense that I must recommend it - especially if you're considering a post-festive binge diet (Natalie Haynes Prospect)

Entertaining ... Foxcroft's book is full of startling anecdotes, but she also has a serious purpose (Joan Smith Literary Review)

Book Description:

An enlightening and entertaining social history of how we have tried (and failed) to battle the bulge over two millennia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1846684269
• ISBN 13: 9781846684265
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240