Are we what we eat?

Food, glorious food is more than the name of a New York caterer. So what is food to us? To the millions who go to bed hungry each night, it is precious fuel without which life will cease. To the great chefs of the world, it is a pure art form. The vegetarian uses food a way of making a statement about respect for life. Prior to the nineteenth century food was medicine -- a way of bringing the body's humours into balance.

Steven Shapin has crafted a review of the South Beach Diet and the Doctor Atkins Revolution into a wide ranging social history of the role of food in our lives. The author does not reflect well on today's gluttonous eating habits, especially as they are manifested by the low carbohydrate diet craze. Diet and self disipline are related notions. Read this and fast! LRB | Steven Shapin : The Great Neurotic Art