1
of
1
Anxious Eaters
Why We Fall for Fad Diets
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 34 ratings, 11 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Hardback
$5299
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
Anxious Eaters
$5299
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Ideal for readers interested in food culture, psychology, nutrition, and social anthropology, as well as anyone curious about the cultural forces behind dieting trends.
Anxious Eaters shows that fad diets are popular because they fulfill crucial social and psychological needs—which is also why they tend to fail. Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill bring together anthropology, psychology, and nutrition to explore what these programs promise yet rarely fulfill for dieters.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
What makes fad diets so appealing to so many people? How did there get to be so many different ones, often with eerily similar prescriptions? Why do people cycle on and off diets, perpetually searching for that one simple trick that will solve everything? And how did these fads become so central to conversations about food and nutrition?
Anxious Eaters shows that fad diets are popular because they fulfil crucial social and psychological needs—which is also why they tend to fail. Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill bring together anthropology, psychology, and nutrition to explore what these programs promise yet rarely fulfil for dieters. They demonstrate how fad diets help people cope with widespread anxieties and offer tantalising glimpses of attainable self-transformation. Chrzan and Cargill emphasise the social contexts of diets, arguing that beliefs about nutrition are deeply rooted in pervasive cultural narratives. Although people choose to adopt new eating habits for individual reasons, broader forces shape why fad diets seem to make sense.
Considering dietary beliefs and practices in terms of culture, nutrition, and individual psychological needs, Anxious Eaters refrains from moralising or promoting a "right" way to eat. Instead, it offers new ways of understanding the popularity of a wide range of eating trends, including the Atkins Diet and other low- or no-carb diets; beliefs that ingredients like wheat products and sugars are toxic, allergenic, or addictive; food avoidance and "Clean Eating" practices; and paleo or primal diets. Anxious Eaters sheds new light on why people adopt such diets and why these diets remain so attractive even though they often fail.
Series: Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History
View all-
The Terroir of Whiskey
Look at the back label of a bottle of wine and you may well see a reference to its terroir, the total local environment of the vineyard that grew the grapes, from its soil to the climate. Winemakers universally accept that where a grape is grown influences its chemistry, which in turn changes the flavour of the wine. A detailed...Paperback$3599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Breadfruit
Breadfruit trees are staples of the tropics, bearing cantaloupe-sized green-skinned fruits whose taste and texture resemble potatoes. More than three thousand years ago, breadfruit fueled the Pacific voyages of discovery that settled islands throughout Oceania. In the late eighteenth century, the British expedition that ended with the mutiny on the Bounty aimed, but failed, to introduce breadfruit to the West...Paperback$5299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Cook, Taste, Learn
Cooking food is one of the activities that makes humanity unique. It's not just about what tastes good: advances in cooking technology have been a constant part of our progress, from the ability to control fire to the emergence of agriculture to modern science's understanding of what happens at a molecular level when we apply heat to food. Mastering new...Paperback$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Gastronativism
The Italian political right is outraged by halal tortellini and a pork-free lasagna served at the Vatican. In India, Hindu fundamentalists organise attacks on Muslims who sell beef. European anti-immigrant politicians denounce couscous and kebabs. In an era of nationalist and exclusionary movements, food has become a potent symbol of identity. Why has eating become so politically charged—and can the...Paperback$4799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Molecular Gastronomy
Hervé This (pronounced "Teess") is an internationally renowned chemist, a popular French television personality, a bestselling cookbook author, a longtime collaborator with the famed French chef Pierre Gagnaire, and the only person to hold a doctorate in molecular gastronomy, a cutting-edge field he pioneered. Bringing the instruments and experimental techniques of the laboratory into the kitchen, This uses recent research...Hardback$5699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Molecular Gastronomy
Hervé This (pronounced "Teess") is an internationally renowned chemist, a popular French television personality, a bestselling cookbook author, a longtime collaborator with the famed French chef Pierre Gagnaire, and the only person to hold a doctorate in molecular gastronomy, a cutting-edge field he pioneered. Bringing the instruments and experimental techniques of the laboratory into the kitchen, This uses recent research...Paperback$3199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Botany of Beer
From mass-produced lagers to craft-brewery IPAs, from beers made in Trappist monasteries according to traditional techniques to those created by innovative local brewers seeking to capture regional terroir, the world of beer boasts endless varieties. The diversity of beer does not only reflect the differences among the people and cultures who brew this beverage. It also testifies to the vast...Hardback$6699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Chile Pepper in China
Chinese cuisine without chile peppers seems unimaginable. Entranced by the fiery taste, diners worldwide have fallen for Chinese cooking. In China, chiles are everywhere, from dried peppers hanging from eaves to Mao's boast that revolution would be impossible without chiles, from the eighteenth-century novel Dream of the Red Chamber to contemporary music videos. Indeed, they are so common that many...Paperback$4599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Medieval Tastes
In his new history of food, acclaimed historian Massimo Montanari traces the development of medieval tastes—both culinary and cultural—from raw materials to market and captures their reflections in today's food trends. Tying the ingredients of our diet evolution to the growth of human civilisation, he immerses readers in the passionate debates and bold inventions that transformed food from a simple...Paperback$5299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Spoiled
Why is cows' milk, which few nonwhite people can digest, promoted as a science-backed dietary necessity in countries where the majority of the population is lactose-intolerant? Why are gigantic new dairy farms permitted to deplete the sparse water resources of desert ecosystems? Why do thousands of U.S. dairy farmers every year give up after struggling to recoup production costs against...Hardback$19999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Fulton Fish Market
The Fulton Fish Market stands out as an iconic New York institution. At first a neighbourhood retail market for many different kinds of food, it became the nation's largest fish and seafood wholesaling centre by the late nineteenth century. Waves of immigrants worked at the Fulton Fish Market and then introduced the rest of the city to their seafood traditions....Hardback$5699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Fulton Fish Market
The Fulton Fish Market stands out as an iconic New York institution. At first a neighbourhood retail market for many different kinds of food, it became the nation's largest fish and seafood wholesaling centre by the late nineteenth century. Waves of immigrants worked at the Fulton Fish Market and then introduced the rest of the city to their seafood traditions....Paperback$4799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Publishers Weekly describes it as a "smart and comprehensive survey." The Atlantic highlights how the authors challenge conventional notions of "good" and "bad" foods. Food scholar Ken Albala praises the book for dissecting our urgent desire to control our bodies through food, likening diet culture to a religious experience promising happiness and social fulfilment. Amy Bentley commends its persuasive explanation of why Americans repeatedly turn to fad diets despite lacking evidence for their effectiveness.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780231192446
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 30 August 2022
Country: United States
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 229.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 360
About the Author
Janet Chrzan teaches nutritional anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Alcohol: Social Drinking in Cultural Context (2013) as well as coeditor of Research Methods for the Anthropological Study of Food and Nutrition (2017) and Organic Food, Farming, and Culture (2019).
Kima Cargill is professor of psychology at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Her books include The Psychology of Overeating: Food, Culture, and Consumerism (2015) and Food Cults: How Fads, Dogma, and Doctrine Influence Diet (2016).
More from Education & Reference
View all-
Revenge of the Tipping Point
Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do elite universities care so much about sports? What is...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Body Keeps the Score
The Body Keeps the Score by Dr Bessel van der Kolk is a compelling and compassionate exploration of the deep-seated impact of trauma on the human body and mind. This groundbreaking work delves into the complex causes of trauma and paints a vivid picture of the revolutionary treatments that are enabling countless individuals to reclaim their lives filled with purpose...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Age Code
What if the food you eat could rewind your biological clock? 'Clear and compelling' — Chris van Tulleken 'Really interesting and insightful' — Joe Wicks 'Fascinating' — Tim Spector From the rising incidence of cancer in the under-50s to increased infertility rates, there are signs everywhere that growing numbers of us are ageing too quickly. Why? Many believe there’s one...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Signed CopyNew Release"What Were You Thinking!?"
Everything parents need to know about their baby, child or teen's developing brain to raise resilient, emotional intelligent kids, by globally renowned neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis. 'What were you thinking!?'If you've ever asked this in despair while watching a toddler melt down, a tween push boundaries or a teenager make a truly terrible decision, this book is for you.In "What Were...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseSuicidal Empathy
The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
One Last Question, Prime Minister
From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New Release2027 Witch's Diary - Southern Hemisphere
From the bestselling authors of Spellcasting, which has now sold over 250,000 copies worldwide, comes the essential witchy journal to plan your days, harness magick, and connect with higher powers. Features include: 8" x 6" (8" x 12" open) Beautiful glossy gold gatefold cover Compact size, perfect to carry in your bag and keep on you throughout the day 12-month...Paperback$1999Elsewhere:$2299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Signed Copy
Go Hard or Go Home
From the front bench to rock bottom: Go Hard or Go Home is Kiri Allan's fearless memoir of ambition, disruption and survival in NZ politics and beyond. Kiri Allan's six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableOut 4 Aug 2026Pre-order -
New ReleaseRegime Change
From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administration’s most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader into...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$4299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Roadmap to Property Success
Ready to ditch the 9-to-5 and build lasting wealth through property? In Roadmap to Property Success, seasoned investor and coach Steve Goodey shares the exact strategies that helped him – and thousands of Kiwis – build sustainable property portfolios from scratch. With real-life lessons, hard-won wisdom, and zero sugar-coating, this is your no-BS guide to property investing in New Zealand....Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Maori Made Easy Workbook 1/Kete 1
Maori Made Easy Workbook 1/Kete 1 by Scotty Morrison is the ultimate companion for anyone eager to learn the beautiful and complex Maori language. Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to brush up on your skills, this workbook offers a structured and engaging way to immerse yourself in te reo Maori. Designed to be accessible regardless of your starting...Paperback$2000Elsewhere:$2500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Strangers
The must-read memoir of the end of a marriage and the start of a personal revolution, based on the iconic Modern Love essay in the New York Times and perfect for fans of Glennon Doyle. "A beautifully written eulogy for the loss of a relationship" — Joyce Carol Oates How do we go on when a loved one betrays us?...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
