Selective Eating

In most (if not all) human societies, turning down food offered amounts to
rejecting the relationship, pulling out of the circle of guests and the group.
It indicates distrust and may prompt exclusion. In today’s world, however, a
large and apparently growing number of people are asserting personal dietary
requirements for a variety of reasons: medical (allergies and intolerance);
health and weight (various diets and regimens); ethical, political and
spiritual (vegetarianism, veganism, religious restrictions). Does the sudden
assertion of these individual demands indicate an evolution or even a
rejection of what can be considered the bedrock of sociability: the sharing of
meals? The issue of selective eating is explored here from a wide
interdisciplinary perspective: from a biomedical standpoint (immunology,
allergies and intolerances) to social and historical analyses. The rise of
personal dietary requirements poses questions as to the scope and limits to
individualization in contemporary societies. This book (and the conference
that gave rise to it) triggered a debate in the French media: Will the trend
lead to the end of eating as a social, shared activity? Will we abandon all
forms of commensal eating? Or will novel configurations emerge, flexible
enough but also ritualized enough so that the experience of eating retains a
sense of conviviality? ?Claude Fischler is Senior Investigator Emeritus with
CNRS, the French national research agency. He is the author of pioneering work
in the field of food studies. Véronique Pardo is an anthropologist and heads
OCHA. OCHA is a research institute within the French dairy council and a
resource center for sharing research with the academic community. Since 1992,
it has been analyzing food habits and the relationships people (as eaters,
consumers and citizens) have with their food (www. lemangeur-ocha. com).