Between 1850 and 1950, experts and entrepreneurs in Britain and the United States forged new connections between the nutrition sciences and the commercial realm through their enthusiasm for new edible consumables. The resulting food products promised wondrous solutions for what seemed to be both individual and social ills. By examining creations such as Gail Borden's meat biscuit, Benger's Food, Kellogg's health foods, and Fleischmann's yeast, Wonder Foods shows how new products dazzled with visions of modernity, efficiency, and scientific progress even as they perpetuated exclusionary views about who deserved to eat, thrive, and live. Drawing on extensive archival research, historian Lisa Haushofer reveals that the story of modern food and nutrition was not about innocuous technological advances or superior scientific insights, but rather about the powerful logic of exploitation and economization that undergirded colonial and industrial food projects. In the process, these wonder foods shaped both modern food regimes and how we think about food.

About the Author

Lisa Haushofer is a physician and historian of science, medicine, and food. She is currently Senior Research Associate in the History of Medicine Department at the University of Zurich.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction: Balloons over Indianapolis

1 • “Focussed Flesh”
2 • The Raw and the Civilized
3 • Digestive Economies
4 • A Physiology of Consumption 1
5 • The Brewer, the Baker, and the Health Food Maker

Conclusion: Transparent Man on Man-Made Land

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Learn More

Interview with Lisa Haushofer on This is Critical Podcast

Reviews

"Wonder Foods is well-written, clearly organized, and generously cited with reputable sources—an exemplary food history from the perspective of the history of science and medicine."
— Journal of the History of Biology

"Lisa Haushofer’s Wonder Foods…urges us, through a historical lens, to reflect on the profound societal, economic, and environmental influences that our food production and consumption has had on the world, and more importantly, to be distinctly aware of who those choices affect, both historically and today."
— Society for US Intellectual History

"Wonder Foods is well-written, clearly organized, and generously cited with reputable sources—an exemplary food history from the perspective of the history of science and medicine."
— Journal of the History of Biology

"Wonder Foods is insightful and learned, popping with moments of intrigue and teeming with interesting characters. Lisa Haushofer is a gifted writer with an eye toward the larger scope of the story of science, commerce, nutrition, and colonialism. This is a fascinating history."—Benjamin R. Cohen, author of Pure Adulteration: Cheating on Nature in the Age of Manufactured Food

"Thoroughly researched and gorgeously written, Wonder Foods erases the distinction between food and medicine and charts the forms of destruction latent in the creation of engineered nutritional products. Exposed to Haushofer's clear eye and clever pen, health foods move from mundane household objects to chilling technologies of empire, extraction, and white supremacy."—Jeremy A. Greene, William H. Welch Professor of Medicine and the History of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

"This elegantly written, closely argued, and beautifully produced book critically analyzes fads surrounding wonder foods and other magic bullets at the colorful intersection of Western science and commerce in the domain of nutritional advice."—Krishnendu Ray, Professor of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University

Awards

European Association for the History of Medicine and Health Book Award Honorable Mention 2023 2023, European Association for the History of Medicine and Health

Media

Lisa Haushofer on her new book Wonder Foods

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Learn More

Reviews

Awards

Media