History, industry, the quest for social status, and our changing ideas about health all inform what we eat and why, according a new book.

The book, Food Fights: How History Matters to Contemporary Food Debates (UNC Press, 2019), looks at a wide range of issues that relate to our dining habits—and highlight just how complex (and interesting) the world of food can be.

Here, co-editors Chad Ludington and Matthew Booker, both associate professors in the history department at North Carolina State University, explain some of the arguments in the book, including the constantly-changing definition of “healthy” food, how our tastes may be a product of our status, and more:

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