
Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want

Because food exists at the interface between us and everything else, eating can be particularly troublesome when we’re not at peace with the world around us. When we don’t know exactly what we want from life, food can be difficult.
Ruby Tandoh • Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
In a culture where displays of emotional vulnerability are often seen as desperate and sad, we sometimes have no choice but to self-soothe rather than look outwards for help.
Ruby Tandoh • Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
What’s more, when, in another study conducted by the scientists, participants were fed the foods they knew and liked, first in the format they enjoyed, and then in a less appetising, but nutritionally identical, puréed format, the researchers discovered an even greater disparity in nutritional absorption. The women absorbed on average 70% less iron
... See moreRuby Tandoh • Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
It’s what makes women ‘power-hungry’ or ‘manipulative’ where men are ‘ambitious’ and ‘shrewd’.
Ruby Tandoh • Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
Of course, there is no physiological need for baking, but that’s precisely its appeal: in a world where so much of what we do is in the name of achieving some end, baking is just pleasure in and of itself. It’s special because we don’t need it, but we want it, and we allow ourselves to indulge that appetite nonetheless.
Ruby Tandoh • Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
These ‘superfoods’, despite having been thoroughly debunked (they’re just foods! with vitamins and antioxidants and other good things in! like more or less every other food!), perpetuate the myth that if you spend enough, and buy foods from all four corners of the globe, you can cheat death. These foods are the edible equivalent of the ‘magical’ bl
... See moreRuby Tandoh • Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
The magic lay in how the show eschewed the melodrama of American-style contests, with their set menu of competitiveness, sabotage and self-centredness. Instead, it was polite and neurotically perfectionist.
Ruby Tandoh • Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
For all the faith we have in evidence and numbers, the success of wellness comes down to plain, unscientific hope.
Ruby Tandoh • Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
It’s not just what you eat, then, it’s how you eat it. Eating food that you enjoy, in a context that’s relaxed and pleasurable, is a step towards more efficient digestion and better health.