How have eating habits changed in recent decades? What does it mean to eat well?

This fascinating book examines continuity and change in food consumption and eating patterns since the 1950s. The culinary landscape of Britain is explored through discussion of commodification, globalisation and diversification enabling an understanding of both developing trends and enduring habits.

The author’s research undertaken over 40 years offers fresh insights into such practices as everyday meals, shopping, cooking and dining out and how these are shaped by demographic, social and cultural processes. The book provides a comprehensive and engaging analysis of eating in Britain today and of the many controversies about how this has changed.

“An authoritative and engaging account, written by Britain’s pre-eminent food sociologist, emphasising the pleasures of eating as well as current anxieties about food. Strongly evidenced, the book includes personal reflections and telling examples from the author’s own experience.” Peter Jackson, University of Sheffield

"Important reading for those interested in food practices and culinary culture, and readers with a broader interest in social change.” Lotte Holm, University of Copenhagen

“A fascinating book on food, meals and taste which is bound to become a classic in this field.” Christel Lane, University of Cambridge

“In this magnificent book, Warde justifies a social scientific approach to provisioning and food consumption, supported by reams of data … an essential teaching tool for courses on food consumption.” Krishnendu Ray, NYU Steinhardt

“A unique revelatory analysis that disrupts common assumptions and identifies continuities and changes in the ‘what, when and why’ of British everyday eating in the post-war era.”

Julia Brannen, Professor Emerita, UCL

“Illustrates the reassuring familiarity in our Everyday Eating amid social, cultural and historic change and offers us a way to better understand historical shifts and contemporary challenges.” David Marshall, University of Edinburgh Business School

Alan Warde is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Professorial Fellow in the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester. He specialises in cultural sociology, consumption and food. In 2019 he received the BSA Distinguished Service to British Sociology Award.