Inventing Baby Food

Food consumption is a significant and complex social activity—and what a society chooses to feed its children reveals much about its tastes and ideas regarding health. In this groundbreaking historical work, Amy Bentley explores how the invention of commercial baby food shaped American notions of infancy and influenced the evolution of parental and pediatric care. Until the late nineteenth century, infants were almost exclusively fed breast milk. But over the course of a few short decades, Americans began feeding their babies formula and solid foods, frequently as early as a few weeks after birth. By the 1950s, commercial baby food had become emblematic of all things modern in postwar America. Little jars of baby food were thought to resolve a multitude of problems in the domestic sphere: they reduced parental anxieties about nutrition and health; they made caretakers feel empowered; and they offered women entering the workforce an irresistible convenience. But these baby food products laden with sugar, salt, and starch also became a gateway to the industrialized diet that blossomed during this period. Today, baby food continues to be shaped by medical, commercial, and parenting trends. Baby food producers now contend with health and nutrition problems as well as the rise of alternative food movements. All of this matters because, as the author suggests, it’s during infancy that American palates become acclimated to tastes and textures, including those of highly processed, minimally nutritious, and calorie-dense industrial food products.

Explores how the invention of commercial baby food shaped American notions of infancy and influenced the evolution of parental and pediatric care. Simultaneous eBook.

In this wide-ranging and entertaining study Harvey Levenstein tells of the remarkable transformation in how Americans ate that took place from 1880 to 1930.

Mandatory food rationing during World War II significantly challenged the image of the United States as a land of plenty and collapsed the boundaries between women's public and private lives by declaring home production and consumption to be political activities. Examining the food-related propaganda surrounding rationing, Eating for Victory decodes the dual message purveyed by the government and the media: while mandatory rationing was necessary to provide food for U.S. and Allied troops overseas, women on the home front were also "required" to provide their families with nutritious food. Amy Bentley reveals the role of the Wartime Homemaker as a pivotal component not only of World War II but also of the development of the United States into a superpower.

Europe was formed in the Middle Ages. The merging of the traditions of Roman-Mediterranean societies with the customs of Northern Europe created new political, economic, social and religious structures and practices. Between 500 and 1300 CE, food in all its manifestations, from agriculture to symbol, became ever more complex and integral to Europe's culture and economy. The period saw the growth of culinary literature, the introduction of new spices and cuisines as a result of trade and war, the impact of the Black Death on food resources, the widening gap between what was eaten by the rich and what by the poor, as well as the influence of religion on food rituals. A Cultural History of Food in the Medieval Age presents an overview of the period with essays on food production, food systems, food security, safety and crises, food and politics, eating out, professional cooking, kitchens and service work, family and domesticity, body and soul, representations of food, and developments in food production and consumption globally.

A lively tale of a cool invention. Frank William Epperson is a curious boy who loves inventing. And since inventing begins with experimenting, he spends a lot of time in his “laboratory” (i.e., his back porch) trying out his ideas. When he invents a yummy flavored soda water drink, his friends love it! And this gets him thinking: “I wonder what this drink would taste like frozen?” Though he doesn’t yet know it, Frank’s curiosity will lead to his best invention ever: the Popsicle! This delicious story includes hands-on experiments and is sure to whet the appetites of budding inventors everywhere!

Sheds light on the history of food, cooking, and eating. This collection of essays investigates the connections between food studies and women's studies. From women in colonial India to Armenian American feminists, these essays show how food has served as a means to assert independence and personal identity.