First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
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First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
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Narrated by:
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Karen Cass
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By:
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Bee Wilson
About this listen
Fortnum & Mason Food Book of the Year 2016
We are not born knowing what to eat. We all have to learn it as children sitting expectantly at a table. For our diets to change, we need to relearn the food experiences that first shaped us.
Everyone starts drinking milk. After that it’s all up for grabs.
We are not born knowing what to eat; we each have to figure it out for ourselves. From childhood onwards, we learn how big a portion is and how sweet is too sweet. We learn to love broccoli – or not. But how does this happen? What are the origins of taste? And once we acquire our food habits, can we ever change them for the better?
In First Bite, award-winning food writer Bee Wilson draws on the latest research from food psychologists, neuroscientists and nutritionists to reveal how our food habits are shaped by a whole host of factors: family and culture, memory and gender, hunger and love. She looks at the effects siblings can have on eating choices and the social pressures to eat according to sex. Bee introduces us to people who can only eat food of a certain colour; toddlers who will eat nothing but hot dogs; doctors who have found radical new ways to help children eat vegetables. First Bite also looks at how people eat in different parts of the world: we see how grandparents in China overfeed their grandchildren, and how Japan came to adopt such a healthy diet (it wasn’t always so).
The way we learn to eat holds the key to why food has gone so disastrously wrong for so many people. But Bee Wilson also shows that both adults and children have immense potential for learning new, healthy eating habits. An exploration of the extraordinary and surprising origins of our taste and eating habits, First Bite explains how we can change our palates to lead healthier, happier lives.
©2015 Bee Wilson (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
‘When you open FIRST BITE and see Science, don't panic. It is a weirdly addictive, intelligent and enjoyable explanation of why we eat as we do: more unputdownable than any non fiction has a right to be. Everyone should read it. And it might change your life. ‘ Charlotte Mendelson
‘Bee Wilson is the ultimate food scholar. First Bite is a brilliant study of how we form our food preferences and how we may be able to change them. Her narrative kept me hungry for more until the very end.’ Yotam Ottolenghi
‘This is a fascinating, at times provocative, investigation into how and why we eat what we do, how food can be both medicine and poison, and a call-to-arms manifesto to make eating guiltlessly pleasurable for all.’ Nigella Lawson
‘If there were any justice in the world, this book should be at the top of this month's diet-book bestsellers … I agree with every word she writes' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times
‘If any book can effect long-term weight loss, it should be this one, because it feeds the mind rather than denying the body’ The Times
‘First Bite is a feast of a book … Wilson’s focus on how we learn to eat rather than on what we eat is a refreshing new template for improving our relationship with food.’ Financial Times
‘First Bite is a brilliant read; a month after finishing it, I still think of it every time I set the table.’ Observer Food Monthly
What listeners say about First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Zsiri D.
- 01-04-21
highly highly recommend!!
fantastic book. must read really. not only for parents. so interesting for everyone. I really enjoyed it
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- ms demetra
- 03-02-17
Wonderful and insightful book
I really enjoyed this book which was made a delight to listen to by the wonderful narration. The narrator made the story feel as though it was the author herself talking about her personal experiences like one would with a friend.
The book was insightful and based upon with scientific research without being too bogged down in details.
I recommend this book to anyone that is looking for an alternative explain to why they have a particular diet or anyone trying to set their children up with positive eating habits and diet.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Rhx
- 12-03-19
One of the best books on food and eating written
This is a fascinating and eloquent book beautifully written and beautifully read. Not only is Bee Wilson an accomplished Jounalist but she and her loved ones have suffered in their relationships with food. So this is one of those rare discussions weaving in culture science and her own intelligent reflections. I know this is an exceptionally good review but this book deserves it. I’m sure you will enjoy this if you are at all interested in food and changing how you eat.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Lisa
- 06-05-19
Highly interesting and engaging book
As a fully fledged adult who has struggled with severe food neophobia for over 30 years this book was an incredible find.
Interesting and detailed information that never felt like a lecture or monotonous this books covers social and cultural aspects of food and how we eat. It also discusses (albeit not in any great detail) a variety of cases of disordered eating that go beyond the obvious as it becomes clear that our relationship with food has definitely gone wrong somewhere!
If you’re looking for nutritional information or dietary advice however then this isn’t for you.
Interesting perspective on something I, personally, am eager to learn more about.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-12-20
Food for thought!
Well written, beautifully narrated - recommended. My only slight criticism is that I found some of the middle sections about children’s eating disorders were longer than they needed to be to make the important points the author was making.
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- Alice McGeechan
- 08-03-23
fantastic
an amazing book, super informative. highly recommend for anyone not just parents or nutritionist/dieticians
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- MRS ALISON A CAIRNS
- 30-10-23
As always so enjoyable
Really really enjoyed this book as much as the last one Thank you very much
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- Arlene Finnigan
- 22-01-19
Fascinating
This is a fascinating study of how we form our eating habits, how they are learned rather than 'just how we are', and how they can change. Both well researched and really accessible. (on a side note can I suggest that the epilogue would be even better on audio with the music from the Sunscreen song playing in the background?)
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 23-01-20
A few hints of toddlers who make eating a task!
mMost memorable moment "tiny tastes". I will try this out with my 3 year old. Fingers crossed.
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