Participant Info

First Name
Adrienne
Last Name
Bitar
Affiliation
Cornell University
Website URL
https://americanstudies.cornell.edu/adrienne-bitar
Keywords
Food studies, nutrition, diet, stress, meat
Additional Contact Information
arj67@cornell.edu

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I specialize in the history and culture of American food and health.  My first book, Diet and the Disease of Civilization, was published in 2018 with Rutgers University Press.  The first full-length study of diet books, Diet and the Disease of Civilization reveals how 20th century dieting systems have articulated a powerful response to anxieties about the psychic and physical costs of modernity.  Following an imaginary chronology of human origins, the book examines Paleolithic diets, biblical diets, precolonial diets, and environmentalist detoxification programs.

At Cornell, I have taught or will be teaching “Food in America,” “Consumer Culture,” “The History of Health and Fitness Culture,” and “Introduction to Food Studies.”

I am currently working on a new project on lab-grown meat and meat analogues, as well as beginning a book on the history of stress.

Recent Publications

Diet and the Disease of Civilization.  Rutgers University Press, 2018.

“The Paleo Diet and the American Weight Loss Utopia, 1975-2014.” Utopian Studies. Vol. 25, No. 2, (Spring 2015): 101-124.

“For the Starving, Eat ‘Local’ Isn’t an Option.” Wall Street Journal, 3 Dec. 2013, p. A15.

“Romancing the Dude Ranch, 1926-1947.” Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 4, (Winter 2012): 437-461.

“Magic Metabolisms of Competitive Eating.” Taking Food Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World. Routledge, 2011.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United States
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
20th century, 21st century
Expertise by Topic
Food History