Danbury Library Blog

Good News! The national love/hate relationship to food with the attendant problems of obesity, eating disorders, guilt is nothing new. In A Short History of the American Stomach we find dieting gurus among the Puritans in the form of "fire and brimstone" Cotton Mather who viewed the gastro intestinal system as a depository of evil spirits to be removed by a variety of unpleasant means. Community fasts were big although we probably could've done without the one preceding the Salem witch hunt. Hey, maybe we should resurrect a National Fast Day.

Often hilarious--the author's analysis of "food television" is a hoot--we learn the body pollitic has always been quite neurotic when it comes to food--Benjamin Franklin thought eating oatmeal "would bring us all one step closer to utopia." Hasn't worked for me.