The Battle for Health
A History of the Health Food Movement
Gregory A. BartonThe first full-scale history of the movement that transformed food, health and consumer culture
The Battle for Health tells the story of one of the modern world’s most influential yet misunderstood cultural movements. Emerging in the nineteenth century as a reaction against industrial food production, chemical additives and the growing authority of conventional medicine, the health food movement reshaped how people thought about eating, health and personal responsibility. This first full-scale history traces its path from vitamin pioneers, organic farmers and dietary reformers to today’s wellness industry and debates over nutrition, sustainability and public policy. It reveals a movement marked by striking contradictions: science and romanticism, innovation and quackery, individual choice and collective change. Lively, wide-ranging and deeply relevant, it shows how everyday food choices became a powerful force in shaping modern society.
Gregory A. Barton is Professor of History at Western Sydney University and Visiting Professor in the Department of History at the University of Johannesburg. He is the co-author of Saving the World: How Forests Inspired Global Efforts to Stop Climate Change from 1770 to the Present (Reaktion, 2024).