'Why we eat what we eat?' is a key question for the 1990s, posed again and again in government departments, in sectors of the food industry, by professionals in health, in education, and in catering, to name a few.

1. Introduction: Food Choice, Social Sciences and 'The Nation's Diet' Programme. Part One: Social Sciences and Food Choice: Proceeding from Axioms, Operational Definitions and Measurements.2. The Effects of Life Stress on Food Choice. 3. Understanding Dietary Choice and Dietary Change: Contributions from Social Psychology. 4. Changing What Children Eat. 5. Consumer Theory and Food Choice in Economics, with an Example. 6. What We Eat and Why: Social Norms and Systems of Provision. 7. How British Retailers Have Shaped Food Choice. 8. A Sociological Approach to Food Choice: The Case For Eating Out. Part Two: Social Sciences and Food Choice: Analysing Socio-political Processes and Cultural Constructions.9. Regulation, Rights and the Structuring of Food Choices. 10. Studying Food Choice in its Social and Cultural Contexts: Approaches from a Social Anthropological Perspective. 11. Food Choice and Diet Change Within the Family Setting. 12. The Marriage Menu: Life, Food and Diet in Transition. 13. Ethnographies of Eating in an Urban Primary School. 14. Food Choice, Food Scares, and Health: the Role of the Media. 15. Food Choices for Babies. 16. Food Choice and Culture in a Cosmopolitan City: South Asians, Italians and other Glaswegians. Part Three: Social Sciences and Food Choice: Additional Perspectives.17. Food Choice and the British System of Formal and Informal Welfare Provision: Questions for Research. 18. British Market-Research Data on Food: a Note on Their Use For the Academic Study of Food Choice. 19. The Discourse of Scientific Knowledge of Nutrition and Dietary Change in the Twentieth Century. References. Index of Authors. Index of Principal Topics.