AUTUMN 1995 NEWSLETTER
D.A. Booth (1994),
Taylor & Francis, London. pp. 228 £13.95 Hardback
Those of us working in the field of eating disorders, whether researchers or clinicians, can lose sight of the development and the regulation of eating in healthy people. Reading about normal functioning is refreshing, and this book certainly satisfactory from this point of view. The book is broader than its title suggests, and it covers the development, physiology and neuroscience of nutrition, as well as the cultural aspects of eating, the heart and diet, and dieting.
The author explains at the outset that a cognitive approach to nutrition is adopted, which is underpinned by the assumption that the hunger and thirst are the motives driven by recognition of similarity. This means that the desire to consume an item depends on recognising how close it is to the ideal that the individual has acquired for eating that kind of food. However, the application of this apparently simple principle to individuals' circumstances becomes quite sophisticated. For example, although it is known that infants have a biologically determined liking for sweetness, the amount they desire and consume is influenced by previous exposure. Understanding the links between desires and food is established by the qualitative study of likes that can be analysed against particular food properties, the field of psychophysics.
The author is an expert on the regulation of appetite and satiety, and writes with great authority on this subject. The accounts of the neuroscience of eating, and obesity will be of particular value to those working in the field of eating disorders. However, his wish to debunk many widely held ideas especially those that are remotely medical, whether in the fields of psychiatric epidemiology, psychoanalysis or psychopharmacology seem to backfire. For example, the author writes blandly (Page 36) that a "young child by and large accepts what is provided, gets used to it and is reinforced for accepting it", but this belies the fact that about one third of parents have concerns about their infant's feeding, and that there is research data available in this area. Other examples of rather inaccurate sweeping statements could be provided.
Overall this a is clearly structured and well-organised book. Unfortunately sentences are sometimes complicated and awkwardly written which makes them hard to understand. Nevertheless the book would be useful at different levels of expertise because of its breadth. It would be of considerable interest to those in the field of eating disorders.
Matthew Hodes
Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, UK.