Praise for Milk in Spain and the History of Diet Change:

'It is inevitable to recall Sidney Mintz's Sweetness and Power when reading Fernando Collantes. Just as sugar was the guiding thread for the anthropologist to explain social changes, Collantes reviews the dietary changes in our history through milk. An excellent piece of work, meticulously handling data and arguments, which makes us reflect on how much we have changed in Spain, but also on what remains to be done in a global society where food, in this case milk, no longer circulates as sustenance but merely as another commodity.' - Cecilia Diaz Mendez, Professor of Sociology, University of Oviedo, Spain

'This book revolutionises our understanding of modern diets, revealing how economic and cultural changes have transformed nutrition in Spain and highlighting the urgent need for public policies to ensure healthy eating. Written in an accessible and rigorous manner, it offers valuable insights for all those interested in nutrition and public health, and thus will be appreciated by both specialists and the general public. A fundamental book.' - Jose Miguel Martinez Carrion, Professor of Economic and Social History, University of Murcia, Spain

In barely three generations the Spanish diet has changed beyond recognition. The traditional concerns around nutritional health and scarcity have been mostly left behind, but they have given way to new problems linked to excess. In this book Fernando Collantes shows how the dairy industry has been central to this societal shift. From widespread calcium deficiency in the 1950s to the more recent, and controversial, turn to highly processed foods, it provides a recent history of diet change in Spain. Probing the reasons behind why this shift has occurred, and how, it shows that when it comes to food society, politics, economics and the law are intrinsically linked.

Taking the reader beyond the world of food, Milk in Spain and the History of Diet Change combines qualitative and quantitative methods to position diet change within the broader debate on consumer society and ‘the good life’. Contrasting two models of food consumption, it shows that unless public policy takes the challenge of affluence seriously, the food system can become an obstacle to a better society.