Food is everywhere because everybody has to eat. At the same time, food is political: specific foods and ways of eating are connected to particular socio-economic structures and have become prime markers of social distinction. Because food nourishes our bodies, food is also directly associated with our bodies’ health, with our fitness and/or our fatness.

Looking at food thus tells us a how societies work, in history as well as in the present. What we produce, what we buy, and what we eat provide evidence about ourselves: our values, social status, culture, history, and health. We are constantly called upon to choose our diet carefully to become (or stay) healthy and fit. If nothing else, recent proclamations of health crises such as that of “obesity” speak to the political character of food, eating, and the body. Food at once reflects and helps determine whose lives count as valuable or not.

Food, Fatness and Fitness – Critical Perspectives (http://foodfatnessfitness.com) is a blog that was launched in 2015 and that addresses the power, politics, and practices of food and eating. It is a multidisciplinary forum for reflections about food and diet and their link to health, society, body, and the self. We aim to connect the historical with the present, the global with the local, and life sciences with cultural studies.

We seek contributions by scholars working in fields related to the blog’s three key aspects: food, fatness and fitness. We are particularly interested in research that goes beyond perspectives on the modern West or Global North, in transnational research, and novel approaches to thinking about food and bodily categories.   

For contributions, please send an email with an abstract of no more than 200 words to the editors Evangelia Kindinger (Humboldt University Berlin), Nina Mackert (Leipzig University) and Johanna Pitetti-Heil (University of Cologne) at: proposals@foodfatnessfitness.com. There is no deadline, we accept contributions all year long. For more information on contributing, see http://foodfatnessfitness.com/contribute/.