Eating has always been more than a biological necessity or a simple matter of
taste. Food in Antiquity, edited by John Wilkins and colleagues (Exeter
University Press, £35, ISBN 0 85989 418 5), explores the influences of
religion, politics and ideologies on food consumption in the classical world and
beyond. From the cereal festivals of Eleusis to Byzantine porridge and the
Hippocratic diet the evidence is clear: “You really are what you eat.”
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