ABSTRACT

What we eat and how we eat have become major issues in the public debate of the last decades. On one level, the debates are concerned with medical and health-related issues, such as diets, nutrition, eating disorders and weight problems. But there is also an interest in food from a lifestyle perspective. Eating has gone from being a matter of food supply to being an identity and lifestyle marker. The public interest in food manifests itself, for instance, in numerous gastronomic magazines, cookery books, TV shows, websites and food blogs. Food has also become a major issue in tourism; it is no longer only part of the travel experience in general, it has become an important factor in the choice of destination for a substantial part of the travelling public.