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Start giftingFirst Bite
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We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreWe do not come into the world with an innate sense of taste and nutrition; as omnivores, we have to learn how and what to eat, how sweet is too sweet, and what food will give us the most energy for the coming day. But how does this education happen? What are the origins of taste?
In First Bite, the beloved food writer Bee Wilson draws on the latest research from food psychologists, neuroscientists, and nutritionists to reveal that our food habits are shaped by a whole host of factors, including family, culture, memory, gender, hunger, and love. An exploration of the extraordinary and surprising origins of our tastes and eating habits—from people who can only eat foods of a certain color to an amnesiac who can eat meal after meal without getting full—First Bite also shows us how we can change our palates to lead healthier, happier lives.
Bee Wilson is an award-winning food writer, historian, and author of Consider the Fork and Swindled, among other books. She has been named BBC Radio’s Food Writer of the Year and writes a weekly food column for the Sunday Telegraph’s Stella magazine. Wilson lives in Cambridge, England.
Alison Larkin was born in Washington, DC, adopted at six weeks old by British parents, and raised in England and Africa. After graduating from Royal Holloway College, London University, and the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, she became a playwright and classical actress on the British stage. Then, at twenty-eight, she found her birth mother, who was living in Bald Mountain, Tennessee. The experience turned her into a stand-up comic. She was soon headlining at the Comic Strip in New York and the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, while maintaining her theatrical career. She also spent three years under a studio development contract to star in her own sitcom with ABC, CBS, and Jim Henson Productions. Her unusually wide range of voices can be heard in cartoons and movies, from work by James Cameron and Robert Altman to Pocahontas and The Wonder Pets. The audiobook of The English American, narrated by Alison, won an AudioFile Earphones Award.
Reviews
“Should be read by every young parent, and is a good resource for adults…There are some very useful ideas within these pages, and none of the usual pseudo scientific bunk that plagues books about diet.”
“If any book can effect long-term weight loss, it should be this one, because it feeds the mind rather than denying the body.”
“It’s possible for anyone to change, Wilson promises. That means the whole lot of us.”
“Her tone is refreshingly loose and friendly; she’s one of the few food scholars I can think of who can effectively quote both Margaret Mead and Homer Simpson. Ultimately, her message is a hopeful, even liberating, one bolstered by examples large and small.”
“[A] lucid survey…[with] an impressive range of research in neuroscience and nutrition.”
“Her tone is down-to-earth and research-based at once, gentle, encouraging, no-nonsense….[with] advice and well-supported information.”
“Wilson takes a scholarly approach in this smart and telling journey…Discussing everything from adults with stringent eating patterns to gendered weight misperceptions and changes in cultural norms, Wilson delineates how diets develop and, more importantly, how to make healthy modifications.”
“With generous measures of grounded wisdom and solid research findings, the book should attract and possibly inspire broad groups of readers struggling with eating-related issues.”
“Narrator Alison Larkin evokes the listener’s curiosity about this detailed exploration of relearning how to eat…Larkin’s diverse voices and lively accents bring out the international flavor of research that compares global food and eating habits. The plethora of information…[is] effectively tempered by Larkin’s lively tone as well as some of the book’s surprising discoveries.”
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