First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson, book review

The latest book from Britain's finest living food writer goes to the heart of the matter

'There's no biological imperative… the female craving for chocolate is culturally determined, not innate.' (Corbis)

After enlightening us on kitchen utensils, adulterated foods and honeybees in previous volumes, the latest book from Britain's finest living food writer goes to the heart of the matter. Written with her customary acuity and readability, First Bite is primarily concerned with demolishing the mountain of twaddle that has accrued around our vexed relationship with food. In particular, Wilson explodes the notion that we are genetically programmed towards certain foods. For example, she dismisses the "claptrap" about women having an in-built fondness for chocolate: "There's no biological imperative… the female craving for chocolate is culturally determined, not innate."

Her exploration of our dysfunctional relationship with food has a powerful personal element, occasionally startling in its candour. At the outset, she reveals her tendency to overeat when a teenager: "Maybe it was a response to living with my elder sister, who was anorexic… Or it could have been a consequence of growing up in a house where emotional talk was taboo." Later she suggests that her bingeing was encouraged by farewell presents of chocolate from her divorced father: "It was only much later that I realised the person my father was rewarding was primarily himself." Regarding her own children, Wilson admits succumbing to the "tempting strategy" of "force-feeding". Subsequently, an acquaintance told her, "I thought you were an awful mother."

Such painful home truths underlie Wilson's central message: "Eating is a learned behaviour". So what can we do to shed harmful habits? Wilson's advice ranges from using smaller plates to the effectiveness of soup as an appetite-suppressant. There is no reason why we have to stick to the diet implanted by our parents. In Japan, where just 3.3 per cent of women are obese (as opposed to 33.9 per cent in the US), the famously healthy diet goes back only to the Fifties. "The wonderful secret of being an omnivore," insists Wilson, "is that we can adjust our desires even late in the game."

Just 20 per cent of dieters are successful: these are "maintainers" who "tend to eat breakfast every day and stick to a consistently moderate diet across the week rather than splurging on weekends (5:2 dieters – take note!)." Despite having a violent antipathy to diet books, I was won over by Wilson's arguments. Her views are sensible, persuasive and cognisant of human failings. More than anything I've ever read, this book explained to me why I am the shape that I am and how I can do something about it.

Fourth Estate, £12.99. Order at £10.99 inc. p&p from the Independent Bookshop