Stanley J. Ulijaszek is Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Oxford and Director of the Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity there. He was recently appointed Honorary Professor in Health Research in the Humanities at the University of Copenhagen. His work on nutritional ecology and anthropology has involved fieldwork and research in Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands and South Asia, while his interests in dietary transitions have led him to examine the evolutionary basis and cultural drivers of obesity.

• Acknowledgements and influences; 1. Introduction; 2. Rationalities and models of obesity; 3. Energy balance, genetics and obesogenic environments; 4. Governance through measurement; 5. Inequalities; 6. Food and eating; 7. Global transformations of diet; 8. Obesity science and policy; 9. Complexity; 10. Systems and rationalities; Bibliography; Index.

'… it offers potential applications beyond obesity, in the field of public mental health.' Miranda Wolpert, The Lancet