3. Food consumption over the long term

Although a less "noble" subject than war, politics or economics, food has interested eminent historians (including F. Braudel, for example), as it has long been at the heart of the dynamics of human societies. Studies have been carried out to retrace the evolution of food over a relatively long period, showing major changes, but also great inertia in the modification of consumer habits, and the existence of upward and downward cycles, depending on the product, the level of supply, living conditions and the size of the population.

Specialists in the history of food agree on the need to take a nutritional and socio-economic approach to food consumption in order to understand its dynamics.