Anyone interested in the description, causes, and consequences of long-term dietary changes in Western societies will find this book an excellent case study for this purpose.

The Economic History Review

The book presents a rich, original, and convincing narrative on the rise and fall of “good diets” in Spain since the mid-twentieth century ... Anybody interested in food history will gain much theoretical, methodological, and empirical inspiration from this book.

Social History of Medicine

Based on an innovative bridge between Schumpeter and Braudel, applied to a thorough empirical and theoretical work, Fernando Collantes delivers in this book not only a detailed account of the Spanish diet since the 1950s, but also a challenging account of the long term evolution of a major factor for all societies: the access and quality of food. This is nothing less than a new vision of the material roots of historical evolution, conflicts and innovation.

Francisco Louçã, University of Lisbon, Portugal

This book addresses a big issue through the lens of milk and dairy products: how societies in Western consumer capitalism have changed dietary patterns. The author adopts an original approach that integrates domains such as macroeconomics, microeconomics and consumer culture. This book will be relevant not only for historically interested readers but also for citizens engaged in current debates on sustainable food.

Ernst Langthaler, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

An excellent work. This rigorous and comprehensive analysis of milk and dairy products, and their two models of consumption in contemporary Spain, offers an in-depth study of their fundamental role in the evolution, transformation, and globalisation of the Spanish diet within the context of modern nutritional transition.

Xavier Cussó, Associate Lecturer of Economic and Social History, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

This book reflects on the dramatic secular sequence of the rise and fall of good nutrition in Spain, through the study of the evolution of dairy consumption. Its analysis masterfully demonstrates how, starting from a low nutritional level and minimal dairy consumption, there was a phase of widespread consumption of industrial milk (1950-90), followed by a period (1990-2020) where dairy consumption diversified into other derived products, although total dairy consumption declined, and the initial poor nutritional level was resumed. Public policies need to be implemented in response, and this careful research contributes significantly to that discussion.

Luis German, Professor of Economic and Social History, University of Zaragoza