There was something quietly radical in what Stanley Tucci told the BBC last week. The actor has long been a passionate advocate for food as one of the great pleasures of life. But the age of Ozempic, Mounjaro and protein powders, he said, has “really messed up” how we think about food.

“We overthink it, and the idea of what we’re supposed to look like has messed up our relationship with food.”

It’s not simply a biochemical transaction. “Our relationship with food now is it’s just something you eat to feed your belly,” he said, “but that’s not what it is.”

It sounds obvious, yet it sounds faintly subversive. We now live in a culture where every meal arrives with protein targets, calorie deficits and carb avoidance. Entire supermarket aisles are devoted to products engineered to taste vaguely like joy while containing none of joy’s ingredients. For many, food has become merely a wellness strategy.

Tucci is right. Our relationship with........

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