This course discusses issues such as sustainable agriculture, organic farming, genetically modified foods, nutrition policy, and the influence of food and agriculture industries. This course also examines some problems such as malnutrition, eating disorders, and the global obesity epidemic; the impact of food advertising aimed at children; poverty and food; and how each individual's eating is affected by the modern environment.

This course encompasses the study of eating as it affects the health and well-being of every human. Topics include taste preferences, food aversions, the regulation of hunger and satiety, food as comfort and friendship, eating as social ritual, and social norms of blame for food problems.

Kelly Brownell is Professor of Psychology, Epidemiology, and Public Health, and Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale, where he also served as Chair of the Department of Psychology and Master of Silliman College. He has published 14 books and more than 300 scientific papers. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine and in 2006 Time magazine listed Kelly Brownell among "The World's 100 Most Influential People".