The neoclassical model of consumer behavior can no longer completely explain today’s spending and consumption processes, which reveal a preponderance of irrational elements that are mostly linked to the individual affective sphere. This behavior can also be applied to food purchase; indeed, in recent years, consumption is no longer experienced as a private and personal act, but increasingly as a social event. It can therefore represent an opportunity to experience a set of intense emotions that encourage the creation and development of specific social groups. This dynamic can explain the appearance of so-called food tribes on which this chapter provides an overview. In parallel, the chapter focuses on some contemporary paradoxes. For example, on the one hand, TV programs and other media simultaneously encourage us to invest in fitness courses, slimming diets, and miraculous products for weight loss, while inundating us with adverts and books focusing on tasty or sumptuous food items which encourage us to eat and experiment with new recipes and try an ever greater variety of delicious foods. Thus, the imperative to lose weight meets the temptation to overeat, inviting many people to oscillate metaphorically between anorexic and bulimic tendencies. Which are the consequences of such conflicting messages? How does the food tribe phenomenon correlate with such paradoxes? Theories and scientific studies about this topic are presented.

This chapter provides an overview of orthorexia, a relatively new disease included within the broader category of eating disorders. The term orthorexia derives from the combination of two Greek words: orthos, meaning "healthy/correct" and oreksis, meaning "appetite." It is used to describe an unhealthy obsession with eating only healthy and natural food. A series of worries are related to this phenomenon: some preoccupations are expressly rooted in cultural and social contexts that reinforce the importance of healthy eating. For example, certain food items may be invested with alleged curative power and almost miraculous properties in some environments. Such views can discourage individuals from having a spontaneous and direct relationship with food because foods may be chosen only for their supposed healing properties rather than their taste. Theories, clinical cases, and scientific studies about this topic are presented.

The conclusion examines the different influences on contemporary French administrative law. Some distinctive features have their origins in the historical development of French government and the distinctive development of the French administrative courts and legal scholarship. The development of a proper constitutional law in the Fifth Republic has changed the dynamics of the leadership of public law and its sources of influence, mainly by expanding the scope of public law.The existential commitment of France to Europe has created a newer path dependence. EU law and the European Convention shape French public law not only through directly applicable rules, but also as benchmarks and sources of ideas. France and French society belong to global trends which have shaped expectations of the public not only about the administration, but also about the context in which it operates. The rules on public procurement are an example of these wider influences. France is thus distinctive, but at the same time an illustration of wider forces at work in administrative law.