Food Revolution

Food has a big influence on individuals, cultures, societies, and politics.  According to Gyorgy Scrinis’s article “On the Ideology of Nutritionism,” the author discusses the ideology or paradigm of nutritionism and how the focus on nutrients dominates expert’s knowledge in understanding food and diets.  Like science, our knowledge on nutrients changes constantly day after day.  This knowledge and understanding can affect consumer’s knowledge because it can create a self-conscious awareness to what food we should buy.  For example, we over emphasize the idea that eating too much chocolate is bad for you, but drinking red wine and eating dark chocolate is good for the heart.  “Despite the uncertainties, limitations, and contradictions within nutrient-level knowledge, nutritionism is nevertheless characterized by a sustained and confident discourse of precision and control.  This discourse implies both a precise understanding of foods, diets, and the body and an ability to precisely control and manipulate them.  Scrinis call this the myth of nutritional precision, as it involves a greatly exaggerated representation of scientists’ understanding of the relationship among nutrients, food, and the body” (Scrinis’s 42).  This portrays how nutritionism affects our knowledge of our bodies by choosing specific food with “better nutrients” that can prolong life according to nutrition experts. 

Nutritional Menus

http://media.kval.com/images/100110_calorie_menus.jpg

http://alloveralbany.com/images/cheesecake_calorie_menu.jpg

Not only has food affected us in an individualistic stance, but also at a political level.  Just a couple years ago, food experts (dieticians) influenced the Seattle government to require some restaurants to have a nutritional menu that shows how much calories are on what plate.  It’s like our government is telling us “Enjoy your food,” but keep in mind what you’re about to eat may affect your health/body.  The relationship of food among government, dieticians and consumers has become so central in our society that it affects everyone at a mental and physical state.  We start to categorize what is considered “good” food versus “bad” food.  Also, we try to avoid processed foods because they lack “good” nutrients to our bodies.  “This obsession with ‘healthy food’ and with the pursuit of ‘health’ in general—i.e, health reductionism—may come at the expense of other ways of encountering food through its embedded sensual, cultural, or ecological qualities” (Scrinis’s 40).   As a result, the ideology of nutritionism influences policies and practices that shape our everyday life.

In “Globalizing the Chronicities of Modernity,” Dennis Wiedman illustrates how the global pandemic of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is the result of the dramatic shift from a hunters and gatherers lifestyle to the “chronicities of modernity” (Wiedman 38).  Interestingly, this article emphasizes how nowadays people’s behaviors have been shaped to make the simple things even simpler.  For example, there are many types of transportations in our modern world that can bring us from one place to another unlike in the hunters and gatherers era where walking was the main form of transportation.  Another example would be fast food restaurants that cook food for people who are on-the-go and at a cheap price.  Sometimes these modern day advantages can affect the mind and body because “as individuals interact with or become part of these social structures and economies their behaviors become less diverse and more uniform” (Wiedman 45).  We tend to loose sight of the original techniques that hunters and gatherers survived accordingly to and become more focused on modernity.  Therefore, a low physical fitness and nutritional balance are prioritized in understanding chronic metabolic disorders.

At the end of his article he addresses a good point that there is a need “by promoting the positives of health communities and by addressing the necessary structural changes rather than the negatives of disease prevention and individual regimens, community empowerment could reduce the pandemic of chronic diseases associated with the industrial lifestyle” (Wiedman 53).  I think it is important that communities become more involved with these health issues because it can promote a better lifestyle.  Wiedman presented three appropriate ways for communities to approach their understanding with MetS which include: 1) influencing accessibility to affordable and health choices of foods in local communities, 2) enhance activity levels with designs of transportation systems, work, exercise, and recreational facilities; and 3) promote the redevelopment of local food production lifestyles in communities that want to farm, garden, ranch, hunt or fish (Wiedman 53).  These are all great solutions to help out communities especially at a micro level.

As we continue to enhance our modernized world, we become less aware of the consequences of our actions.  Both of these articles reflect a majority of American’s lifestyle and their relationship with food.  One issue that struck me while reading these articles is the public health concerns towards school lunch programs.  According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity rates showed an increasingly high rate of obesity among nine states including West Virginia in their 2009 data.  Based on these statistics, there have been many health advocates that wanted to be involved by decreasing the amount of obesity in America.  These advocates wanted to do their best to educate children about where food comes from, how to conserve resources, and support local food systems.  Take for example, Jamie Oliver.  He has been working on a “food revolution” in West Virginia public schools by improving school lunch programs.  Although he is from England, he is faced with many challenges to express the awareness that children—specifically born after 2000—will live a shorter lifespan than their parents because they are exposed to a toxicity of processed food, also known as the toxic food environment. 

In this video, he demonstrates how disgusting ingredients made in processed foods continue to be eaten by children if they are in the shape or form of something they love like chicken nuggets.  Interestingly, these children know how chicken nuggets are made and yet they continue to eat it because "they are hungry".  Children in this generation are being "brain washed" by the existence and accessibility to processed foods.  Therefore, can our knowledge about food be an effective tool to inform our youth?  Can nutritionism change our daily habit of eating "unhealthy" food?

Overall, there are many ways to educate the youth about food.  Solutions to this issue may include promoting positive health communities and addressing structural changes as Wiedman already mentioned in his article.  Schools can approach this by including classes or field trips that involve a “hands-on” experience at P-Patches or gardens.  Meanwhile, both of these articles highlight the imbalance relationship between food and American society. 

Works Cited

Oliver, Jamie. Jamie Oliver | Official Site for Recipes, Books, Tv, Restaurants and Food Revolution. Web. 17 February 2011. http://www.jamieoliver.com/.

Scrinis, Gyorgy.  2008. “The Ideology of Nutritionism.” Gastronomica 8(1): 39-48.

Wiedmann, Dennis. 2010. “Globalizing the Chronicities of Modernity: Diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome.” In Chronic Conditions, Fluid States: Chronicity and the Anthropology of Illness. Lenore Manderson and Carolyn Smith-Morris, eds. New Bruswish, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Pp. 38-53.

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html