Abstract
Public health advocates, government agencies, and commercial organizations increasingly use nutritional science to guide food choice and diet as a way of promoting health, preventing disease, or marketing products. We argue that in many instances such references to nutritional science can be characterized as nutritional scientism. We examine three manifestations of nutritional scientism: (1) the simplification of complex science to increase the persuasiveness of dietary guidance, (2) superficial and honorific references to science in order to justify cultural or ideological views about food and health, and (3) the presumption that nutrition is the primary value of food. This paper examines these forms of nutritional scientism in the context of biopolitics to address bioethical concerns related to the misuse of scientific evidence to make claims regarding the effect of diet on health. We argue that nutritional scientism has ethical implications (i) for individual responsibility and freedom, (ii) concerning iatrogenic harm, and (iii) for well-being.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In the United States, the RDAs were regularly updated and published approximately every five years until the tenth and final edition (1989). After a longer-than-usual hiatus, the RDA publication was replaced by a more comprehensive approach: the dietary reference intakes (DRIs), which included not only the old RDA values but also additional values (estimated average requirement, EAR; adequate intake, AI; and tolerable upper intake level, UL). The last publication of the RDAs per se ran to only 283 pages, but the fourteen volumes of the DRIs total thousands of pages (Otten, Pitzi Helwig, and Meyers 2014). The first version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans was published in 1980, and this publication has been updated every five years since. At the time of writing, the current version is dated 2010 (United States Department of Agriculture and United States Department of Health and Human Services 2010). The first step in a revised version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans involves the constitution of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee, a group of nutrition scientists who meet regularly over about a year to consider the vast body of research available. Their task is to consider the strength of the evidence for conclusion statements about various relationships, classifying each as strong, moderate, or limited. The report of the advisory committee (the 2015 report has recently been released) is reviewed by a group affiliated with the USDA and DHHS (United States Department of Agriculture 2011). This group develops the actual Dietary Guidelines for Americans, taking into account whatever practical considerations are deemed appropriate and condensing and simplifying the original message as required.
References
Apple, R.D. 1995. Science gendered: Nutrition in the United States, 1840−1940. In Science and culture of nutrition, 1840–1940, edited by H. Kamminga and A. Cunningham, 129–154. Atlanta, GA: Rodopi.
Arendt, H. 2006. Between past and future: Eight exercises in political thought. New York: Penguin.
Biltekoff, C. 2013. Eating right in America: The cultural politics of food and health. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Brownell, K.D., R. Kersh, D.S. Ludwig, et al. 2010. Personal responsibility and obesity: A constructive approach to a controversial issue. Health Affairs 29(3): 379–387.
Cameron, I., and D. Edge. 1979. Scientific images and their social uses: An introduction to the concept of scientism. London: Buttersworths.
Canguilhem, G. 2007. The normal and the pathological. Translated by C.R. Fawcett. New York: Zone Books. Originally published as Le normal et le pathologique (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1966).
Carpenter, K.J. 2003a. A short history of nutritional science: Part 1 (1785−1885). The Journal of Nutrition 133(3): 638–645.
Carpenter, K.J. 2003b. A short history of nutritional science: Part 3 (1912–1944). The Journal of Nutrition 133(10): 3023–3032.
Carpenter, K.J. 2003c. A short history of nutritional science: Part 4 (1945−1985). The Journal of Nutrition 133(11): 3331–3342.
Coveney, J. 2006. Food, morals and meaning: The pleasure and anxiety of eating. Abingdon: Routledge.
Critchley, S. 2001. Continental philosophy: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Donzelot, J. 1980. The policing of families. London: Hutchinson of London.
Dubos, R. 1987. Mirage of health: Utopia, progress, and biological change. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Fischler, C. 1988. Food, self and identity. Social Science Information/sur les sciences sociales 27(2): 275–292.
Foucault, M. 1980. Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972−1977. Edited by C. Gordon, translated by C. Gordon, L. Marshall, J. Mepham, and K. Soper. New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. 1992. The history of sexuality, volume 2: The use of pleasure. Translated by R. Hurley. London: Penguin Books. Originally published as Histoire de la sexualité, tome II: L'usage des plaisirs (Paris: Gallimard, 1984).
Foucault, M. 1998. The history of sexuality, volume 1: The will to knowledge. Translated by R. Hurley. London: Penguin Books. Originally published as Histoire de la sexualité, tome I: La volonté de savoir (Paris: Gallimard, 1976).
Foucault, M. 2004. Society must be defended: Lectures at the Collège de France 1975−1976. Edited by A.I. Davidson, translated by D. Macey. London: Penguin. Originally published as Il faut défendre la société (Paris: Éditions du Seuil/Gallimard, 1997).
Foucault, M. 2007. Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France 1977−1978. Edited by A.I. Davidson, translated by G. Burchell. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Originally published as Sécurité, territoire, population (Paris: Éditions du Seuil/Gallimard, 2004).
Frohlich, X. 2010. Buyer be-aware: The ethics of food labelling reform and “mobilising the consumer.” In Global food security: Ethical and legal challenges, edited by R. Casabona, L. Escajedo San Epifanio, and A. Emaldi Cirión, 221−227. Wageningen, The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers.
Gardner, S. 2006. Litigation as a tool in food advertising: A consumer advocacy viewpoint. Loyola Law Review 39(1): 291–310.
Garland, D. 2014. The welfare state: A fundamental dimension of modern government. European Journal of Sociology 55(3): 327–364.
Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Goldberg, D.S., and R.M. Puhl. 2013. Obesity stigma: A failed and ethically dubious strategy. The Hastings Center Report 43(3): 5–6.
Guthman, J. 2011. Weighing in: Obesity, food justice, and the limits of capitalism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Haack, S. 2013. Putting philosophy to work, expanded ed. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
Habermas, J. 1987. Knowledge and human interests. Cambridge: Polity Press. Originally published as Erkenntnis und Interesse (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1968).
Hargrove, J.L. 2006. History of the calorie in nutrition. The Journal of Nutrition 136(12): 2957–2961.
Holm, S. 2007. Obesity interventions and ethics. Obesity Reviews 8(S1): 207–210.
Illich, I. 1975. Medical nemesis: The expropriation of health. London: Calder & Boyars.
Kamminga, H., and A. Cunningham, eds. 1995. The science and culture of nutrition, 1840−1940, volume 32. Atlanta, GA: Rodopi.
Kant, I. 1983. An answer to the question: What is enlightenment? In Perpetual peace, and other essays on politics, history, and morals, edited by T. Humphrey, 3–10. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company Incorporated.
Katz, D.L., and S. Meller. 2014. Can we say what diet is best for health? Annual Review of Public Health 35(March): 83–103.
Lemke, T. 2011. Biopolitics: An advanced introduction. New York: New York University Press.
Lindsay, J. 2010. Healthy living guidelines and the disconnect with everyday life. Critical Public Health 20(4): 475–487.
Lupton, D. 2008. “You feel so responsible”: Australian mothers’ concepts and experiences related to promoting the health and development of their young children. In Emerging perspectives in health communication: Meaning, culture, and power, edited by H.M. Zoller and M.J. Dutta, 113–128. New York: Routledge.
Marantz, P.R., E.D. Bird, and M.H. Alderman. 2008. A call for higher standards of evidence for dietary guidelines. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 34(3): 234–240.
Mayes, C. 2014. Governing through choice: Food labels and the confluence of food industry and public health to create “healthy consumers.” Social Theory and Health 12(4): 376–395.
Mayes, C., and D.B. Thompson. 2014. Is nutritional advocacy morally indigestible? A critical analysis of the scientific and ethical implications of “healthy” food choice discourse in liberal societies. Public Health Ethics 7(2): 158–169.
Mol, A. 1998. Lived reality and the multiplicity of norms: A critical tribute to George Canguilhem. Economy and Society 27(2−3): 274–284.
Mol, A. 2010. Moderation or satisfaction? Food ethics and food facts. In Whose weight is it anyway? Essays on ethics and eating, edited by S. Vandamme, S. van de Vathorst, and I. de Beaufort, 121–141. Leuven: Acco.
Nestle, M. 2007. Food politics: How the food industry influences nutrition and health. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
Otten, J.J., J. Pitzi Helwig, and L.D. Meyers, eds. 2014. Dietary reference intakes reports: The essential guide to nutrient requirements. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/dietary-guidance/dietary-reference-intakes/dri-reports. Accessed December 2, 2014.
Petersen, A., and D. Lupton. 1996. The new public health: Health and self in the age of risk. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin.
Pigliucci, M. 2013. New atheism and the scientistic turn in the atheism movement. Midwest Studies in Philosophy 37(1): 142–153.
Pollan, M. 2006. The omnivore’s dilemma: A natural history of four meals. New York: Penguin Group.
Pollan, M. 2007. Unhappy meals. The New York Times, January 28. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?pagewanted=all. Accessed September 7, 2012.
Puhl, R., J.L. Peterson, and J. Luedicke. 2013. Fighting obesity or obese persons? Public perceptions of obesity-related health messages. International Journal of Obesity 37(6): 774–782.
Ristovski-Slijepcevic, S., G.E. Chapman, and B.L. Beagan. 2010. Being a “good mother”: Dietary governmentality in the family food practices of three ethnocultural groups in Canada. Health 14(5): 467–483.
Rose, N. 1999. Powers of freedom: Reframing political thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rothstein, W.G. 2003. Public health and the risk factor: A history of an uneven medical revolution. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Rousseau, S. 2012. Food media: Celebrity chefs and the politics of everyday interference. London: Berg Publishers.
Santich, B. 1995. What the doctors ordered: 150 years of dietary advice in Australia. Carlton, VIC: Hyland House.
Schlich, T. 1995. The word of God and the word of science: Nutrition science and the Jewish dietary laws in Germany, 1820−1920. In Science and culture of nutrition, 1840−1940, Kindle ed., edited by H. Kamminga and A. Cunningham, location 1546–2021. Atlanta, GA: Rodopi.
Scrinis, G. 2013. Nutritionism: The science and politics of dietary advice. New York: Columbia University Press.
Skrabanek, P. 1994. The death of humane medicine and the rise of coercive healthism. London: Social Affairs Unit.
Sorell, T. 1991. Scientism: Philosophy and the infatuation with science. New York: Routledge.
Stenmark, M. 2001. Scientism: Science, ethics and religion. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
Taubes, G. 2008. Good calories, bad calories: Fats, carbs, and the controversial science of diet and health. New York: Anchor Books.
United States Department of Agriculture. 2011. USDA and HHS announce new dietary guideline to help Americans make healthier food choices and confront obesity epidemic. USDA Office of Communications, January 31. http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2011/01/0040.xml&navid=NEWS_RELEASE&navtype=RT&parentnav=LATEST_RELEASES&edeployment_action=retrievecontent. Accessed February 1, 2012.
United States Department of Agriculture and United States Department of Health and Human Services. 2010. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 7th ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Verweij, M. 1999. Medicalization as a moral problem for preventive medicine. Bioethics 13(2): 89–113.
Willett, W.C., and D.S. Ludwig. 2011. The 2010 dietary guidelines—the best recipe for health? The New England Journal of Medicine 365(17): 1563–1565.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mayes, C.R., Thompson, D.B. What Should We Eat? Biopolitics, Ethics, and Nutritional Scientism. Bioethical Inquiry 12, 587–599 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-015-9670-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-015-9670-4