Popularized by Michael Pollan in his best-selling In Defense of Food,
Gyorgy Scrinis's concept of nutritionism refers to the reductive
understanding of nutrients as the key indicators of healthy food--an
approach that has dominated nutrition science, dietary advice, and food
marketing. Scrinis argues this ideology has narrowed and in some cases
distorted our appreciation of food quality, such that even highly
processed foods may be perceived as healthful depending on their content
of "good" or "bad" nutrients. Investigating the butter versus margarine
debate, the battle between low-fat, low-carb, and other weight-loss
diets, and the food industry's strategic promotion of nutritionally
enhanced foods, Scrinis reveals the scientific, social, and economic
factors driving our modern fascination with nutrition.
Scrinis develops an original framework and terminology for analyzing the
characteristics and consequences of nutritionism since the late
nineteenth century. He begins with the era of quantification, in which
the idea of protective nutrients, caloric reductionism, and vitamins'
curative effects took shape. He follows with the era of good and bad
nutritionism, which set nutricentric dietary guidelines and defined the
parameters of unhealthy nutrients; and concludes with our current era of
functional nutritionism, in which the focus has shifted to targeted
nutrients, superfoods, and optimal diets. Scrinis's research underscores
the critical role of nutrition science and dietary advice in shaping our
relationship to food and our bodies and in heightening our nutritional
anxieties. He ultimately shows how nutritionism has aligned the demands
and perceived needs of consumers with the commercial interests of food
manufacturers and corporations. Scrinis also offers an alternative
paradigm for assessing the healthfulness of foods--the food quality
paradigm--that privileges food production and processing quality,
cultural-traditional knowledge, and sensual-practical experience, and
promotes less reductive forms of nutrition research and dietary advice.
