Newspaper Blog About Sociology of Food And Eating

In his post “Relax, You Don’t Need to ’Eat Clean,’” Aaron E. Carroll expresses his opinion on why we should abandon the idea that certain foods are “unhealthy” (Carroll n.p). On November 4, 2017, the piece was published in The New York Times’ opinion reviews section. The author of the piece discusses how societies’ unjustified concern with healthy eating robs food of its intended joy and instead turns it into a source of panic (Carroll n.p). The author gives several examples of foods which people are shunning such as salt, gluten-laden diets and genetically modified foods (Carroll n.p). The author, however, notes that shunning of some of these foods leads to a scenario where people compensate by taking too much of certain types of food. Moreover, in some cases, the claims of perceived risks with these “bad foods” has been empirically proven to be unfounded (Carroll n.p). As such, healthy eating should be founded on scientific evidence of the harms of the alleged unhealthy foods.

The article herein sheds light on crucial matters about the sociology of food. Firstly, the piece depicts the significant influence of the surrounding society on the development of food preferences. Communities with an obsession for ”healthier foods“ tend to have a culture which promotes consumption of the healthier foods as opposed to the ”bad foods” (Carroll n.p). It has for instance been the case with the avoidance of processed foods which have a lot of salt, consumption of more gluten-free diets and the concerns over genetically modified foods as previously noted. These interests often center on food safety among the consumers. However, while food should ideally be a gratification, and serve to strengthen the social ties, overindulgence in the supposedly healthy eating behaviors has led to anxieties and insecurities about the food system which reflects the sociological debates about cultures of fear and ontological insecurity (Carroll n.p).

Media and technology are essential components of the social environment. They have a significant bearing in increasing the risk consciousness to unhealthy diets through increased access to information (Carroll n.p). Critically, this is crucial in propagating healthy feeding behaviors among families which further enhance the health of the population. Children brought up in such families are likely to adopt such dietary habits in their later lives which is advantageous in the long run. In addition, several cooking shows are aired in our media. They depict different cuisines for diverse cultures. Consequently, this is important in boosting efforts geared towards globalization where diets that are a reserve of specific regions are now served far and wide in various forms and delicacies (Carroll n.p). People are hence introduced to new types of food and in the long run, creates new feeding habits and cultures which is an essential aspect of human social environments and sociology at large (Carroll n.p). Unfortunately, where the media depicts cheap and fast food as the better type of food, there is a possibility for the society herein to adopt such kind of culture, which poses health risks to its population. Moreover, using fancy themes as marketing strategies on media platforms, in a bid to mask highly processed unhealthy foods also often influences people into adopting such diets which waters down the propagation of healthy feeding behaviors. In a nutshell, therefore, the article is of the opinion that rational empirically proven decisions should inform eating habits.

Work Cited

Carroll, Aaron. “Relax, You Don’t Need To ‘Eat Clean.’” The New York Times 2017. Web. 3 Dec. 2017.