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"Writing nutritionistically": A critical discourse analysis of lay people's digital correspondence with the Swedish Food Agency.

ABSTRACT: This article analyzes lay people's use of nutritionistic discourse in written correspondence with the Swedish Food Agency, an authority responsible for dietary advice. Examining 60 food related written digital messages, we apply a critical discourse analysis to parse the lexical items and grammar people use when constructing "food" in scientific terms. The findings show how message writers place nutrients at the discursive center. Message writers' grammatical constructions instrumentalize food and eating. This is reinforced by the message writers' frequent use of terms that indicate preciseness, such as numbers and amounts. Messages therefore emphasize the what, but not the how, of eating, implying a focus on food as subject to regulation and control. As such, eating is discursively reduced to an act of ingesting nutrients that can be decontextualized and managed in isolation-as entities to increase or avoid separately. These discursive features preclude the conceptualization of food choice and eating as subjective experiences of feelings, taste, and tradition.

SUBMITTER: Bergman K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9344565 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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"Writing nutritionistically": A critical discourse analysis of lay people's digital correspondence with the Swedish Food Agency.

Bergman Karolin K Nowicka Paulina P Eli Karin K Lövestam Elin E

Health (London, England : 1997) 20210920 5

This article analyzes lay people's use of nutritionistic discourse in written correspondence with the Swedish Food Agency, an authority responsible for dietary advice. Examining 60 food related written digital messages, we apply a critical discourse analysis to parse the lexical items and grammar people use when constructing "food" in scientific terms. The findings show how message writers place nutrients at the discursive center. Message writers' grammatical constructions instrumentalize food a ...[more]

PMID: 34542352

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Project description:Previous research has shown that migrants in Sweden are disadvantaged in terms of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). SRHR policies might play a crucial role in shaping migrants' SRHR outcomes. The purpose of the study was to critically examine: a) how migrants were represented in the discourses embedded within Swedish SRHR-related policies, and b) how migrants' SRHR-related issues were framed and addressed within these discourses. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to analyze a total of 54 policy documents. Following Jäger's approach to CDA, discourse strands and entanglements between different discourse strands were examined. Our findings consisted of three discourse strands: 1) "Emphasizing vulnerability", 2) "Constructing otherness", and 3) "Prioritizing the structural level or the individual level?". Migrants' representation in Swedish SRHR-related policies is often associated with the concept of vulnerability, a concept that can hold negative connotations such as reinforcing social control, stigma, and disempowerment. Alongside the discourse of vulnerability, the discourse of otherness appears when framing migrants' SRHR in relation to what is defined as honor-related violence and oppression. Furthermore, migrant SRHR issues are occasionally conceptualized as structural issues, as suggested by the human rights-based approach embraced by Swedish SRHR-related policies. Relevant structural factors, namely migration laws and regulations, are omitted when addressing, for example, human trafficking and HIV/AIDS. We conclude that the dominant discourses favor depictions of migrants as vulnerable and as the Other. Moreover, despite the prevailing human rights-based discourse, structural factors are not always considered when framing and addressing migrants' SRHR issues. This paper calls for a critical analysis of the concept of vulnerability in relation to migrants' SRHR. It also highlights the importance of avoiding othering and paying attention to the structural factors when addressing migrants' SRHR.

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"Writing nutritionistically": A critical discourse analysis of lay people's digital correspondence with the Swedish Food Agency.

Publications

"Writing nutritionistically": A critical discourse analysis of lay people's digital correspondence with the Swedish Food Agency.

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