The Sociology of Nutrition

Hundreds of years ago people were not aware of the existence of macronutrients, vitamins, or minerals. They simply ate what they had been taught to eat by their parents. They survived. Some of them were malnourished and some of them had too much to eat. Just like today. The difference being that today we are not taught to eat by our parents  instead media teaches us what is appropriate to eat.

Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, once said “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”.

Today Americans are especially concerned about what they’re eating, not just calories, but the actual nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that make up the food: proteins, omega-3’s, trans fat are all examples. These are all trends though. It seems like every year different nutrients are chosen to be good or bad and new packaging is made to reflect these thoughts. 

You’d think with all this information on human nutrition being easily accessible to the public we’d all be the picture of perfect health but we’re not. Instead we’re all confused about what we should be eating.