Clean Eating: How the Language of Diet Culture Assigns Moral Judgments to Food Choices
Session Title
Inclusion and Community
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
English
Faculty Mentor
Jo Koster, Ph.D.
Abstract
In this paper, I take a linguistic approach to analyze the way in which we talk about food and how the language we use to categorize foods assigns moral judgments to them. To argue this, I examine the effects of terms such as “clean eating,” “superfoods,” and “junk food” on feelings of moral rightness or wrongness. Building from the research of Jennifer S. Coelho, My Bui, and Nick Cullather on the impact of language on guilt associated with food and calories, I discuss how the language of diet culture leads to an increased tendency in people exposed to it to feel food-related guilt when they consume things that are classified as “bad.” I also argue that people use the language of food description such as carbs, calories, and diet to impose limits that can sometimes become extremely restrictive on their own behaviors, and this shows that the language we use to talk about food has moral, even psychological, power over most people.
Previously Presented/Performed?
World of Food Interdisciplinary Conference, Winthrop University, February 2019
Start Date
12-4-2019 1:15 PM
Clean Eating: How the Language of Diet Culture Assigns Moral Judgments to Food Choices
WEST 217
In this paper, I take a linguistic approach to analyze the way in which we talk about food and how the language we use to categorize foods assigns moral judgments to them. To argue this, I examine the effects of terms such as “clean eating,” “superfoods,” and “junk food” on feelings of moral rightness or wrongness. Building from the research of Jennifer S. Coelho, My Bui, and Nick Cullather on the impact of language on guilt associated with food and calories, I discuss how the language of diet culture leads to an increased tendency in people exposed to it to feel food-related guilt when they consume things that are classified as “bad.” I also argue that people use the language of food description such as carbs, calories, and diet to impose limits that can sometimes become extremely restrictive on their own behaviors, and this shows that the language we use to talk about food has moral, even psychological, power over most people.
