The Value of Unhealthy Eating and the Ethics of Healthy Eating Policies

Abstract

Unhealthy eating can have value for individuals and groups, even while it has disvalue in virtue of being unhealthy. In this paper, we discuss some ways in which unhealthy eating has value and draw out implications for the ethics of policies limiting access to unhealthy food. Discussing the value and disvalue of unhealthy eating helps identify opportunities for reducing unhealthy eating that has little value, and helps identify opportunities for eliminating trade-offs between health and other values by making unhealthy food experiences healthier without eliminating their value. It also helps us think through when it is ethically acceptable, and when it might be ethically unacceptable, to limit valuable experience in order to promote health. Our discussion of the value and disvalue of eating is offered here as a necessary supplement to the familiar discussion of paternalism, autonomous choice, and public policy.

Injustice in Food-Related Public Health Problems: A Matter of Corporate Responsibility

“…In discussions on corporate irresponsibility in sales and marketing in the food and beverage industry, these principles of ordinary morality are frequently highlighted as key moral rules to which firms need to live up to in their daily operations. While public health ethicists like Barnhill et al (2014) put forth that there is no a priori wrong in selling unhealthy food products, there are…”

Golden opportunity, reasonable risk and personal responsibility for health

“…Food and pharmacologically active substances (alcohol, nicotine and recreational drugs) have many benefits. For example, Barnhill and colleagues defend the social value of eating food, ‘as a way to express love, forge relationships, and reinforce bonds’5. They argue that food should be seen in its community as well as individual context: ‘Specific foods or food traditions have cultural and religious significance, and a special place in family and community life’ 5.…”

“…For example, Barnhill and colleagues defend the social value of eating food, ‘as a way to express love, forge relationships, and reinforce bonds’5. They argue that food should be seen in its community as well as individual context: ‘Specific foods or food traditions have cultural and religious significance, and a special place in family and community life’ 5. The problem is, when consumed in certain ways and in certain amounts, food, nicotine and drugs have harmful effects.…”

Food Policy, Nutritionism, and Public Justification

“…This is especially the case with regard to food, as unhealthy eating can have an important value for many people, due to its "cultural significance, religious significance, and a special place in family and community life." 36 David Resnik, for example, cogently points out that there is often a conflict between health and other values associated with food such as pleasure, the artistic dimensions of food preparation, the pursuit of ethical values (e.g., respect for non-human animals or for the environment), and cultural and religious traditions. 37 Resnik's criticism of nutritionist health-promoting food policies is ultimately grounded in the idea that "the freedom to decide what one eats is an important freedom that should not be restricted unnecessarily."…”

“…Moreover, nutritionism has been shown to be inadequate to a comprehensive analysis of the issues surrounding the food security and health of members of ethno-cultural minorities. 20 Furthermore, as Anne Barnhill and others 21 have recently pointed out, it is important to consider more seriously the importance of the "value and disvalue of eating," 22 alongside the promotion of health (with which nutritionism is solely concerned), when discussing food policies. All of this, I believe, raises issues of political legitimacy and public justification, themes which have mostly been overlooked in the normative literature on health-promoting food legislation, and on food policy in general.…”