“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.