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Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History
Nutritionism: The Science and Politics of Dietary Advice
Popularized by Michael Pollan in his best-selling In Defense of Food , Gyorgy Scrinis's concept of nutritionism refers to the reductive understanding of nutrients as the key indicators of healthy food―an approach that has dominated nutrition science, dietary advice, and food marketing. Scrinis argues this ideology has narrowed and in some cases distorted our appreciation of food quality, such that even highly processed foods may be perceived as healthful depending on their content of "good" or "bad" nutrients. Investigating the butter versus margarine debate, the battle between low-fat, low-carb, and other weight-loss diets, and the food industry's strategic promotion of nutritionally enhanced foods, Scrinis reveals the scientific, social, and economic factors driving our modern fascination with nutrition.
Scrinis develops an original framework and terminology for analyzing the characteristics and consequences of nutritionism since the late nineteenth century. He begins with the era of quantification, in which the idea of protective nutrients, caloric reductionism, and vitamins' curative effects took shape. He follows with the era of good and bad nutritionism, which set nutricentric dietary guidelines and defined the parameters of unhealthy nutrients; and concludes with our current era of functional nutritionism, in which the focus has shifted to targeted nutrients, superfoods, and optimal diets. Scrinis's research underscores the critical role of nutrition science and dietary advice in shaping our relationship to food and our bodies and in heightening our nutritional anxieties. He ultimately shows how nutritionism has aligned the demands and perceived needs of consumers with the commercial interests of food manufacturers and corporations. Scrinis also offers an alternative paradigm for assessing the healthfulness of foods―the food quality paradigm―that privileges food production and processing quality, cultural-traditional knowledge, and sensual-practical experience, and promotes less reductive forms of nutrition research and dietary advice.
Scrinis develops an original framework and terminology for analyzing the characteristics and consequences of nutritionism since the late nineteenth century. He begins with the era of quantification, in which the idea of protective nutrients, caloric reductionism, and vitamins' curative effects took shape. He follows with the era of good and bad nutritionism, which set nutricentric dietary guidelines and defined the parameters of unhealthy nutrients; and concludes with our current era of functional nutritionism, in which the focus has shifted to targeted nutrients, superfoods, and optimal diets. Scrinis's research underscores the critical role of nutrition science and dietary advice in shaping our relationship to food and our bodies and in heightening our nutritional anxieties. He ultimately shows how nutritionism has aligned the demands and perceived needs of consumers with the commercial interests of food manufacturers and corporations. Scrinis also offers an alternative paradigm for assessing the healthfulness of foods―the food quality paradigm―that privileges food production and processing quality, cultural-traditional knowledge, and sensual-practical experience, and promotes less reductive forms of nutrition research and dietary advice.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 14, 2017
Our embarrassing history of nutritional reductivism. Everything you think you know about nutrition might be bullshit. A worthy read.
July 5, 2013
Should you ever find yourself in the position of wanting to lose a little weight, you cannot help but be thoroughly confused by the sheer amount of seemingly conflicting information over what you should or shouldn't eat. Some ingredients and foods are good, now they are bad, oh, they are good again… really? What is one to do?
Taking a liberal quote from the very start of this book, you can easily get a taste (sic) of things to come: "Margarine has been the chameleon of manufactured food products, able to transform its nutritional appearance, adapt to changing nutritional fads and charm unwitting nutrition experts and nutrition-conscious consumers. While research published by nutrition scientists in the early 1990s on the harmfulness of the trans-fats in margarine temporarily unveiled its highly processed and degraded character, margarine has subsequently been reinvented as a trans-fat–free, cholesterol-lowering 'functional food.'”
So are we getting the wool pulled over our eyes by suave marketeers and big business? Possibly… Margarine was developed by a French chemist in the late nineteenth century and up until the 1960s, it was generally viewed as a cheap butter substitute, only used by those who couldn't afford the "real thing." Yet now butter is the big, bad nasty and margarine (a manufactured, chemically-reconstituted vegetable oil with various colouring agents and added vitamins) is the grand saviour. Really?
After reading through this book will you ever look at food, diets and so-called advice in the same light again? Naturally, the veracity (or not) of the information portrayed in this book is beyond the scope of this review, yet the author has presented some seemingly well-researched, clearly written opinions that make for a compelling, troubling and quite alarming read. As befits an academic book of this kind, there is a wealth of footnotes and bibliographic references so you can drill down to the source and interpret things for yourself should you so desire. Despite this being an academically-focussed book, the author manages to still make this an accessible read to the interested "generalist". You are not going to get a "this diet good, this diet bad" type of approach and you will need to interpret much yourself, but you will finish this book with a much broader, more eyes-wide-open manner than when you first started it. Don't feel put off or threatened by this book. It will be a bit of a hard slog for a general reader to perhaps get the most out of it, but it will be a worthwhile journey, even if you only understand and consume a fraction of the author's work!
Some of the chapter titles convey the type of material that awaits you: The Nutritionism Paradigm: Reductive Approaches to Nutrients, Food, and the Body; The Era of Quantifying Nutritionism: Protective Nutrients, Caloric Reductionism, and Vitamania; The Era of Good-and-Bad Nutritionism: Bad Nutrients and Nutricentric Dietary Guidelines and The Macronutrient Diet Wars: From the Low-Fat Campaign to Low-Calorie, Low-Carb, and Low-GI Diets.
The price tag of this book is a "steal" for a great academic work although it might be sadly out of reach of some general readers - that said at the time of writing this review (when the book has yet to be launched) at least one major online bookseller is offering this for sale with a 25% discount. So for less than the price of a family meal at a major fast food restaurant, you could genuinely get a hefty read that might change your entire approach to diets, nutrition and even food on a whole. It might be, without being hyperbole, one of your better investments this year if you are prepared to put in a bit of effort to digest the author's work.
Nutritionism: The Science and Politics of Dietary Advice, written by Gyorgy Scrinis and published by Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231156561, 368 pages. Typical price: USD32.95. YYYYY
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
Taking a liberal quote from the very start of this book, you can easily get a taste (sic) of things to come: "Margarine has been the chameleon of manufactured food products, able to transform its nutritional appearance, adapt to changing nutritional fads and charm unwitting nutrition experts and nutrition-conscious consumers. While research published by nutrition scientists in the early 1990s on the harmfulness of the trans-fats in margarine temporarily unveiled its highly processed and degraded character, margarine has subsequently been reinvented as a trans-fat–free, cholesterol-lowering 'functional food.'”
So are we getting the wool pulled over our eyes by suave marketeers and big business? Possibly… Margarine was developed by a French chemist in the late nineteenth century and up until the 1960s, it was generally viewed as a cheap butter substitute, only used by those who couldn't afford the "real thing." Yet now butter is the big, bad nasty and margarine (a manufactured, chemically-reconstituted vegetable oil with various colouring agents and added vitamins) is the grand saviour. Really?
After reading through this book will you ever look at food, diets and so-called advice in the same light again? Naturally, the veracity (or not) of the information portrayed in this book is beyond the scope of this review, yet the author has presented some seemingly well-researched, clearly written opinions that make for a compelling, troubling and quite alarming read. As befits an academic book of this kind, there is a wealth of footnotes and bibliographic references so you can drill down to the source and interpret things for yourself should you so desire. Despite this being an academically-focussed book, the author manages to still make this an accessible read to the interested "generalist". You are not going to get a "this diet good, this diet bad" type of approach and you will need to interpret much yourself, but you will finish this book with a much broader, more eyes-wide-open manner than when you first started it. Don't feel put off or threatened by this book. It will be a bit of a hard slog for a general reader to perhaps get the most out of it, but it will be a worthwhile journey, even if you only understand and consume a fraction of the author's work!
Some of the chapter titles convey the type of material that awaits you: The Nutritionism Paradigm: Reductive Approaches to Nutrients, Food, and the Body; The Era of Quantifying Nutritionism: Protective Nutrients, Caloric Reductionism, and Vitamania; The Era of Good-and-Bad Nutritionism: Bad Nutrients and Nutricentric Dietary Guidelines and The Macronutrient Diet Wars: From the Low-Fat Campaign to Low-Calorie, Low-Carb, and Low-GI Diets.
The price tag of this book is a "steal" for a great academic work although it might be sadly out of reach of some general readers - that said at the time of writing this review (when the book has yet to be launched) at least one major online bookseller is offering this for sale with a 25% discount. So for less than the price of a family meal at a major fast food restaurant, you could genuinely get a hefty read that might change your entire approach to diets, nutrition and even food on a whole. It might be, without being hyperbole, one of your better investments this year if you are prepared to put in a bit of effort to digest the author's work.
Nutritionism: The Science and Politics of Dietary Advice, written by Gyorgy Scrinis and published by Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231156561, 368 pages. Typical price: USD32.95. YYYYY
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
April 26, 2013
A thoughtful, thorough, well-researched account of how Americans got where they got in relation to food. Why do we hear such contradictory nutritional advice? Why do we all buy the latest diet breakthrough book (and what do they actually all have in common, no matter which side of the fence they sit on)? Can we believe any of the pushy health-and-nutrition claims food processors use to market products?
I confess I didn't always follow Scrinis' critiques of other food researchers and writers, but I got the gist, and his overall theses came through loud and clear (sometimes through frequent repetition). Basically, after covering the rise of "nutritionism" from the late 1900s, Scrinis argues that categorizing foods as "good" or "bad" in how they deliver nutritional "value" is a faulty and reductive enterprise. For one thing, eating food is not the same thing as taking a supplement of the targeted nutrient. No one exactly knows how food interacts holistically with other foods and with the body to do that voodoo that food does so well. Of far more interest and importance in Scrinis' eyes is the amount of processing a food undergoes--many high-tech ingredients and processing methods have not been studied for their effects. They just don't happen to be illegal, so in they go. Think of the delightful trans fats we all ate plenty of for years until someone figured out they're not so great. Scrinis says the jury is still out on the new ways of processing fats that manufacturers developed. The new fats aren't trans fats, but they're not fats found in nature, either. That's just one example. Just about everything food-related comes in for scrutiny: the latest diets (I'm looking at you, no-carb and Paleo), the glycemic index, food labeling, Michael Pollan arguing in circles, you name it.
I ended up highlighting a LOT of the book, but I'll save the quotes for my UrbanFarmJunkie post next week. As it was, in this non-farmers-market season, I ended up going to Whole Foods and buying lots of *whole* foods.
Give this one a try. I recommend.
(Full disclosure: my copy was a complimentary ARC that I requested from the publisher.)
I confess I didn't always follow Scrinis' critiques of other food researchers and writers, but I got the gist, and his overall theses came through loud and clear (sometimes through frequent repetition). Basically, after covering the rise of "nutritionism" from the late 1900s, Scrinis argues that categorizing foods as "good" or "bad" in how they deliver nutritional "value" is a faulty and reductive enterprise. For one thing, eating food is not the same thing as taking a supplement of the targeted nutrient. No one exactly knows how food interacts holistically with other foods and with the body to do that voodoo that food does so well. Of far more interest and importance in Scrinis' eyes is the amount of processing a food undergoes--many high-tech ingredients and processing methods have not been studied for their effects. They just don't happen to be illegal, so in they go. Think of the delightful trans fats we all ate plenty of for years until someone figured out they're not so great. Scrinis says the jury is still out on the new ways of processing fats that manufacturers developed. The new fats aren't trans fats, but they're not fats found in nature, either. That's just one example. Just about everything food-related comes in for scrutiny: the latest diets (I'm looking at you, no-carb and Paleo), the glycemic index, food labeling, Michael Pollan arguing in circles, you name it.
I ended up highlighting a LOT of the book, but I'll save the quotes for my UrbanFarmJunkie post next week. As it was, in this non-farmers-market season, I ended up going to Whole Foods and buying lots of *whole* foods.
Give this one a try. I recommend.
(Full disclosure: my copy was a complimentary ARC that I requested from the publisher.)
June 17, 2013
***Advanced copy provided by NetGalley.com***
Nutritionism offered a good, clear overview of current thinking in, well, the field of nutrition. Unfortunately, the formatting of my Kindle edition was pretty messed up, which was a pretty big hassle, but didn't prevent me from enjoying the book, overall. I'd recommend it to anyone unfamiliar with the topic, as well as anyone looking for a better understanding of the history behind much nutrition thinking, which was pretty interesting. Currently, it does seem as if our society has been bombarded by dietary advice, a lot of it conflicting and not grounded in any real research or logic, and this book outlined things well.
Nutritionism offered a good, clear overview of current thinking in, well, the field of nutrition. Unfortunately, the formatting of my Kindle edition was pretty messed up, which was a pretty big hassle, but didn't prevent me from enjoying the book, overall. I'd recommend it to anyone unfamiliar with the topic, as well as anyone looking for a better understanding of the history behind much nutrition thinking, which was pretty interesting. Currently, it does seem as if our society has been bombarded by dietary advice, a lot of it conflicting and not grounded in any real research or logic, and this book outlined things well.
January 13, 2016
This is an example of what I call 'pompous nutritional circumlocutory verbiage', difficult to digest and sleep inducing
November 6, 2015
I am a dietitian and this book literally made me see nutrition in a new way. It might end up being one of the most enlightening text I've read in my life.
January 29, 2022
A great book where Scrinis challenges some of the tenets of current nutrition science. Why do we keep using individual nutrients (fat, sugar, vitamines) as fundamental units of nutrition science, when we know that their quality as well as the way they interact in our body vary considerably? The example of margarine serves to explain the contradictions. When trans-fat were invented, their nutrition profile seemed great. In practice, however, we have discovered that they are even more harmful than saturated fats.
Scrinis divides the history of nutrition science in three phases: 1) era of quantifying nutritionism, 2) era of good-bad nutritionism, and 3) era of functional nutritionism.
The book references the idea of scientific paradigms proposed by Khun, suggesting that the continuois focus on nutrients is the result of inertia and path-dependence. However, this book presentss also an explicit call to think of the modern problem of NCDs as a problem created by the food industry. Although he does not propose it explicitly, his view is clearly very much aligned with the ultra-processed classification proposed by Carlos Monteiro.
Scrinis divides the history of nutrition science in three phases: 1) era of quantifying nutritionism, 2) era of good-bad nutritionism, and 3) era of functional nutritionism.
The book references the idea of scientific paradigms proposed by Khun, suggesting that the continuois focus on nutrients is the result of inertia and path-dependence. However, this book presentss also an explicit call to think of the modern problem of NCDs as a problem created by the food industry. Although he does not propose it explicitly, his view is clearly very much aligned with the ultra-processed classification proposed by Carlos Monteiro.
May 15, 2021
As a trainer & nutrition coach, love this book. Most of my clients by association are smart, successful people who fall for fad diets that to me as someone who knows them intimately, are beneath their cognitive abilities. Nutritionism is to nutrition what sciencism is to science. Belief systems constructed with the vernacular of reductionist markers. Reductionism is not bad per se, where it misleads is in erecting belief systems rather than engaging a process upon which one can systemically reduce errors over time, through engagement not dogmatic adherence.
Anyone who deals with food phobias fears and fads may want to recommend this book to those wrapt in pseudo-scientific dogmatic eating patterns or disorders.
Anyone who deals with food phobias fears and fads may want to recommend this book to those wrapt in pseudo-scientific dogmatic eating patterns or disorders.
July 1, 2021
This book presents really interesting ideas and analysis of nutrition science and points out fallacies, reductionisms, and dangers of the way nutrition science has been done in the past decades. However this book is VERY repetitive, I really think I read some phrases and even paragraphs more than a dozen times. It feels like he's not sure he was convincing enough, or he doesn't trust the reader's memory and is reinforcing the same things over and over. It could really use editing to make sure its great message and criticism are not lost in this repetitive sea.
August 13, 2023
Most of this is a solid critique of reductive approaches to nutrition science, but it doesn't present great evidence for the quality/processing approach it pushes instead. Also could have spent way less time trying to redeem butter.
October 29, 2025
A good read, and while overall I agree with him about nutritional reductionism, I disagree with much as well.
December 31, 2023
Ótimo livro para pensar em como chegamos nesse universo onde os alimentos PRECSIAM ter algum papel especifico para serem consumidos ao invés de ser, bom, para a pessoa não morrer. Me atrevo a dizer que já estamos em outra era do nutricionismo, que dialoga diretamente com o mundo digital.
January 10, 2014
I received an early copy of this book to preview, but due to the random symbols and word breaks in it, I found it difficult to read and follow. The book seems to be very scientific and not really for the general public. If I have a chance to read a published and corrected copy of the book, I will take another look at it in the future. As it was, I gave up on it.
August 15, 2014
Ideas were interesting as well as the examples. However, I found that it was overtly repetitive.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews