Measured Meals

Jessica J. Mudry

Description

2009 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

As nutritional studies proliferate, producing more and more knowledge about the connection between diet and health, Americans seem increasingly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. In Measured Meals, Jessica J. Mudry looks at the language used in the United States to communicate about health and nutrition, and reveals its effects on reframing, reshaping, and controlling what and how Americans eat. Analyzing the USDA and American federal food guidelines over the past one hundred years, Mudry shows how the language of nutrition has evolved over time. She critiques the trend of discussing food in terms of quantification—calories, vitamins, and serving sizes. She also examines how organizations such as the USDA attempt to legislate a healthy diet by mandating quantities of food based on measurable nutrients, revealing the power of language to make meaning and influence social action.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction
Eating by Numbers: How Language Shapes Food and Eating

2. The Early History of American Nutrition Research: From Quality to Quantity

3. Reading Federal Nutrition Guides: Quantification as Communication Strategy

4. The Food Pyramid: Visualizing Quantification

5. Scaling the Pyramid: Criticisms of the USDA

6. Talking about Taste: Alternatives to a Discourse of Quantification

7. Conclusion
Rethinking Common Sense: Toward a Rhetoric of Eating Notes

References
Index

Sujets

• Discourse analysis
• Stylistics
• Semantics

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 18 février 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791493861
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

This page intentionally left blank.

Measured Meals

This page intentionally left blank.

Measured Meals Nutrition in America 

Jessica J. Mudry

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2009 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Cathleen Collins Marketing by Fran Keneston

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Mudry, Jessica J., 1974–  Measured meals : nutrition in America / Jessica J. Mudry.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 978-0-7914-9381-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)  1. Nutrition—United States. 2. Nutrition policy—United States. United States. 4. Rhetoric. I. Title.

TX360.U6M83 2009 613.20973—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

3. Diet—

2008033400

For Eliot and Julien

This page intentionally left blank.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Conclusion

Notes

References

Index

Contents



Eating by Numbers: How Language Shapes Food and Eating

The Early History of American Nutrition Research: From Quality to Quantity

Reading Federal Nutrition Guides: Quantification as Communication Strategy

The Food Pyramid: Visualizing Quantification

Scaling the Pyramid: Criticisms of the USDA

Talking about Taste: Alternatives to a Discourse of Quantification

Rethinking Common Sense: Toward a Rhetoric of Eating

ix xi

1

21

47

77

105

137

169

179

191

207

This page intentionally left blank.