Different Meanings of Proper Nutrition: The Sociopolitical Dynamics of the Relationship between Body and State in the 1970s and 2010s Poland
Different Meanings of Proper Nutrition: The Sociopolitical Dynamics of the Relationship between Body and State in the 1970s and 2010s Poland

Summary/Abstract: In this article, we comparatively analyze expert discourses and lay attitudes to healthy eating in socialist and contemporary Poland. The investigation makes apparent significant changes that have occurred in between these two periods. From legitimate and peremptory knowledge with an unchangeable and universal character, dietary guidance evolved into being much less authoritative in nature, facilitating various alternative ways of thinking and debate. The recipients of nutritional advice have also changed: from subordinated citizens and only passive objects of experts’ actions to the selfgoverning neoliberal subjects, which are active agents of their own choices and are individually responsible for their well-being. During socialist times, proper eating, in line with dietitian’s recommendations, was of secondary importance as Polish citizens were primarily motivated by the need to procure food of adequate quality and in sufficient quantity. Nowadays, under free-market economics and changing lifestyles, eating healthily is an issue of fundamental concern for many people. This analysis reveals that the production of nutritional knowledge is tightly related to sociopolitical contexts and that changing food attitudes are both influenced by post-socialist transformations as well as broader sociocultural processes.

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