Meanings and Visions of Healthy and Unhealthy Food in Flevoland, the Netherlands

Abstract

This chapter turns attention to the Netherlands, precisely the province of Flevoland, to show the meanings of healthy and unhealthy food. The choice of Flevoland was because the province is on an agricultural polder in the Netherlands at the forefront of agricultural transformations. By combining photovoice and online surveys, findings show that meanings of healthy food are predominantly nutrition-based. This is determined by the government recommendation (Disc of five) promoting a nutrition-based understanding of healthy and unhealthy food. This chapter highlights the overemphasis on nutrition in meanings of healthy and unhealthy food. The chapter argues that although the nutrition-based discourse on healthy and unhealthy food is dominant amongst Dutch consumers, there also exist socio-culturally informed meanings of un/healthy which include the pleasure derived from the acts of sharing food experiences that positively contribute to consumers’ overall pleasure and satisfaction with consumer’s food consumption. These socio-culturally informed meanings of un/healthy food are equally important to consumers. Therefore, the author argues that the key to the future of healthy food is a middle ground where nutritionally rich food meets socially informed meanings of healthy food.