...nutrition. Here ideological influences aren’t very strong (though not altogether absent either).
Does “ideological influces” include fiscal influences? Because most of the contrarian nutritionists I’ve read say that the mainstream is swayed by heavily funded groups who’d like to see people eat more corn, dairy products, etc.
Nutrition’s also entangled with a horrific mess of body-image issues and cultural expectations. These aren’t essential to any of the strains of cultural criticism that they intersect, so I don’t think I’d call them ideological; but because they’re so closely linked to people’s identities, they exhibit a lot of the problems we associate with ideology.
Same goes for related fields like exercise. The mind-killer here doesn’t metastasize like ideology tends to, but it’s every bit as pathological if you accidentally end up poking one of its hosts in the wrong spot.
Nutrition’s also entangled with a horrific mess of body-image issues and cultural expectations. These aren’t essential to any of the strains of cultural criticism that they intersect, so I don’t think I’d call them ideological; but because they’re so closely linked to people’s identities, they exhibit a lot of the problems we associate with ideology.
Well said. As you say, “ideological” is not a very accurate term here, but I meant it to also encompass this sort of thing.
Does “ideological influces” include fiscal influences? Because most of the contrarian nutritionists I’ve read say that the mainstream is swayed by heavily funded groups who’d like to see people eat more corn, dairy products, etc.
Nutrition’s also entangled with a horrific mess of body-image issues and cultural expectations. These aren’t essential to any of the strains of cultural criticism that they intersect, so I don’t think I’d call them ideological; but because they’re so closely linked to people’s identities, they exhibit a lot of the problems we associate with ideology.
Same goes for related fields like exercise. The mind-killer here doesn’t metastasize like ideology tends to, but it’s every bit as pathological if you accidentally end up poking one of its hosts in the wrong spot.
Nornagest:
Well said. As you say, “ideological” is not a very accurate term here, but I meant it to also encompass this sort of thing.