Balancing the good, the bad and the better: A discursive perspective on probiotics and healthy eating

Abstract

Functional foods promoted as novel food products providing health benefits beyond basic nutrition are gradually becoming part of the European food basket. Typically, research on functional food has focused on public attitudes, the acceptability of different product types, and public trust in novel food. In this article, discursive analysis of focus group discussions held in Britain with 34 users and non-users of probiotics points to the argumentative orientation of explanations for consumption of this particular type of functional food. Using the concepts of 'interpretative repertoire' and 'subject position', I explore the role of moral considerations in people's accounts of purchasing probiotics in the current context of increased health awareness and health anxiety. The analysis demonstrates how the lay accounts of eating and purchasing probiotics are entangled with notions of indulgence, individualism, as well as social norms and responsibility.

Effects of Bacillus subtilis var. natto and Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermented liquid feed on growth performance, relative organ weight, intestinal microflora, and organ antioxidant status in Landes geese1

“…Although not always consistent, the cholesterol reducing effects of fermented milk and some probiotics bacteria strains have been demonstrated in young humans (Gill and Guarner, 2004;Koteyko, 2010;Rabot et al, 2010), which is in agreement with the current study. Jin et al (1998) also reported that bacteria such as Lactobacillus cultures reduce serum cholesterol in broilers.…”

Materiality matters: Blurred boundaries and the domestication of functional foods

“…Indeed strong contrasts between food and medicine could be used as a resource: for those who disliked pills, phytosterol products were presented as a ‘non-medical' alternative; those who disliked processed food saw them as medicines. Importantly, relevant qualities also included the taste of particular products, meaning people drew on their embodied experience and their pleasure in eating (see also Koteyko, 2010). When people liked the taste, functional foods were less likely to be seen as medicines than products that people found did not taste as good as butter.…”

Fearful Intimacies

“…Colonies of tiny beings who lived on us in perfect harmony with their hosts and were ready to deal with the real invaders, the unfriendly infections, when they arrived; and yet at every bath we depleted their ranks, washing away their cities, their dynasties, their cultures. (Smith 2005: 86) In the early 2000s, advertising about the potential benefi ts of probiotics increased (Koteyko 2010) alongside rising speculations of an antibiotic apocalypse (Nerlich and Hellsten 2009). Microbiologist, Martin Blaser (2014) highlights in Missing Microbes, the connection between a lack of microbial diversity and the risk of contemporary pandemics.…”