Junk Food

Abstract

Sociologists have to engage with the concept “junk food” from multiple angles. Importantly, applying the sociological imagination to the concept implies thinking through why we eat the foods we do. When sociologists engage with the question “What is junk food?” the results of these inquiries look very different compared to when nutritionists and food scientists engage with the subject. That is because sociologists recognize the moralizing discourse attached to the term. To talk about junk food, in other words, is to make normative assumptions about particular foods and the food practices and people attached to these objects.