Ebook: Critical Approaches to Superfoods

What do quinoa, blueberries, chia seeds and acai all have in common? They have all been touted as superfoods, with this classification highlighting their exceptional nutritional value and curative properties. This volume examines superfoods through a combination of case studies and theoretical chapters that explore the phenomenon as a whole. The contributors locate and define superfoods within critical nutrition studies and agri-food literature, examining what superfoods can reveal about the cultural politics of nutrition and the political economy of health food.
Part I historicizes and defines superfoods, situating the phenomena within related historical trends; Part II interrogates the issue of scientific authority, specifically how superfoods depend on subversion of "hegemonic nutrition" while still marketing these materials as mainstream commercial successes; Part III analyzes how the rise of superfoods both indexes and propels changing ideas about food-bodily health relationships, and Part IV explores superfoods commodity chains. With chapters focused on soybeans, almonds, food as medicine and rooibos tea, this is a pathbreaking exploration of a very modern phenomenon and how it impacts what and how we eat.