From “Healthy Eating” to a Holistic Approach to Current Food Environments

The consumption of the industrial diet—characterized by highly processed, low-nutrient foods and the reduced intake of produce in its natural state, such as fruits and vegetables—is generating a large number of health and environmental concerns in the developed world. In the meantime, the public health response to food-related health issues typically focuses on healthy eating, despite the growing amount of research showing the complexity of food environments. In this article, we discuss the limitations and fragmented perspective of current “healthy eating” strategies and the obvious disconnect between public health interventions and broader food environments. We outline the transformation of food environments in recent decades and how this is shaped by shifting ways of life and forms of governance built on neoliberal principles, which in turn influence individuals’ food practices. By availing of critical social theory, we suggest that the potential for change should involve a systemic, ecological understanding of the complexities involved, exposing the interdependencies within broader socioeconomic, cultural, and political contexts and current food systems processes and environments.