Today we stumbled upon this old-ish BBC News piece on how activists are using everyday language to surreptitiously stigmatize the foods they don’t approve of. Case in point: The term “junk food.”
Why does the "junk food" tag seem to be applied selectively, and often to food outlets in urban and suburban areas but not to those in leafier parts? Is there some snobbery at play here?
According to Peter Marsh, of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford, which studies food and obesity issues, the term "junk" has become "simply a matter of aesthetics", a way of disapproving of certain foods …
Johan Koeslag, a professor of medical physiology in South Africa, says junk food has become an "empty" phrase …
"The adjective ‘junk’ [is] unfortunate, if not outright misleading," he says.
