Risks and controversies about the constrution of the concept of Healthy Food: the soybean's case

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the controversies surrounding the risks and benefits evident in the social construction of the concept of ́healthy food ́. We have chosen to study the soybean with a dual focus: risks and benefits to human health, and risks and benefits to the environment. The study concentrated on the different ways that the expert system was influenced during the process of developing the concept of soybean as a healthy or risky food. Based on the constructivist theory of Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, the study evaluated the consensus and discord on the theme among the experts; identified the sources from which the experts constructed their concepts; highlighted the scientific controversies surrounding the human consumption of the soybean, and studied the historic development of the soybean, the political context that surrounds the research in the area and the socio-environmental repercussions of its cultivation. The theoretical research and the field research with doctors showed fragile frames of categories (healthy and risky food) and also uncovered that those experts suffer different influences, which are constructed under the contemporary concept of reflexivity. When one considers the wide concepts of quality of life and health promotion, as the methodological context in which the research is done, the notion of health (or risky) food is even more vulnerable. Central influences on the process of the social construction of the soybean as a healthy food include: political, transnational, scientific and institutional divisions. We also identified a subjective field of diverse thought-styles among the experts. Beyond science, the study recognized the media as an important source of knowledge acquisition among the interviewed doctors. Based on the concepts of the democratization of science, the research emphasizes the role of the lay consumer in future debates about the concept of soybean as a healthy or risky food. Although there are some specific aspects that are relevant only to the soybean, the research made it possible to learn about common aspects that contribute to the social construction of any food perceived as healthy, as well the difficulties in outlining the borders of the risks associated with the food.