Appetite 50 (2008) 167–178 Research Report Engaging with healthy eating discourse(s): Ways of knowing about food and health in three ethnocultural groups in Canada Svetlana Ristovski-Slijepcevic a,Ã , Gwen E. Chapman a , Brenda L. Beagan b a Food, Nutrition and Health, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 2205 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T-1Z4 b School of Occupational Therapy, Room 207, Forrest Building, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H-3J5 Received 21 February 2007; received in revised form 20 June 2007; accepted 2 July 2007 Abstract The aim of this study was to increase our understanding of how people make sense of healthy eating discourses by exploring the ‘ways of knowing’ about healthy eating among members of three different ethnocultural groups in Canada: African Nova Scotians, Punjabi British Columbians and Canadian-born European Nova Scotians and British Columbians. Data for this paper come from in-depth, individual interviews with 105 adults where they described their experiences, interpretations, and reasoning used in learning and deciding what to believe and/or reject about healthy eating. Between and within ethnocultural group differences in how people come to know and use practices about healthy eating were examined as they were represented through three broad healthy eating discourses: cultural/ traditional, mainstream and complementary/ethical. The discourses represented different ways to interpret the food–health relationship and make sense of the evidence about healthy eating in the everyday experience. Engagement with different discourses led participants to undertake different practices upon themselves in the name of healthy eating. We suggest that each of the discourses has a significant contribution to make in a dialogue about how healthy eating, as part of health and well-being, should be conceptualized by a society. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Healthy eating; Culture; Qualitative; Foucault; Discourse; Technologies of the self Introduction A population that is well-nourished is healthier, more productive, contributes to lower health care and social costs, and enjoys better quality of life (Health Canada, 1996). Because of the role of nutrition in promoting and maintaining health, messages about healthy eating have become widespread, occurring at various levels in society. Canada’s Food Guide and the USDA’s Food Pyramid are two examples of such messages—pictorial guides designed to promote a pattern of healthful eating. However, despite the wide availability of information, a gap between healthy eating messages and people’s actual eating practices persists (Dixon, Cronin, & Kebs-Smith, 2001; Jacobs Starkey, Johnson-Down, & Gray-Donald, 2001). Recent research exploring food choice processes suggests that this gap can partially be explained by the multiple factors shaping food choice. Food decisions are not based solely on people’s health and nutrition beliefs, but involve financial, social, lifestyle, environmental and family issues (Furst, Connors, Bisogni, Sobal, & Falk, 1996; Wetter et al., 2001). But other research looking specifically at health/nutrition beliefs suggests that these beliefs themselves need to be more fully explored. Overall, people generally consider healthy eating as important (Patterson, Satia, Kristal, Neuhouser, & Drewnowski, 2001). For example, in a 2001 Canadian survey, 92% of women and 85% of men said that nutrition was an important consideration for them when choosing food (Health Canada, 2002). But there are also indications that people may be confused by or are rejecting the plethora of nutrition and health messages available today (Goldberg, 1992; Patterson et al., 2001). Scepticism towards such ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/appet 0195-6663/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2007.07.001 Ã Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: svetlana@interchange.ubc.ca (S. Ristovski-Slijepcevic), gec@interchange.ubc.ca (G.E. Chapman), bbeagan@dal.ca (B.L. Beagan).