Food and Health Ideology: Following the Emergence of Microbiome Related Knowledge and Associated Food Practices

What is the role of scientific knowledge in shaping the relationship between food and health in everyday life? And how is emerging knowledge about the microbiome and health translated into practice? In this sociological research, I investigate the rise of microbiome-related knowledge and food practices in the Netherlands, focusing on the interactions between policy, science, and households. I explore how scientific knowledge, food policies, and everyday dietary practices shape each other, revealing how norms and knowledge about health are co-produced across these domains. Through an analysis of policy documents, household practices, observations, and interviews with scientific researchers and farming industry stakeholders, I uncover tensions and synergies between scientific uncertainty, policy imperatives, and everyday life. By situating the microbiome as a nexus for understanding societal norms around health, food, and well-being in the Anthropocene, I try to contribute to the sociological understanding of knowledge production, food practices, and health governance through the lens of medicalization. This research highlights how the microbiome extends the scope of medicalization and healthism by linking food and microbial environments to individualized health. This shift reflects a growing reliance on scientific expertise to construct (new) health narratives, emphasizing personal responsibility for managing the microbiome through everyday practices. The microbiome is a perfect example of this, as it involves managing an unseen, internal part of our bodies, often through food—a deeply social and everyday act. Here, social technologies become embedded in the gut, as the microbiome becomes a site where health can be regulated and shaped by scientific and political forces. The rising scientific relevance of the microbiome creates a unique opportunity to follow a phenomenon as it unfolds in practice, prompting us to ask what we—as scientists and citizens—can learn by closely following how food and health-related research is carried out directly by those involved.