A Study of Modern Health Worries and Scientific Development, Research Paper Example

Recent consumer trends have shown that more and more people have become actively concerned about the additives in their foods.  As modern science develops synthetic additives and genetic engineered crops, a worried public has pushed back by embracing organic foods or foods known as “functional foods,” foods that have been altered so as to offer increased health benefits.  However, the scientific and food-producing communities have encountered a bit of an impasse; a more aware and concerned public has become much more discerning in their food choices and an ever-present worry about the long-term effects of new technology.  “These worries are also associated with concerns about food, such as pesticide residue, genetic modification, as well as hormones and additives in food (Devcich, Pedersen, Petrie, 2006).”  Despite the fact that pesticides and genetic alterations made by food producers have been approved for sale to the public, a general distrust of government and technology has led to a consumer push against such products.

The peer-reviewed study entitled, “You eat what you are: Modern health worries and the acceptance of natural and synthetic additives in functional foods,” cites the fairly recent trend toward purified bottled water as an example of how consumer worry over foods and drinks have spurned new health conscious trends in food and beverage selection.  “Bottled water has become the world’s fastest growing drink.  It is seen as a natural and pure product- a readily available antidote to what the consumer sees as being wrong with modernity and bad for their health (Devcich, Pedersen, Petrie, 2006).”  However, trends toward functional foods that improve or promote health has led to the development of products such as enhanced water like Vitamin Water, which include additives that supposedly promote health.  The study used 390 medical students from New Zealand and found that people who had increased modern health worries showed “a stronger preference for functional foods with added natural vitamins as opposed to synthetic compounds (Devcich, Pedersen, Petrie, 2006).”  The study also showed that modern health worries were linked to a preference for organic foods as well.

A similar study conducted in 2005, entitled “Modern health worries in medical students,” found that individuals who were more concerned with modern health worries such as additives in food and pesticide treatments of crops were more prone to doctor’s visits, often perceiving minor, everyday occurrences as being signs of illness.  “Worries about modernity and feelings of vulnerability to ‘outside’ health threatening influences result in higher levels of subjective health complaints, which, in turn, increases the use of health care services (Kaptein, Helder, Kleijn, Rief, Moss-Morris & Petrie, 2005).”  As modern health worries about additives in foods, genetic modifications have influenced the public to be more health conscious, in not, paranoid, interpreting innocuous symptoms as being illness.  The report also cites the that the media attention on environmental causes of illness may gloss over the individual lifestyle choices that are more practically associated with illness and disease such as exercise, weight, smoking, drinking and diet.

“New knowledge is often associated by the public with new potential health threats (such as the discovery of a hole in the ozone layer), and new technologies, such as in the field of genetics and food processing, are accompanied by public distrust and concern (Kaptein, Helder, Kleijn, Rief, Moss-Morris & Petrie, 2005).”  As the public becomes more educated and aware about technologies being used in the production of food as well as the effects that new technologies have an individual’s environment, the more concerned the public becomes about how those technologies effect their health.  This can result in an increase in modern health worries.  Everything from traffic fumes and the ozone layer to genetic modification of crops is seen as a potential health threat and has led to a public backlash through the use of organic and “pure” foods and environmentally conscious social change such as the Green movement.  Interestingly, though, these studies have also showed a trend in the public toward functional foods, which, by definition are altered from their original state but are marketed to provide health benefits such as the prevention of illness.  “Indeed, if some functional foods are aimed at individuals clearly positioned within the healthism culture, an apparent tension becomes evident: functional foods may ostensibly address the health concerns of such consumers, but, by their very nature, functional foods would also appear to be a contradiction to some of the central trends of healthism itself (Devcich, Pedersen, Petrie, 2006).”

The consumer public finds itself torn between the fear of technology and its environmental effect on their health and the need for technology to address those environmental illness concerns.  It is a love/hate relationship, which forces the scientific and produce communities to constantly refocus their studies and has led to an increase in the use of health services for symptoms that are oftentimes somatic responses to modern health worries.

References

Devcich, Daniel A., Pederson, Irene K., Petrie, Keith, J.  Modern health worries and the acceptance of natural and synthetic additives in foods. ScienceDirect, Appetite 48 (2007) 333-337.

Kaptein, A.A., Helder, D.I., Kleijn, W.Chr., Rief, W., Moss-Morris, R., Petrie, K.J. Modern health worries in medical students. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 58 (2005) 453-457.