“There is Usually Just One Friday a Week”

Abstract

Parents’ knowledge of what constitutes a “healthy” diet does not always translate into action. This is often commented on as both worrying and paradoxical. This study explores how families categorize and make rules for “unhealthy” eating, particularly candy, and how these rules are sometimes bent. Drawing on the literature on family and food consumption, this study builds on interviews with 35 children and 13 families in Danish middle- and upper-middle-class areas and explores food categorization through the use of Greimas’ semiotic square. Findings show that while clear rules for consumption of unhealthy foods exist, these are sometimes bent, because children challenge the rules but also because parents themselves take the initiative to make exceptions and change the frames of the rules. Parents categorize their children’s food consumption as “not unhealthy” despite deviations from family food policies, and in the eyes of these parents, “healthy” food is not just about nutrition, but also about social and emotional health.

Keywords:

• family
• unhealthy food
• healthy eating
• Friday candy
• meaning-making
• semiotic square
• children as informants
• Denmark

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the children and parents who participated in the study for their time and openness in discussing family food consumption. The authors also wish to thank the editor and the blind reviewers who provided very insightful comments to improve the present article.