Healthy Eating Policy and Political Philosophy

When it comes to laws and policies that deal with food--such as special taxes on sugary drinks and the banning of certain unhealthy food ingredients--critics argue that these policies can be paternalistic and can limit individual autonomy over food choices. In Healthy Eating Policy and Political Philosophy: A Public Reason Approach, Anne Barnhill and Matteo Bonotti show that both paternalistic justifications for healthy eating efforts and anti-paternalistic arguments against them can be grounded in perfectionist views that overly prioritize some values, such as autonomy and health, over other values. The authors therefore propose a more inclusive, public reason approach to healthy eating policy that will be appealing to those who take pluralism and cultural diversity seriously, by providing a framework through which different kinds of values, including but not limited to autonomy and health, can be factored into the public justification of healthy eating efforts.