ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to offer an insight into the challenges and opportunities that intersect the space between an individual's food identity and public health as well as to show how the information age and current political interest in food and public health have increased students’ food literacy, while also creating issues for families and students subjected to school nutrition regulations. The current interest in food transcends age groups and ranges from toddlers to retirees and individuals from all fields are weighing in, including but not limited to nutritionists, athletic trainers, physicians, marketing gurus, celebrities, educators, and politicians. The public sphere is increasing its influence on individuals and it is making it harder to understand one's food identity, let alone what one should or should not eat. In addition to the traditional influences of one's family, culture, and geographical region, the influences of visual rhetoric, advertising, traditional media, social media, and social policy must be factored in to understand why we eat, what we eat, and who we are because of what we eat. The private sphere of eating has been impacted by a public interest in food whether for personal health reasons or for sheer entertainment. Consumers are increasingly food-literate and empowered to comment on and ask for what they believe to be the best whether it be local, sustainable, organic, or merely personal preference and the current foodie culture and diversity of foods available in the United States have made food a more democratic facet of our society.
