Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
Healthy eating and regular exercise are things that many people aspire to, mainly for health reasons. However, these practices can be complex given broader societal discourses. This paper aims to critically interrogate the social conditions and discursive formations that underpin everyday exercisers’ relationships with food, the body, and physical activity by using biopower and biopedagogies as a theoretical approach, and healthism as a set of discourses. Photo elicitation interviews with vignettes were conducted with nine participants who were regular exercisers. We constructed three different scenarios from the interview data and the theoretical approach: 1. Anna: A performance-driven, health compliant, private sustainer, 2. John: An identity-fused, health ambivalent, relaxed sustainer, and 3. Maria: An anxious, identity-fused, health compliant, relaxed sustainer. These scenarios demonstrate the complexity of the relationships with food, bodies, and exercise, particularly in informal sport. The participants, shown to be influenced by healthism and biopedagogies, were well-informed about (Western) health and were critical towards health information sources. This paper demonstrates the need for more sociocultural and qualitative research to critically investigate how people negotiate relationships with food, the body, and exercise in a context saturated by healthism, hyper-body norms, and a complex foodscape.
Keywords
(un)healthy eating, biopedagogies, biopolitics, exercise, healthism
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
ISSN
13573322
Publication Title
Sport, Education and Society
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
School
School of Education
RAS ID
99676
Funding Information
This work was supported by an internal grant from the School of Education, Edith Cowan University.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Varea, V., Evans, V., Penney, D., & O’Hara, E. (2026). Negotiating relationships with food, the body, and physical activity: who is the healthiest of them all? Sport, Education and Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2026.2697322