In many societies, governments have become concerned about diet related illnesses and the huge economic costs of managing them, disseminating information about things like eating, balanced diets and the foods we should avoid in excess. At the same time in our shops and cafes there have been a proliferation of products which carry possibilities for making more healthy choices. Yet research shows that the health-related properties these products offer are largely contradictory, confusing and more about market buzzwords than actual healthy food. And such healthy choices have tended to blur and merge with notions of ethical and moral shopping. In this introduction to a collection of articles on the discourses of good food, we look at some of the research on ‘good food’ showing exactly what a multimodal critical discourse perspective can contribute to the field. We show that closer analysis of product packaging, marketing, cook books, media reports and policy documents can help us to understand how commercial forces are colonizing and shaping our ideas of what it means to be healthy and also to act as good citizens.

在许多社会中，政府已开始关注与饮食有关的疾病以及管理这些疾病的巨大经济成本，传播有关饮食，均衡饮食和我们应避免过多食用的食物的信息。同时，在我们的商店和咖啡馆中，产品种类繁多，为做出更健康的选择提供了可能性。然而研究表明，与实际健康食品相比，这些产品提供的与健康相关的特性在很大程度上是自相矛盾，令人困惑的，并且更多是关于市场流行语的。而且，这种健康的选择趋于模糊并与道德和道德购物观念融合。在介绍美食的文章的简介中，我们看了一些有关“好食物”的研究，确切地显示了多模式批判性话语视角可以为该领域做出什么贡献。我们表明，对产品包装，市场营销，烹饪书籍，媒体报道和政策文件进行更深入的分析可以帮助我们了解商业力量如何在殖民和塑造我们的观念，即健康和成为好公民。