Welcome to our website
We invite you to take a journey into what we have called the Controversy of the Paleo Diet. An ever present matter of concern in contemporary society is the issue of health. Concepts like lifestyle diseases, obesity and public health are discussed by governmental institutions, various organisations, individuals and many more. The Gurus, the experts, the concerns and the answers are many; the controversy is enormous. Our aim has been to take seriously the span of this broader issue concerning health, but at the same time digging deeper into a sub-controversy to map out the composition and articulation of a particular health diet as a matter of concern: The Paleo Diet. Mapping the controversy of the Paleo Diet We wish to observe and describe the Paleo Diet and unfold the complexities surrounding the issue, but at the same time ordering it: Who are the actors and what are they concerned about? We would like to give you a possibility to explore the processes and insecurities working beneath the surface of the mediations of the Paleo Diet in different online spheres by navigating your way through our mapping of the Paleo Diet on the web. It is important for us to state that the controversy of the Paleo Diet does not exist in a fixed form, but that we as controversy mappers perform the controversy. Our mappings of the paleo controversy will deprive from a range of digital tools which in combination with our respective biases will have an impact on the visualizations you will see on this website. The core of the controversy is whether the Paleo Diet is healthy and whether the arguments about the healthiness of the Paleo Diet are valid. It is not our intention to give a final answer and solve the controversy since we do not believe the Paleo Diet to be a matter of fact that anyone can gain an unmediated access to - ourselves included. Instead we are working towards shedding light on the following questions:
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Why We Do It and For Whom It is our aim that people concerned with the issue of digital methods and mapping controversies or the paleo diet will join us in the exploration of the Paleo Diet as a controversial issue on the web. Furthermore we would like to demonstrate and reflect on the role of digital methods in a quantitavie and qualitative mapping of a controversy on the web. The structure of the website The website is a reflection of our way through the Paleo Diet on the web which could have been totally different if our search strategy had been another. To use the format of a website optimally the structure should give the visitor a possibility to navigate the site, as he/she finds interesting. The structure is divided in a way which should give an idea of the different actors intertwined in the controversy of the Paleo Diet - being scientists, laymen and some in between, and the diversity of their concerns about the matter. We suggest Entering the Paleo Diet as a starting point and then navigating your way through the site, where we uncover different aspects of the controversy. What is the Paleo Diet:
"If the caveman didn't eat it... you shouldn't either" (Dr. Loren Cordain). This is the most prominent definition at first sight but the deeper we dig into the controversy the more the statement is up for discussion. According to the diet, paleo diet: namely that you should only eat the foods that were available in the Paleolithic era. This means that you should keep your fingers away from grains, dairy, processed foods, etc. and stick to meat, fish, fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. Take a leap into the website and be sure that you will "meat" a caveman. |