can relate to the personal stories of bloggers and rely on their guidance for a healthy lifestyle – especially in the beginning of a new LCHF lifestyle.
Consumers search for an alternative social adherence when breaking free from the traditional food regime. Caused by the distrust in authorities LCHF-followers build a self-chosen community and gain knowledge by establishing contact with likeminded consumers, who are perceived as valid information sources. Knowledge of food and health is co-created among the members in the LCHF community and social ties appear in time. Consumption of LCHF food is the centre of the community but the consumption is just as much valued for its linking value to the group identity and other LCHF-followers. The shared group identity is strengthened through an act of separation between those that accept the traditional food regime and those that have found the ‘truth’ and follow the LCHF food regime. A social structure is concluded present in this community, where the food knowledge gained through the LCHF food regime can provide a LCHF-follower culinary capital and thereby an enhanced social status.
The community membership empowers the individual LCHF-follower to gain control of her life.
Where the focal point of health in the traditional food regime was compliance to the official guidelines, LCHF-followers take back control by listening to their bodies and relying on their own judgement for a healthy identity. According to LCHF-followers it requires a certain amount of self-control to follow an alternative food regime, which is not possessed by everyone. Even though the choice of LCHF as their new food regime obviously is important to them, LCHF-followers are reluctant to openly ascribe LCHF value with regard to their identity. Based on the respondents’ statements I argue that the LCHF food regime in fact becomes an extension of the self and is an important part of LCHF-followers’ identities, since it enables them to change their identity narratives. The reluctance to ascribe LCHF identity-value is caused by LCHF-followers’
opposition to restrictions.
Being a LCHF-follower presents a different identity to the consumer. Through the LCHF food regime the consumer acquires knowledge that enables her to defend the choice of leaving the traditional food regime but also to claim a position of status within the LCHF food regime. The LCHF knowledge consists of a thorough understanding of what good and bad food is, a distinction that differs significantly from the traditional food regime’s distinction. LCHF-followers thus become food experts with food taxonomy and LCHF-lingo developed only for the initiated. This perceived expert position makes the LCHF-followers strive to motivate others and
thereby take a position of an alternative authority, similar to the inspirational bloggers. Based on this I conclude that in the LCHF food regime everyone can take the position of an authority and guide others in their consumption choices. This illustrates how knowledge of healthy food is a means of gaining a desirable social status within the LCHF food regime. It also means that a similar structure to that of the traditional regime where authorities guide the consumer with regard to food consumption, and what identity positions that are obtainable from it, is visible in an alternative form in the LCHF food regime.
LCHF-followers make use of different strategies to cope with the new chosen lifestyle to continue their social life outside the LCHF community. In the beginning LCHF-followers often find an excuse for choosing LCHF such as intolerance to certain food or they avoid talking about it by finding ways around the attention to their food. As LCHF-followers become more involved in the LCHF community and lifestyle a need for defending their choice of food regime can occur – this coping strategy is a result of critical questions that act as tests of the self-discipline related to following an alternative food regime. Well-experienced LCHF-followers become more relaxed with the LCHF principles. They perceive themselves as sovereign consumers as they know the way to health is through listening to their bodies. With this knowledge they can choose to deviate from the LCHF lifestyle when it suits the social setting. According to the LCHF-follower she herself is the only one who can decide what will provide her health and wellbeing.
LCHF-followers claim that they have broken free of restrictions and found their individual way to health. Still they are subjects to a social structure inherent in the LCHF food regime but also in the Danish food culture in general. It appears to provide culinary capital to possess knowledge of healthy food and physical wellbeing – unaffiliated to food regimes. The control LCHF-followers gain of their own health can be argued to be the main achievement from following an alternative food regime. The LCHF food regime enables consumers to feel in control of consumption and not controlled by consumption. I will conclude that the mere feeling of escaping restrictions is enough for LCHF-followers to experience a change of identity to healthy and self-controlled. They still rely on market offerings to create this identity and they are therefore not free of the market. Even though it undoubtedly can be concluded that membership in the LCHF community is an important achievement from choosing an alternative food regime, it can be discussed if all LCHF-followers will be loyal to the LCHF food regime and the LCHF community if a new food regime appears with an interpretation of the overall Danish health theme that differs even further from the
traditional food regime. If an enhanced social status is possible LCHF-followers might move on to a new food regime.
The findings of this study not only provides an understanding of the reason why consumers choose an alternative to the traditional food regime and what they achieve from it but also which implications this has for marketers involved in the Danish food culture. The LCHF food regime is first of all a result of consumers’ dissatisfaction with market choices. Marketers need to listen to consumers’ stories to approach them with products and services capable of offering desired consumer positions. LCHF-followers’ distrust in authorities indicates that a marketing approach should be below the line to avoid scaring them off. Furthermore the desire for communion among LCHF-followers is interesting. It is important to LCHF-followers to be in contact with fellow consumers to cope with the new identity and the required self-control. Marketers should use this insight strategically and provide support for the LCHF-community for instance by offering them a platform to build the community. Market offerings that can help consumers gain culinary capital and thereby a desired social status should be presented. The stories of LCHF-followers above all indicate to marketers that some of these consumers are ready for a change in the food market, and as a marketer it will be interesting to participate in the development of a future food regime.
The present study had focus on two of the main CCT research domains, which is possible according to existing CCT studies. Based on the findings of this study I will argue that all four research domains should be included to obtain a thorough understanding of this particular field of research. It is not possible to limit the research to focus on two domains, as they are too interdependent and an understanding of how the dynamics affect each other cannot be neglected.