Netherlands Commission for Unesco

The concept of convenience in food products and meal preparation has changed rapidly during the twentieth century. However, there is little investigation into the way attitudes towards this concept have changed, which curbs our understanding of the importance of, and need for, convenience today. This paper uses the magazine of the Dutch schools of domestic education to examine their stance on convenience in meal preparation during the 1910s and 1920s. Recipes and articles are quantitatively and qualitatively analysed to estimate the importance of convenience in food preparation and consumption. The results of this analysis show that there was a hierarchy of values with regard to food choice: convenience was definitely valued, but matters of frugality and nutrition generally dominated. This provides not just a nuanced image of the role of domestic education (demanding yet flexible), but it also gives insight into the mechanics of food choice, which may at least partly still apply today.

The consumption of yogurt in Western countries has risen for over a century, first slowly, then more rapidly. The purpose of the present study was to investigate this prolonged phase of growth, by examining the popularity and the projected image of yogurt. A particular focus was on the way these aspects were reflected in consumption patterns and media representations. The data showed how during its period of rapid popularization, yogurt's visibility in the media greatly increased. It was concluded that the product's image was highly flexible in post-war decades, evidenced by the multi-pronged approach taken by marketers. Yogurt was not only advertised as both tasty and healthy, but also as natural and convenient, a strategy that appears to have been informed by consumers' preferences and existing cultural values. This demonstrates how a high degree of product differentiation and diversification during a product's growth stage can result in a heterogeneous image, allo...

Dutch food history is often limited to descriptions of socio- economic circumstances and food practices. Much can be gained from examining the impact of cultural values on consumption. Among such values are inhibitions regarding convenience and a great concern for nutrition and health, two features that influenced the popularity of ready meals in the Netherlands during the 1950s and 1960s, despite manufac- turers’ efforts. These canned, jarred, freeze-dried and frozen products suffered the consequences of a requirement imposed on housewives: carefully prepared, nutritious meals for their families, day in, day out.

English title: 'Foreign Cuisine as mediated in the Netherlands, 1950-1970'.

In the post-war decades ‘foreign’ foods and international cooking became a new trend in the Netherlands. The role of the mediators has however hardly been examined, even though their subtle negotiation between housewives and producers formed a consistent plea for cultural change. Therefore this paper offers a muchneeded closer look into the definitive birth of one of the biggest food trends of the twentieth century. In order to Netherlands at that time it zooms in on the magazine-factor: magazines as the most significant mediators of food choice in the 1950s and 1960s. The cultural significance of the (gradual) changes is explained by means of a systematic survey of the patterns found in recipes and advertisements. They are coded and subjected to a close reading to generate both quantitative and qualitative data. In this way a complex dual strategy in the representation of ‘foreign’ food is revealed. The mediators presented ‘foreign’ food as strange to render it more exciting, but kept some of its aspects more recognizable to keep these ‘foreign’ products and recipes accessible. Surprisingly, these commentators were not naive about the complexity of the new cuisine during this crucial phase in the globalization of cooking. Instead of focusing on authenticity, however, they took a pragmatic approach in presenting the new ingredients as ‘a safe adventure’. The mediators’ awareness and deliberate use of language and images played a significant role in appreciating the new food.

This chapter tracks the domestication of the can, a type of packaging which went from 'modern' to 'mundane' in mere decades. While its material properties remained invariable, the perception of the can changed. Dutch advertisements help examine the changes in the presentation of this type of packaging during its popularisation and decline. The research demonstrates how manufacturers tried to affect the integration of canned foods into everyday life by employing domestication strategies - offering consumptive scenarios - in their adverts. The findings offer insight into the role manufacturers play in the evolution of the image of a physical object, and help explain how what we want from our food changes over time.

How are deep relationships between city and club identification formed, and are they inevitable? The aim of this article is to provide a historical analysis of the rivalry between two football clubs, Vitesse Arnhem and NEC Nijmegen, explicating their various 'axes of enmity'. Supporters, club officials and observers of these two clubs created and selectively maintained similarities between respective city image and club image. The process of 'othering' influenced both city and club images and helped create oppositional identities. Herein, football identification reflects broader societal needs for a place-based identity, and for a coherent image of both self and other.

Scholars have claimed that contemporary representations of female athleticism are characterised by a ‘messy multiplicity’: images of stereotypical femininity now exist alongside representations combining beauty and power. However, this perspective neglects the historicity of ‘messy’ representations of sportswomen. To address the scope of female athletes’ agency in the twentieth century, this article analyses how these women were represented, but also what sport food products they were offered in advertisements, and how these affected new types of athletic femininity. Concentrating on the 1960s and 1970s in the Netherlands, it aims to examine the gendered representations of athleticism and the tangible nutritional options afforded to women amidst transnational commercial interests, scientific consensus, powerful cultural customs, and sport-related practices. By studying trends in ideas about sportswomen and their bodies, it helps understand the cultural values that continue to shape lifestyle choices.

Celebrity athletes have become a popular source for advice on healthy living. However, little research exists on the changing representations of their interventions. This article analyses the case of Dutch top cyclist Leontien van Moorsel, whose celebrity status increased after a highly-publicised struggle with anorexia. By examining biographies, cookbooks, and radio and TV appearances, it traces Van Moorsel’s celebrification and her transformation into an experience-based expert on lifestyle, and more specifically, eating disorders. It argues that, following her ‘anorexic period’, the cyclist’s physical appearance was presented as proof of her embodied expertise on defeating anorexia. Simultaneously, through her TV appearances as a coach for girls engaged in self-starvation, Van Moorsel reveals a tension between her ‘experience’ and her ‘expertise’: her representation as a dispassionate expert on anorexia demanded that she actively distanced herself from her own life story. Hence, the case of Van Moorsel demonstrates the possible contradictions in representations of celebrity athletes’ expertise. However, it also shows that it is likely that the social field of sport will continue to offer unique possibilities for presenting celebrity athletes as experts on healthy living.

In the second half of the twentieth century, advice on healthy living became pervasive in Western societies. While scholars have shown how the output of health educators echoed scientific consensus and ideas about 'good citizenship', the impact of their interactions with government and food industry representatives, and especially their complicated relationship with audiences, remains underexplored. This article centres the experiences of the staff of the Dutch Nutrition Education Bureau-now known as the Centre for Nutrition (Voedingscentrum)-by examining health educators' own observations about the efficacy of their work. Using sources such as internal guidelines, surveys, minutes of meetings, and annual reports, it demonstrates how the bureau struggled to position itself towards government ministries and commercial parties. Furthermore, it shows how unsuccessful attempts to reach the general population frustrated educators, and proposes that these struggles partially explain the transformation of the bureau's lifestyle advice in the 1970s into a 'healthist' narrative about the responsibility of individuals. Hence, by analysing the complex interactions between health educators and other actors-in particular their audience-this article sheds light on the historical development of the genre of lifestyle advice.