Économie et nutrition : de l'alimentation rationnelle à l'alimentation durable

Economics and nutrition have a common history which can be traced back to the mideighteenth century, when thinking about diet rationalization initiated. The search for concepts allowing to measure energy expenditures and nutritional needs starts with Lavoisier. Knowledge accumulates along the nineteenth century, and leads to the notion of rational diet, a set of principles aiming at satisfying nutritional requirements at the lowest economic cost. This concern appears explicitly in food composition tables published at the end of the nineteenth century and in ensuing works all along the 20th century. If the idea of rationality hardly appears today in the work of nutritionists, it is still the main reference for economists, whether they rely on it or depart from it. The economics of obesity, rationale for intervention and economic evaluation of programmes, rely on the idea of rational choices, which is then enlarged to account for behavioural biases which are left aside by mainstream models. In doing so, economic analysis results in a more comprehensive evaluation of costs and benefits of policies aiming at changing behaviours. This kind of analysis, which better accounts for all effects of health policies, can be extended to encompass environmental issues, a necessary approach to promote sustainable diets.