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The Raw and the Organic: Politics of Therapeutic Cancer Diets in the United States

Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

There is a voluminous literature on the historical conflicts between advocates and critics of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for cancer. Although the older literature documents the suppression of CAM therapies and advocates, since the 1990s, the politics of CAM have become more complex and subtle. For example, suppression has tended to shift to a politics of integration, that is, of selective uptake of CAM therapies when used as adjuvant modalities. In addition, there is an emergent politics of knowledge that involves (1) social networks with the CAM movement that represent various therapies, (2) value claims regarding the relationship between CAM therapies and religious and cultural viewpoints, and (3) political views regarding globalization and antiglobalization policies and movements. Focusing on three types of therapeutic diets that CAM cancer patients in the United States use, this article charts some of the emergent forms of the politics in CAM in the United States.

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