ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the publication and education efforts of China’s Ministry of Health in the Maoist period in the realm of nutrition sciences as a means to strengthen the national body. In looking at protein and vitamin C specifically, the idea of nutritional governmentality is explored. In the end a scientific picture of the body arises that could be controlled and used by a knowledgeable authority to its advantage. Where the body was split up into its different functions and parts in the wake of the scientification of China, food as a formerly sensual but necessary concept underwent the same fragmentation, that is, macro and micro nutrients.
