Public discourse about food generally consists of nutritional guides, ethical philosophies, labeling schemes, and food industry trends, all of which try to offer often competing solutions to consumers seeking to know more about what is good to eat. As this anxiety about eating right continues to grow, what consumers really need is a more informed, educated, and critical relationship to dietary health and dietary advice, rather than more information about the nutritional content of food or where it comes from. This article first provides a brief overview of the emerging critical nutrition studies before analyzing the history and historiography of nutrition and dietary health in the United States since the late nineteenth century. It argues that critical nutrition studies as a discipline provide the foundation for a new "critical dietary literacy," and thus can help us rethink contemporary discourses of food and health.