Public health equity goals: households and food production in nutrition research

Abstract

Explains that current public health policy puts so much emphasis on food and nutrition because the single largest cause of death is nutrition‐related, and also because it is easier for a government to promote public health through nutrition than to address ailing health infrastructures or get to grips with adult literacy. Reports, however, the gaps in health equality between different socio‐economic and ethnic groups, and across gender and age. Discusses cultural expectations of a meal and the ideal body. Infers that the higher educational level a person has, the more likely they are to be thin and to occupy a higher place in a hierarchical social structure. Suggests that more food is consumed as snacks – a triumph for mass production, marketing and advertising. Defines what is meant and understood by diet, and evaluates good and bad food. Focuses briefly on traditional food exchanges in Western Samoa and on the use of olive oil in the traditional Mediterranean diet. Indicates that choice of food may be a result of production processes rather than consumer pressure. Explores also the social and cultural interactions of meal times and the role women’s emancipation has played in changing household food and meals. Points out that the lowest socioeconomic groups favour informal takeaways, while the highest socioeconomic groups prefer formal meals out, and, therefore, that the distribution of health and illness is shaped by cultural, social, economic and political forces.