The neoliberal diet and inequality in the United States.
This paper discusses increasing differentiation of U.S. dietary components by socioeconomic strata and its health implications. While upper-income groups have had increasing access to higher-quality foods, lower-to-middle-income class diets are heavily focused on "energy-dense" fares. This neoliberal diet is clearly associated with the proliferation of obesity that disproportionately affects the poor. We provide a critical review of the debate about obesity from within the critical camp in food studies, between individual-focused and structural perspectives. Using official data, we show how the US diet has evolved since the 1960s to a much greater emphasis on refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils. Inequality is demonstrated by dividing the population into households-income quintiles and how they spend on food. We then introduce our Neoliberal Diet Risk Index (NDR), comprised of measures of food-import dependency, the Gini coefficient, rates of urbanization, female labor-force participation, and economic globalization. Our index serves to measure the risk of exposure to the neoliberal diet comparatively, across time and between nations. We conclude that only a societal actor like the state can redirect the food-production system by modifying its agricultural subsidy policies. Inequality-reducing policies will make the healthier food involved in such change widely available for all.
Simon Fraser University, School for International Studies, 7200-515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BCV6B 5K3, Canada. Electronic address: otero@sfu.ca.
Gerardo
G
Otero
Department of Sociology, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, BC, Canada.
Gabriela
G
Pechlaner
Simon Fraser University, School for International Studies, 7200-515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BCV6B 5K3, Canada.
Giselle
G
Liberman
Simon Fraser University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada.
Efe
E
Gürcan
D004032:Diet / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology; D011203:Poverty; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States
Diet; Food; Health inequalities; Inequality; Neoliberalism; Nutrition; Obesity