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How the Other Half Eats
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How the Other Half Eats

The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America

Priya Fielding-Singh PhD
Little, Brown Spark, 2021
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Mothers overwhelmingly take the blame for their children’s health and diet. What does that mean for mothers without the resources to buy the right foods versus the mothers who can buy healthful food but never feel their choices are good enough? Sociologist Priya Fielding-Singh interviewed four San Francisco Bay families from different backgrounds to find out how and why people eat as they do. Her research shows that Americans’ dietary choices have little to do with personal discipline and, instead, mainly involve family budgets and societal pressures. Personal desires – whether to be a perfect mom or to alleviate the weight of poverty – shape how Americans eat.

Summary

Current assumptions about eating misunderstand dietary choices in America.

The American diet is overwhelmingly unhealthy. The US Department of Agriculture agrees with most nutritionists that a healthy diet is made up of fresh fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy, whole grains and lean proteins. Most Americans don’t eat this way. The Americans who suffer the most from diets lacking in nutritional value are low-income families of color. They often eat too much sugar and too many processed foods and fatty meats, leading to higher rates of diabetes and heart problems, as well as earlier deaths than more affluent people.

As the disparity between rich and the poor widens, some political figures, such as Michelle Obama, have sought to mitigate some of the causes behind this issue. However, those efforts operate on two assumptions about why some Americans eat unhealthily. First, low income families can’t afford healthier foods and second, low-income families don’t have physical access to grocery stores that sell healthy foods.

The second assumption is false. For example, The Healthy Food Financing Initiative invested more than $650 million dollars...

About the Author

Priya Fielding-Singh is a sociologist at the Stanford University. She studies the societal factors that determine people’s health.

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