DeepSummary
The episode features an interview with sociologist Priya Fielding-Singh, author of the book 'How the Other Half Eats,' exploring how factors like race, class, and culture affect dietary choices and beliefs across different families in America. Fielding-Singh conducted interviews and spent time living with families of varying socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds to observe their food habits and the rationale behind them.
One key finding was that the 'food desert' argument, which posits that lack of access to supermarkets leads to poor diets in low-income communities, does not fully explain nutritional inequality. The research suggests only about 10% of dietary gaps can be attributed to food access differences. Instead, broader socioeconomic inequalities shape diverse beliefs, behaviors, and constraints around food across families.
The discussion touched on topics like the aspirational status of shopping at Whole Foods, the influence of kids' food preferences, the role of assimilation for immigrant families, maternal guilt around food choices, and how affluence allows buying convenience to compensate for time scarcity in meal preparation.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Race, class, culture, and circumstances shape vastly different dietary beliefs and behaviors across American families.
- The 'food desert' argument does not sufficiently explain nutritional inequality, which is driven more by broader socioeconomic factors.
- Higher-income families have greater ability to restrict and monitor children's junk food intake compared to lower-income families.
- Maternal guilt around food choices is experienced differently based on socioeconomic means and food security.
- Affluence allows compensating for time scarcity by paying for convenience in meal preparation.
- Shopping at places like Whole Foods has become an aspirational signifier of socioeconomic class.
- For immigrant families, navigating between cultural culinary traditions and assimilation is a complex balancing act.
- Children's food preferences exert significant influence on what families ultimately consume across socioeconomic levels.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “And I found that Julie was not unusual in that regard. Like, that was something that a lot of higher income moms told me that they wished for their children. Now, you know, kids in these families also ate junk. You know, there was junk across the board, but in higher income families, there was much more discussion about limiting junk, about rules around how much junk food kids can eat.“ by Priya Fielding-Singh
- “And I think that an awareness of just how much privilege I have, especially after spending time with families of such different means, it's allowed me to take a step back and to not worry or stress as much about my daughter's diet.“ by Priya Fielding-Singh
Entities
Company
Podcast
Person
Book
Product
Store
Episode Information
Code Switch
NPR
12/8/21
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy