Health, Food and Social Inequality ─ Critical Perspectives on the Supply and Marketing of Food

"Health, Food and Social Inequality investigates how vast amounts of consumer data amassed by private companies, alongside epidemiological analysis of dietary type, social class and resulting health profiles, is used by the food industry to enable the social ranking of products and consumers and to shape food consumption patterns. This book supplies a fresh social scientific perspective on the health consequences of over-eating. It shifts the focus from individual behaviour to acknowledge what is known about the shaping of such behaviours by both social theory and psychology. Exploring how this knowledge about social identities and health behaviours is used by the food industry as well as the impact it has had, it outlines, for example, how commercial marketing firms supply food companies with information on where to locate low-nutrition fast foods whilst also advising governments on where to site health services for those consuming such foods disproportionately. Giving a sociological underpinning to Nudge theory which tries to explain the apparently unconscious quality of some behaviours while simultaneously critiquing it in the context of diet and health, this book explores how social class is an often overlooked mediating factor in both individual dietary practice and food marketing activities. Providing a detailed critique of marketing and the role of class in diet and health, this innovative volume is suitable for scholars in the social sciences and public health"--Provided by publisher.

Following an extended career in public affairs, as a speechwriter and later as a newsroom journalist and editor, Carolyn Mahoney obtained her doctorate at the University of Sussex, UK. She is based in London and is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Brighton, UK.