Shakespeare's Sister has a must-read post about health as a class issue in the U.S. She focuses on a special report from the Detroit News, discussing how nutritious food is virtually unavailable to the urban poor: the lack of grocery stores in cities, the lack of transportation to stores, much higher prices for food in poor areas, and little fresh food. The report combines heartbreaking stories with a lot of good information I'd never thought about.
Really, go read it.
With all the noise about the "obesity epidemic" in the U.S., there is little that casts the matter as something other than a moral issue wholly within the realm of personal responsibility. We cast blame for how people eat with little to no understanding of the constraints on people's decision-making. And those constraints are systemic, structural (nod to Dr. B), class-based, and a moral issue only insofar as our government fails its people.
As Shakes says (in the comments thread to her post): It's only the best country in the world for some people, and that just doesn't count.
Posted by Cleis at February 3, 2006 09:27 AMNutrition has always been a matter of social class. That's why you see chicken claws and chitterlings in the poorer communities, they had to use what no one else would buy.
But even in medieval times, it's believed that the use of silver in dinnerware prevented the spread of disease among the rich. The only time when this might not have worked was with leaded goblets, as in crazy Roman emporers.