Food and Nutrition through the 21st Century: Race, Class, Gender, & Food
Created by Health Science Librarians
Gender
Blandings Dream House in Rocky Mont, NC
Source: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center & Braswell Memorial Library
- Women, Men, and Food (Videos)This website has excellent videos from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University’s fifth annual gender conference. Recommended speakers: Laura Shapiro, Ruth Reichel, Sidney Mintz, and Joan Jacobs Brumberg.
- Corpulence, Leanness, and Dietary ReformA digital collection from Cornell University about changing body and beauty standards in the early 20th century.
- Food Security and Gender FactsheetPublished by USAID.
- Women's History and Food: Resource ListAn extensive collection of books and images on women's history and food from the Library of Congress.
- Taking Mom out for Brunch? It's a feminist tradition. (NPR article)The tradition of taking mothers out for brunch on Mother's Day stems from an early victory of the women's rights movement.
- How to Cook a HusbandA funny article from the turn of the century instructing women on how to treat their husbands using food metaphors.
Ethnicity & Race
The United States has experienced several waves of immigration, and each one has altered ife and culture in the United States. The introduction of new foods, recipes, techniques and flavors from different immigrant groups has led to a mix of foods that are neither authentic, nor totally originally to the United States. Throughout these immigrant waves, food has been a way to both divide and bridge ethnic groups.
This table contains data from an early nutrition study on the macronutrients of immigrants' diets:
Source: Robert Dirks, in press. What Americans Ate during the Gilded Age. Rowman & Littlefield.
In the early years of nutrition science, dietitians and nutrition experts were not always considerate of traditions and practices different than their own. While they meant well, food was often used as a means of assimilation, and the nutritional value of ethnic foods was sometimes disregarded in the academic literature of the time.
The Food of the Immigrant in Relation to Health by Michael Davis Jr. and Bertha Wood (1920)
- Food, Culture, and Diabetes in the United StatesAn article by a registered dietitian on ethnic and regional food practices of African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans.
- Soul FoodA brief history of soul food from the African American Registry.
- The Native American Side of the Thanksgiving MenuA fun article with Native American-influenced Thanksgiving recipes.
Class
- Does social class predict diet quality?A highly cited article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
- Divided We Eat (Newsweek article)"As more of us indulge our passion for local, organic delicacies, a growing number of Americans don't have enough nutritious food to eat. How we can bridge the gap."
- Community-Level Interventions to Improve Food Access and Health (February 2015)This 12-minute podcast discusses food access and health with a focus on two community-level interventions in California.
