Attitudes to food and eating behaviour:Social class

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Attitudes to food and eating behaviour:Social class

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  • Research suggests that the relationship between social class and eating behaviour is not that straight forward. Story et al (1995) found that in a sample of American students, higher social class was related to greater satisfaction with weight and lower rates of weight control behaviours, such as vomiting. Other studies have found no relationship between social class and weight dissatisfaction, the desire for thinness and eating disorders.

Evaluation

The fact that some studies have failed to suggest that social class is a factor influencing attitudes to food may be because the explanation is biological. Certain attitudes to food and preferences may have evolved from our ancestors. The evolutionary approach argues that humans have a developed a preference for meat because our ancestors included more meat in their diets to compensate for the decline in quality of plant foods available as a result of receding forests. This is why we must take a holistic point of view when studying eating behaviour. 

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