Wildes Writing

Tim Wildes

            Growing up in the United States of America, it is the commonly held belief that one needn’t ever face food insecurity. It is a belief based on capitalistic ideology, nationalism, propaganda, and ignorance. The truth of the matter is that about 12.8% of U.S. households fall into the statistic of food insecure, with nearly half of those falling into the demographic of “very low food security” [1]. As defined by the United States Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), “Very low food security is the more severe range of food insecurity where one or more household members experience reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns at times during the year because of limited money and other resources for obtaining food. Children and adults were food insecure at times during 2022 in 8.8 percent of U.S. households with children, up from 6.2 percent in 2021 and 7.6 percent in 2020.” Too, as according to the USDA, of these individuals falling into the category of very low food security,

• 98 percent reported having worried their food would run out before they had money to buy more.
• 97 percent reported the food they bought just did not last, and they did not have money to get more.
• 96 percent reported an adult had cut the size of meals or skipped meals because there was not enough money for food; 87 percent reported this had occurred in 3 or more months.

While yes, this is staggeringly different than in comparison to countries with higher rates of poverty, clearly this demonstrates a systemic problem with how individual’s needs are met in this country; food is an innate human right. To shrug off this suffering as “better than elsewhere”, is ignorant and cruel. This is a cultural attitude taught to us from a young age; it is part of the United States’ indoctrinative process. This indoctrination teaches young Americans that “3^rd World countries” are the only ones that suffer from hunger; that hunger is a problem largely solved in the Western world that we are the figure-head of, being in the United States. By examining these statistics directly from the United States’ Government, one can quickly find why those living below the threshold of the poverty line, will have adverse food relationships well into their adulthood.

Examining statistics regarding food security too, can illuminate another all-too-common issue: those experiencing extreme poverty often do not have access to nutritious foods. “Many people live in areas in which there is limited or no access to a variety of affordable and accessible foods. This might mean that the community doesn’t have a grocery store or that the food in their area is too expensive to reasonably afford. Lack of access to food can also result from limited access to transportation, making it difficult to travel elsewhere to get adequate affordable food” [6]. This is likely directly correlated to a well-known phenomenon in the United States, being the food-insecurity/obesity paradox, “whereby food-insecurity, which often results from inadequate economic resources to purchase food, is associated with obesity, which is a consequence of overconsumption of food.” [3]. In fact, “Only 17% of soup kitchens, food pantries, and shelters surveyed were working with a nutritionist or dietician. The nutritional value of food served in many soup kitchens and shelters has been found to be low in vitamins and to exceed fat, energy, and protein content recommendations.” [3]. Many food-insecure individuals rely on these assets to manage their own hunger, so to not provide such facilities with nutritious options will only aggravate the issue of relationships with food. It seems there is an unconscious bias towards those with low food security, a bias that results in depriving people of the same nutritious options that are prevalent in higher incomes. Because obesity is not a “target outcome” [3] of this, more impoverished, social class, there are several missed opportunities of intervention or prevention via governmental programs and/or social action [3]. One factor that appears to have contributed to the slow investigation of food insecurity and ED pathology is the ED stereotype.

 Although we now have evidence to the contrary, EDs were historically believed to primarily affect “skinny, white, affluent girls”. This misconception is commonly referred to as the SWAG stereotype and unfortunately, it has shaped approaches to ED assessment, prevention, and treatment, as well as etiologic models. For instance, ED assessment tools used extensively today were typically developed and validated in samples that largely fit the SWAG stereotype” [4]. It is evident that the hegemonic concept of the sufferer of an ED as this SWAG stereotype has led to ignorance surrounding ED as an issue entirely. Those who suffer from disordered eating habits are spread far and wide in the cultural landscape, it is not specifically well-off white women. It seems this cultural ignorance has created a blind-eye towards peoples who are living in poverty, those who are not white, and of course those who do not identity as cis-woman.

            There too, is evidence that ready access to food as a youth has direct correlation with disordered eating as an adult, namely binge-eating. Many who suffer food insecurity, especially those who fall into the statistic of very low food security, will experience binge-eating or binge-eating adjacent eating patterns in their very early life; a direct result of having infrequent access to food. This eating pattern is known a feast-or-famine cycle “in which food intake oscillates according to fluctuations in food availability, such that food intake decreases during periods of food scarcity and increases during periods of relative food abundance (e.g., after receiving a paycheck)” [4]. This eating cycle will define relationships with food into adulthood. By growing up without frequent ready access to food, it is logical that individuals who are experiencing hunger later in life will have a binge-eating response, as this is how they were conditioned as a child. The question can be raised if these involuntarily acts of fasting have long term psychological effects on the individuals relationship with food, however research has found that, “Notably, attempts to restrict food, whether voluntary or involuntary, have been shown to result in a range of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes, including preoccupation with food, heightened emotional reactivity, and a tendency toward binge eating once restrictions are no longer in place” [4].

            There seems to be a societal bias, whether conscious or not towards disordered eating, in direct accordance with class dynamics and schemas. Those who are more affluent or privileged tend to suffer from anorexia nervosa more commonly than those outside of this social group. There seems to be a commonly held association to nutritious food to class, which supports prior claims regarding lower classes’ lack of readily accessible nutritious foods. In a study regarding the anorexic upper-class and the subjects commonly-held beliefs regarding class, “the result of the self-transformation that takes place during the first phases of the anorexic career is the acquisition of dominant habits and practices: a dominant taste for foods, as when Priscille or Emily describes a ‘before[anorexia]’ liking of McDonald’s, fries, sausages, and an ‘after’ [during anorexia]liking for fish, seafood, or oysters… interviewees had to learn (or teach themselves), step-by-step, to be disgusted by greasy or sugary food, to enjoy the sensation of an ‘empty stomach,’ or to loathe ‘feeling full’.” [5] This quote suggests that the upper crust individuals wanted to display wealth and class via the foods they ate; them having recognized that there is a classial association between foods and the consumer. The author continues, “What is produced through the first phases of the career is therefore a new and dominant ‘body use’… It is shaped through a more and more extreme repression of the working-class tastes or body uses that were present before. The anorexic career might therefore be described as an upward trajectory in the ‘universe of class bodies’ and even in the universe of deep-down class sensations.” [5]. One can directly identify the repression of features self-identified of being “working-class” as an attempt of outward projection of class-dominance: of being upper class and self-categorizing as superior.

            Previously stated statistics and arguments seem to suggest there is an association between disordered eating and progression up the socioeconomic hierarchy, “First and foremost, losing weight is understood as a step up on the feminine social ladder, since the higher one’s social origin and occupation, the lower one’s weight – this being true in France for women and adolescent girls with a strengthening of these social patterns since the 1980s” [5]. This may suggest too, that disordered eating in impoverished individuals, could have root in subconscious and socially/societally imposed attempts to climb the social ladder, to climb out of perceived poverty and ill-associations with it.

            There seems to be boundless accounts of individuals experiencing and/or having experienced food-insecurity, developing poor relationships with food as adults. These relationships are consequent of little to no access to nutritious food, whether of restriction or incredibly difficult circumstances to acquire the foods. They are consequent of lack of government/societal assistance due to general perceived irrelevance surrounding the issue. They are consequent of socioeconomic stereotypes that are reinforced by the general population, and they are consequent, finally, of post-capitalistic ideologies surrounding food/class cultures; coinciding with vested interests in being perceived as more socially dominant. These issues create a dangerous precedent for those experiencing such food-insecurities and only increase in commonality every year [1]. To ignore the compounding facts and statistics surrounding the topic is wholly cruel and innately consequential of capitalist society. The economic disparity creating food insecurity likewise creates an unhealthy relationship with food that carries well into the lifetime of those who suffer.

Works Cited

1. Rabbitt, Matthew P., et al. Household Food Security in the United States in 2022 – USDA ERS, United States Department of Agriculture, 2023, http://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/107703/err-325.pdf?v=6601.
2. “Definitions of Food Security.” USDA ERS – Definitions of Food Security, http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-u-s/definitions-of-food-security/. Accessed 5 Nov. 2023.
3. Tsai, Jack, and Robert A. Rosenheck. “Obesity among chronically homeless adults: Is it a problem?” Public Health Reports, vol. 128, no. 1, 2013, pp. 29–36, https://doi.org/10.1177/003335491312800105.
4. “Binge Eating Related to Food Insecurity.” Binge Eating Related to Food Insecurity, 22 Sept. 2022, withinhealth.com/learn/articles/how-food-insecurity-can-lead-to-binge-eating-disorder.
5. Darmon, Muriel. “The fifth element: Social class and the sociology of anorexia.” Sociology, vol. 43, no. 4, Aug. 2009, pp. 717–733, https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038509105417.
6. “Binge Eating Related to Food Insecurity.” Binge Eating Related to Food Insecurity, 22 Sept. 2022, withinhealth.com/learn/articles/how-food-insecurity-can-lead-to-binge-eating-disorder.