ABSTRACT
The growing incidence of overweight, fatness and obesity in recent decennia is a modern industrial phenomenon, which is attributed largely to overfeeding (de Boer and Deurenberg, 1987). This phenomenon stands in remarkable contrast to the widespread thinness and ill-health caused by malnutrition in pre-industrial and early industrial times. In the Netherlands for instance, G.J. Mulder, a well known physician active around 1850, complained of a series of illness and health problems relating to food habits of the so-called “peoples’ class.” These habits were part of lifestyles which were defined in the first place by deep poverty. The foodways of the rich were, however, criticised as well: overfeeding was as important a health-risk as undernourishment, although this problem was far less common (Mulder, 1847). Considering recent data on the unequal distribution of obesity among different socioeconomic strata (Baecke et al., 1983), fatness seems to have trickled down from the top to the bottom of the social scale.
