ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests the complex ways in which there are social and cultural threads running through the search for sustainable diets. Food means much more than just nutrients. It is imbued with social, emotional and cultural meaning. The links between society and diet go in both directions: the food system both shapes and reflects society. Many social factors determine people's food and nutrition intake. 'Soft' cultural factors such as the norms, meanings and assumptions that imbue food in everyday life mix with 'harder' socio-economic factors such as income, social class, status and geo-politics. To the social scientist, inequality is probably one of the most important social factors shaping current diets. The sustainable diet challenge means searching for new food literacies in the age of climate change and obesity. Obesity in poorer countries is increasingly no longer solely a disease of richer people, although the burden of overweight remains concentrated among wealthier people in both low- and middle-income countries.
