Acquired Tastes

Why Families Eat the Way They Do

By Brenda L. Beagan, Gwen E. Chapman, Josée Johnston, Deborah McPhail, Elaine M. Power, and Helen Vallianatos
Categories: Social Sciences, Sociology, Family Studies, Food & Cooking, Health, Social Work & Psychology, Health & Medicine
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774828574, 292 pages, November 2014
Paperback : 9780774828581, 292 pages, May 2015
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774828598, 292 pages, November 2014
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780774828604, 292 pages, November 2014
Ebook (MobiPocket) : 9780774829960, 292 pages, November 2014

Table of contents

Introduction

1 Healthy Eating

2 Eating Ethically

3 Cosmopolitan Eating

4 Vegetarian Eating

5 Body Image

6 Social Class Trajectories

7 Movements within Canada

8 Movement to Canada

9 Embodiment

Conclusion

Appendix 1: Research Methods

Appendix 2: Study Participant Demographics

This intimate portrait of food habits and attitudes towards food in Canadian families uproots the notion that our daily food choices stem solely from individual tastes and preferences.

Description

Magazine articles and self-improvement books tell us that our food choices serve as bold statements about who we are as individuals. Acquired Tastes reveals that they say more about where we come from and who we would like to be. Interviews with Canadian families in both rural and urban settings reveal that age, gender, social class, ethnicity, health concerns, food availability, and political and moral concerns shape the meanings that families attach to food. They also influence how parents and teens respond to discourses on health, beauty, and the environment, a finding with profound implications for public health campaigns.