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A family eating a meal

People from different social classes eat different foods. Not all foods are available to everyone. People start to learn to like foods that are appropriate to their class while they are children. Based on the food that people decide to consume, their social class position is often revealed.

People from the middle classes generally enjoy healthier diets than their lower class counterparts. Part of the explanation for this is that middle-class parents tend to be less permissive in their food choices, are less concerned with the cost of food products, and are more attuned to issues of health. However, permissiveness, health and cost considerations are insufficient to account for the social class variation in food consumption.

The significance of a food surplus in class demarcation ought to be highlighted in this section. In antiquity, those (typically upper classes) hoarding a sizeable surplus of harvests were granted experimental agencies leading to the development of elite cuisines. This principle may be contextualized by food historian Rachel Laudan’s assertion that “the humble, constantly at risk of real hunger, had every reason not to experiment with innovative cooking techniques” due to a scarce reserve of harvests.

Social class differences in food consumption are not necessarily static. A study of Finnish consumption patterns for the period from 1979 to 1990 found that across all classes the consumption of butter, high-fat milk, coffee and sugar had decreased and the consumption of vegetables had increased. From the mid-1980s, social class differences in food consumption had diminished with the lower social classes following consumption patterns established by the upper classes.

Lower Class

Cheeseburger (fast food)

Further reading

• Germov, John; Williams, Lauren (2008). A sociology of food and nutrition: the social appetite. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-555150-1. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
• Vannoni, F.; Spadea, T.; Frasca, G.; Tumino, R.; Demaria, M.; Sacerdote, C.; Panico, S.; Celentano, E.; Palli, D.; Saieva, C.; Pala, V.; Sieri, S.; Costa, G. (2003). "Association between social class and food consumption in the Italian EPIC population". Tumori. 89 (6): 669–678. PMID 14870832.
• Gibson, S.; Williams, S. (1999). "Dental Caries in Pre–School Children: Associations with Social Class, Toothbrushing Habit and Consumption of Sugars and Sugar–Containing Foods". Caries Research. 33 (2): 101–113. doi:10.1159/000016503. PMID 9892777.
• Drewnowski, A. (2010). "The cost of US foods as related to their nutritive value". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 92 (5): 1181–1188. doi:10.3945/ajcn.2010.29300. PMC 2954450. PMID 20720258.
• Irala-Estévez, J. D.; Groth, M.; Johansson, L.; Oltersdorf, U.; Prättälä, R.; Martínez-González, M. A. (2000). "A systematic review of socio-economic differences in food habits in Europe: Consumption of fruit and vegetables". European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 54 (9): 706–714. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601080. PMID 11002383.
• Hulshof, K. F. A. M.; Brussaard, J. H.; Kruizinga, A. G.; Telman, J.; Löwik, M. R. H. (2003). "Socio-economic status, dietary intake and 10 y trends: The Dutch National Food Consumption Survey". European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 57 (1): 128–137. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601503. PMID 12548307.