Family of Origin and Food Practices: A Qualitative and Intersectional Analysis

Letisha E. C. Brown, University of Texas at Austin

This project examines how racialized embodiment is enacted and expressed via interaction with ones key social relationships and revealed through food practices. Specifically, this project is concerned with social ties in the context of family of origin and food practices for middle class black and white adults. The data for this project contains 25 in-depth interviews drawn from the Relationships and Health Habits over the Life Course project conducted between 2008 and 2009 in a large southwestern city in the U.S. These semi-structured interviews generated narratives of how social relationships shaped health habits (e.g. food for comfort, eating) making them well suited for this the purposes of this study. This project merges theories of embodiment and intersectionality to frame an analysis of social processes that contribute to disparities in weight gain for middle class black and white adults between the ages of 30 and 60 years old.