Food, Diet and the Pandemic

Main author: Bayliss, Kate
Other authors: Fine, Ben
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-35477
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description This article is concerned with the ways that diet-related health outcomes (including increased incidence and severity of Covid-19) are linked to the system of provision for food. Worldwide obesity has tripled in the past three decades, creating an immense strain on health services, with poor diet associated with 22 per cent of global deaths in 2017. We show that neoliberal and financialised global systems of food production have intensified dysfunctional practices such as land grabs and price speculation. Moreover, capitalist expansion of production inevitably creates pressures to increase consumption such that malnutrition from overeating runs neck and neck with undernutrition on a global scale. It is shown how food corporates (producers, retailers, and so on) are instrumental in creating avenues to affect our diets in ways that are far more effective than government campaigns to promote healthy eating. It is these powerful systemic corporate interests that need to be addressed in order to improve diets and consequent health outcomes.
format Journal Article
author Bayliss, Kate
author_facet Bayliss, Kate
Fine, Ben
authorStr Bayliss, Kate
author_letter Bayliss, Kate
author2 Fine, Ben
author2Str Fine, Ben
title Food, Diet and the Pandemic
publisher Liverpool University Press
publishDate 2021
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/35477/