“Social Determinants of Health”, “Habitus” and “Embodiment” behind a high BMI. A social analysis of the current epidemiological scenario

Abstract

mass index (BMI) would characterize a new stage in the epidemiological transition, making it possible to reveal the social origin of the new morbidity and mortality burden. This review seeks to integrate different theoretical concepts to explain the mechanisms through which the social is incorporated into the individual, delimiting their health behavior and with it, their nutritional status. The structures that represent the social determinants of health would operate systematically differently on different social groups, generating positions that are more or less advantageous in the playing field of health. This pattern translates a reality embodied unconsciously and long-lasting through a habitus, favoring differing social practices that result in the construction of bodily classes as a biological expression of social inequality. Strategic decision-making in health will depend on individual capacities and freedoms, which are firstly restricted by those social contexts, being those understood as the structural causes of population health.