Social stratification and food: Analyses of effects on health

Abstract

This paper examined how social stratification affected food. I treated vegetables and seaweed as cases. I showed that social stratification lead to inequality of eating vegetables and seaweed, and this resulted in inequality of health. This may be because eating them represented balanced eating life. Data were collected by a mail survey on 35-59 years old females in Nishitokyo city in Tokyo,.(822 respondents, 68.7% response rate). First, I found that as social stratification rose, people ate more vegetables and seaweed. Second, eating them everyday boosted subjective health. Third, vegetables and seaweed bridged effects of education on health as intervening variables. Fourth, I found no effects of traditional Japanese food and regular eating life on health.