Rice, men, and other everyday anxieties: Navigating obesogenic urban food environments in Osaka, Japan

Cindi SturtzSreetharan, Alexandra Brewis

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Urban food and exercise environments are increasingly described as “obesogenic,�? characterized by vast amounts of low-cost, low-nutrient dietary options and encouraging sedentary lifestyles. Japanese food environments have long been considered among the “healthiest,�? but this perception is jarringly out of step with the intensity of modern Japanese food environments in core urban areas. This ethnographic analysis, based on extended interviews and participant observation in central Osaka, Japan, identifies how food environments, health, and growing anxieties about modern urban life intersect. There are four central themes that emerge from Osakan stories of the concerns and challenges in navigating urban eating: the challenge of decreasing dietary diversity; the challenge of overwhelming starch (especially rice); that men are most at risk; and that women are those who buffer risk. In an obesogenic context that is perhaps better described as an urban “food jungle�? than a “food swamp,�? the way people understand the risks of and protections against the unhealthy urban foodscape is highly gendered.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationHandbook of Global Urban Health
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages662-681
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)9781315465449
ISBN (Print)9781138206250
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2019

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences

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