Eating, drinking and being depressed: the social, cultural and psychological context of alcohol consumption and nutrition in a Brazilian community

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 59; no. 4; pp. 709 - 720
• Main Authors: Dressler, William W, Ribeiro, Rosane Pilot, Balieiro, Mauro Campos, Oths, Kathryn S, Dos Santos, José Ernesto
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2004; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Series: Social Science & Medicine
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alcohol; Alcohol consumption; Alcohol Drinking - ethnology; Alcohol use; Alcohol use Cultural consonance Diet Mental health Brazil; Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning; Biological and medical sciences; Brazil; Brazil - epidemiology; Community; Cultural Characteristics; Cultural consonance; Culture; Depression; Depression (Psychology); Depression - economics; Depression - ethnology; Diet; Drinking Behavior; Energy Intake; Family Characteristics; Feeding Behavior - ethnology; Female; Health Status Indicators; Humans; Income; Income Distribution; Interviews as Topic; Male; Marginality; Medical sciences; Medicine; Mental depression; Mental health; Middle Aged; Mood disorders; Nutrition; Nutritional Status; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Residence Characteristics; Social Behavior; Social Class; Social Stratification; Sociocultural factors; Socioeconomic Status; Tobacco smoking; Toxicology; South America; Brazil; America; Cultural consonance; Brazil; Diet; Mental health; Alcohol use; Mood disorder; Consumption; Context; Human; Nutrition; Alcoholism; Depression; Drinking; Psychological effect; Feeding; Alcoholic beverage; Social aspect; Community; Public health
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.11.029

Much has been written about the socioeconomic distribution of nutritional status, both in more economically developed, and in developing nations. In general, persons of lower socioeconomic status suffer adverse consequences of poor nutritional status, although these consequences can vary depending on the level of development, i.e. in more developed countries the problem tends to be one of over-nutrition and obesity, while in developing countries the problem tends to be one of under-nutrition and nutritional deficiencies. In this paper, we explore the socioeconomic distribution of dietary intake in a Brazilian city, in an area that in some ways is neither prototypically developed or underdeveloped. The analysis presented here was stimulated by the surprising observation of no socioeconomic differences in total caloric intake in the context of extreme differences in income distribution. Further examination showed that socioeconomic differences in total caloric intake appeared after controlling for alcohol intake. A complete analysis of the data suggests that lower income leads to lower cultural consonance, which in turn leads to higher depression, higher alcohol intake, and higher total caloric intake. In this model, alcohol ingestion can be seen as both a psychological and nutritional adaptive strategy to economic, social and cultural marginality in a highly stratified society.