Recognizing that men eat more meat than women, progress for health and the climate
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To analyse. Should we care about the gender of food? By declaring, on Saturday August 27, during an exchange at the Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) summer days, that it was necessary “change mentality so that eating a steak cooked on a barbecue is no longer a symbol of virility”the deputy (EELV) of Paris Sandrine Rousseau triggered a torrent of comments, and especially of mockery. ” Grotesque », ” You are not going to talk to me about the sex of cutlets »castigated politicians; ” So what ? »interviewed media columnists.
In the ranks of the indignant, many pretended to believe that the debate was about equality in the cooking of steak, while the question posed is that of the obstacles to the transition of food, an environmental and public health issue, among which shows the gendered representation attributed to foods. One in five deaths worldwide is linked to malnutrition or poor diet; the food sector (agriculture, livestock, processing, transport) is also the source of about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions of human origin, half of which are due to livestock. Reducing meat consumption is one of the most important individual levers, both for the climate and for health.
Consumption surveys show it: men and women do not consume in the same way. According to the latest National individual study of food consumption (INCA 3), published in 2017 by the Health Security Agency (ANSES), men eat 50% more cold cuts than women (34.2 grams per day on average for men, compared to 20.9 grams for women) and nearly twice as much meat (excluding poultry) (61.2 grams per day, compared to 34.1 for women). These disparities are not only due to the overall quantities ingested: in men, meat contributes 1.98% to the daily caloric intake, against 1.36% in women.
cultural heritage
Another indicator, adherence to dietary recommendations such as the one aimed at limiting the quantities of red meat (beef, pork, game, etc.) to less than 500 grams per week, also shows strong divergences. According to the last epidemiological surveillance survey Public Health France, 75.8% of women comply with this recommendation, compared to 59% of men.
There is therefore a differentiated food consumption according to gender, cultural heritage and standards of representation. In the collective imagination, meat is associated with power and virility, while women, who experience more pressure regarding their bodies, are pushed to eat less fat and fewer calories. The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu already observed it in The distinction (Midnight Editions, 1979): “Meat, nourishing food par excellence, strong and giving strength, vigor, blood, health, is the dish of the men, who take twice, while the women use a small portion. »
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