Nutrition. Gender/ Society

The way which people nourish themselves interests me because of all the factors that are contributed such as the the economic and cultural aspect of food taboos, condition of poverty, and the "ideal" body image, having enormous effects on the ways gender impacts health. First off, the broad idea stated from our textbook that there was "more value" for males to be fed more and better assuming one day it'd benefit them having access to educational opportunities and high paying, physically or mentally demanding jobs, had bothered me a ton. This idea is extremely outdated because of all the women currently in the workforce, but it led me to contemplate whether what is being fed to men compared to women is what makes the large differences in the way gender functions in the world. This made me feel for the women in some countries who can only receive low-quality meals with no protein for example, setting them back from someone whose body takes in much more vitamins. On top of that, there's a standard of beauty some women from diverse backgrounds feel they must keep up with that can limit the amount one can eat, causing diseases and other horrible affects. Besides from the ideal woman in our society being slim and suggestive of adolescence, it seems as if there's a correlation to nutrition and patriarchy. Because of the importance of nutrition on the body, how are woman supposed to keep up with a beautiful appearance when their nutrition is perceived as so inferior?

Most mother's tend to feed their children before they feed themselves, and often times don't worry as much about their own nutrition. I was fortunate enough to have a mother and father who fed  my siblings and I equally and who ate plenty of fairly nutritious food once we were all finished. However, my aunt's condition of poverty proved to be a strong factor in my cousin's health, when I was told she was feeding Madeline and Dee soda almost every day from a bottle at an extremely young age. By the age of five my cousin was telling me to try out Dr. Pepper, and I was like "what?". My aunt was doing this most likely due to how affordable some of these less nutritious  items were  priced on the shelves and her difficulty finding work. The price difference of food that provides the proper nutrition to non-nutritious foods can be baffling. Nutrition is so vital to the future of a young one, and not all  elementary schools are able to afford providing such hardy food for their children in the cafeterias, and the cafeterias will show. It's difficult for the majority of people but especially women around the world to be able to eat and feel healthy, and not feel pressure from underlying social norms.