Food Insecurity and Mental Health

From 2012-19, we conducted a research project in rural Para state, Brazil, that explored the cultural value of local and imported foods, how food insecurity shapes people’s access to those foods, and how those factors shape physical and mental health. It was part of an NSF-funded multi-site study with colleagues Craig Hadley at Emory University, Bonnie Kaiser at the University of California, San Diego, and Fasil Tessema at Jimma University, Ethiopia. The project compared food insecurity, mental health, and nutritional status in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Haiti.

Across lower and middle-income countries, people with food insecurity experience compromised mental health.
People across sites have distinct cultural models of what constitute appropriate and acceptable food-related behaviors.
People across sites stigmatize some foods as “poor people’s foods”.
People value dietary variety as an important index of status and personal taste preference.
In Brazil specifically, outward signs of food insecurity are stigmatized.
People with food insecurity experience compromised mental health because of the direct stress of resource insecurity, as well as the social stigma surrounding the foods they eat.

A participant preparing churrasco, or Brazilian barbecue.

Dr. Weaver performing fieldwork in a garden shaded by a tarp.

A typical lunch spread in Brazil.

Dr. Weaver conducting an interview with a woman.

Conducting interviews with two women.

Dr. Weaver preparing chickens for a Sunday meal.