Experiencing Food Allergy and Food Intolerance: An Analysis of Lay Accounts

Sarah Nettleton; Brian Woods; Roger Burrows; Anne Kerr

doi:10.1177/0038038509357208

Experiencing Food Allergy and Food Intolerance: An Analysis of Lay Accounts

Sarah Nettleton, Brian Woods, Roger Burrows, Anne Kerr

Department of Sociology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of 28 lay accounts of the experience of living with either food allergy or food intolerance in England. We structure the presentation of our data in terms of Mike Bury's three types of narrative form - contingent, moral and core. We suggest that people with food allergies at risk of acute, severe and potentially fatal symptoms on exposure to allergens find their condition to be less socially problematic than do those who suffer intolerances to certain foods, which can result in chronic, but not life-threatening, symptoms. Drawing on the extant literatures on the sociology of food and eating we propose a conceptualization in relation to notions of identity, anomie and communality that attempts to make sense of this finding.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	289-305
Number of pages	17
Journal	Sociology
Volume	44
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038509357208
Publication status	Published - Apr 2010

Keywords

food allergy
food intolerance
lay accounts

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10.1177/0038038509357208

http://soc.sagepub.com/content/44/2/289

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AB - This article offers an analysis of 28 lay accounts of the experience of living with either food allergy or food intolerance in England. We structure the presentation of our data in terms of Mike Bury's three types of narrative form - contingent, moral and core. We suggest that people with food allergies at risk of acute, severe and potentially fatal symptoms on exposure to allergens find their condition to be less socially problematic than do those who suffer intolerances to certain foods, which can result in chronic, but not life-threatening, symptoms. Drawing on the extant literatures on the sociology of food and eating we propose a conceptualization in relation to notions of identity, anomie and communality that attempts to make sense of this finding.

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Experiencing Food Allergy and Food Intolerance: An Analysis of Lay Accounts

Abstract

Keywords

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