Should Clinicians Care About How Food Behaviors Express Gender Identity?

Abstract

The nutrition care process (NCP) accounts for a person's biological sex characteristics but does not adequately address their gender. Yet dietary choices express one's social identity in ethically and clinically relevant ways. Persons identifying as men tend to eat meat more frequently, consume more meat, and are less likely to be vegetarian than persons identifying as women, for example. Research on transgender persons' diets suggests that food is one means of expressing gender identity; this article argues that an inclusive sex- and gender-informed approach can likely improve the NCP's usefulness to clinicians caring for transgender patients.