Food preferences and food prestige ratings by black women in East Tennessee

Preference and prestige values of 111 foods were obtained for middle class urban black women in east Tennessee. Foods were scored by frequency of selection. Prestige values were scored using a semantic differential scale based on the polar terms high and low class. Many of the foods listed high on the preference list also scored high on the prestige scale. Spearman rank order correlation coefficients for preference and prestige were calculated to assess possible relationships between these variables. Positive correlations were found in 44 of the foods tested.

Key words:

• Blacks
• women
• food prestige
• food preferences
• connotative meanings
• regional foods