Diabetes and diet : food choices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Niewind, A.C.

1989-01-01

This thesis reports on the food choices of diabetic patients. Two studies were undertaken considering the barriers these patients experience with the diabetic diet. Furthermore, the changes in food choices during the first years after the diagnosis of insulin-dependent diabetes as well as patients,

Consumers' food choice and quality perception

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brunsø, Karen; Fjord, Thomas Ahle; Grunert, Klaus G.

to which the topic has been researched at MAPP. As a general framework for analysing consumer quality perception and choice of food products, MAPP has developed the Total Food Quality Model, which will be used to structure this overview. We start by presenting the Total Food Quality Model and an overview......There is a long tradition of research into consumers' food choice and quality perception. In the last few years, however, these topics have received even more attention due to the intense debate about such issues as ethical considerations in relation to food production and quality, food scandals...... and the resulting food scares among consumers, genetic modification of foods, and animal welfare (or, rather, non-welfare), which has made questions regarding food quality and consumers' supposedly rational or irrational food choices even more urgent. Increased interest in health and quality stands in stark...

Motives for food choice among Serbian consumers

OpenAIRE

Gagić Snježana; Jovičić Ana; Tešanović Dragan; Kalenjuk Bojana

2014-01-01

People's motives for food choice depend on a number of very complex economic, social and individual factors. A Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ), an instrument that measures the importance of factors underlying food choice, was used to reveal the Serbian consumers' food choice motives by survey of 450 respondents of different age groups. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the motive items, using 11 factors. Previous research shows that the nutrition in Serbia is not balanced enough,...

Gender-role behavior of second-generation Turks: the role of partner choice, gender ideology and societal context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huschek, D.; de Valk, H.A.G.; Liefbroer, A.C.

2011-01-01

This study explores and compares gender-role behavior of second-generation Turks in six European countries. On the individual level, we study the role of gender ideology and consequences of (transnational) partner choice on four aspects of gender-role behavior; childcare, routine household tasks,

Gender-role behavior of second-generation Turks: The role of partner choice, gender ideology and societal context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huschek, D.; de Valk, H.A.G.; Liefbroer, A.C.

2011-01-01

This study explores and compares gender-role behavior of second-generation Turks in six European countries. On the individual level, we study the role of gender ideology and consequences of (transnational) partner choice on four aspects of gender-role behavior; childcare, routine household tasks,

Russian consumers' motives for food choice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Honkanen, P.; Frewer, L.J.

2009-01-01

Knowledge about food choice motives which have potential to influence consumer consumption decisions is important when designing food and health policies, as well as marketing strategies. Russian consumers¿ food choice motives were studied in a survey (1081 respondents across four cities), with the

Predicting Ideological Prejudice.

Science.gov (United States)

Brandt, Mark J

2017-06-01

A major shortcoming of current models of ideological prejudice is that although they can anticipate the direction of the association between participants' ideology and their prejudice against a range of target groups, they cannot predict the size of this association. I developed and tested models that can make specific size predictions for this association. A quantitative model that used the perceived ideology of the target group as the primary predictor of the ideology-prejudice relationship was developed with a representative sample of Americans ( N = 4,940) and tested against models using the perceived status of and choice to belong to the target group as predictors. In four studies (total N = 2,093), ideology-prejudice associations were estimated, and these observed estimates were compared with the models' predictions. The model that was based only on perceived ideology was the most parsimonious with the smallest errors.

Time scarcity and food choices: an overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Jabs, Jennifer; Devine, Carol M

2006-09-01

Time scarcity, the feeling of not having enough time, has been implicated in changes in food consumption patterns such as a decrease in food preparation at home, an increase in the consumption of fast foods, a decrease in family meals, and an increase in the consumption of convenience or ready-prepared foods. These food choices are associated with less healthful diets and may contribute to obesity and chronic health problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. In spite of the potential importance for health, there has been little study of how time scarcity influences people's food choices. This paper presents an overview of time issues related to food choices and discuss applications of time research for nutrition and health researchers, policy makers, and practitioners interested in food choice.

Measurement of ethical food choice motives.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindeman, M; Väänänen, M

2000-02-01

The two studies describe the development of three complementary scales to the Food Choice Questionnaire developed by Steptoe, Pollard & Wardle (1995). The new items address various ethical food choice motives and were derived from previous studies on vegetarianism and ethical food choice. The items were factor analysed in Study 1 (N=281) and the factor solution was confirmed in Study 2 (N=125), in which simple validity criteria were also included. Furthermore, test-retest reliability was assessed with a separate sample of subjects (N=36). The results indicated that the three new scales, Ecological Welfare (including subscales for Animal Welfare and Environment Protection), Political Values and Religion, are reliable and valid instruments for a brief screening of ethical food choice reasons. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Food choice patterns among frail older adults: The associations between social network, food choice values, and diet quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Chang-O

2016-01-01

Social network type might affect an individual's food choice because these decisions are often made as a group rather than individually. In this study, the associations between social network type, food choice value, and diet quality in frail older adults with low socioeconomic status were investigated. For this cross-sectional study, 87 frail older adults were recruited from the National Home Healthcare Services in Seoul, South Korea. Social network types, food choice values, and diet quality were assessed using The Practitioner Assessment of Network Type Instrument, The Food Choice Questionnaire, and mean adequacy ratio, respectively. Results showed that frail older adults with close relationships with local family and/or friends and neighbors were less likely to follow their own preferences, such as taste, price, and beliefs regarding food health values. In contrast, frail older adults with a small social network and few community contacts were more likely to be influenced by their food choice values, such as price or healthiness of food. Frail older adults who tend to choose familiar foods were associated with low-quality dietary intake, while older adults who valued healthiness or use of natural ingredients were associated with a high-quality diet. The strength and direction of these associations were dependent on social network type of frail older adults. This study explored the hypothesis that food choice values are associated with a certain type of social network and consequently affect diet quality. While additional research needs to be conducted, community-based intervention intended to improve diet quality of frail older adults must carefully consider individual food choice values as well as social network types. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Food Choice Architecture: An Intervention in a Secondary School and its Impact on Students’ Plant-based Food Choices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hannah Ensaff

2015-06-01

Full Text Available With growing evidence for the positive health outcomes associated with a plant-based diet, the study’s purpose was to examine the potential of shifting adolescents’ food choices towards plant-based foods. Using a real world setting of a school canteen, a set of small changes to the choice architecture was designed and deployed in a secondary school in Yorkshire, England. Focussing on designated food items (whole fruit, fruit salad, vegetarian daily specials, and sandwiches containing salad the changes were implemented for six weeks. Data collected on students’ food choice (218,796 transactions enabled students’ (980 students selections to be examined. Students’ food choice was compared for three periods: baseline (29 weeks; intervention (six weeks; and post-intervention (three weeks. Selection of designated food items significantly increased during the intervention and post-intervention periods, compared to baseline (baseline, 1.4%; intervention 3.0%; post-intervention, 2.2% χ2(2 = 68.1, p < 0.001. Logistic regression modelling also revealed the independent effect of the intervention, with students 2.5 times as likely (p < 0.001 to select the designated food items during the intervention period, compared to baseline. The study’s results point to the influence of choice architecture within secondary school settings, and its potential role in improving adolescents’ daily food choices.

Training impulsive choices for healthy and sustainable food.

Science.gov (United States)

Veling, Harm; Chen, Zhang; Tombrock, Merel C; Verpaalen, Iris A M; Schmitz, Laura I; Dijksterhuis, Ap; Holland, Rob W

2017-06-01

Many people find it hard to change their dietary choices. Food choice often occurs impulsively, without deliberation, and it has been unclear whether impulsive food choice can be experimentally created. Across 3 exploratory and 2 confirmatory preregistered experiments we examined whether impulsive food choice can be trained. Participants were cued to make motor responses upon the presentation of, among others, healthy and sustainable food items. They subsequently selected these food items more often for actual consumption when they needed to make their choices impulsively as a result of time pressure. This effect disappeared when participants were asked to think about their choices, merely received more time to make their choices, or when choosing required attention to alternatives. Participants preferred high to low valued food items under time pressure and without time pressure, suggesting that the impulsive choices reflect valid preferences. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to train impulsive choices for food items while leaving deliberative choices for these items unaffected, and connect research on attention training to dual-process theories of decision making. The present research suggests that attention training may lead to behavioral change only when people behave impulsively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Motives for food choice among Serbian consumers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gagić Snježana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available People's motives for food choice depend on a number of very complex economic, social and individual factors. A Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ, an instrument that measures the importance of factors underlying food choice, was used to reveal the Serbian consumers' food choice motives by survey of 450 respondents of different age groups. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the motive items, using 11 factors. Previous research shows that the nutrition in Serbia is not balanced enough, and therefore the analysis of motives for food choice is considered a useful tool for the planning of more efficient public policies and interventions aimed at influencing healthier eating habits. Hence the results can be useful for researchers as well as for public institutions which deal with creating the strategy of public health or businessmen who produce and sell food products, because knowing consumer behaviour is necessary for product success on the market.

Parents' food choice motives and their associations with children's food preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Russell, Catherine G; Worsley, Anthony; Liem, Djin G

2015-04-01

The objective was to investigate parents' motives for selecting foods for their children and the associations between these motives and children's food preferences. Cross-sectional survey. A modified version of the Food Choice Questionnaire was used to assess parents' food choice motives. Parents also reported children's liking/disliking of 176 food and beverage items on 5-point Likert scales. Patterns of food choice motives were examined with exploratory principal component analysis. Associations between motives and children's food preferences were assessed with linear regression while one-way and two-way ANOVA were used to test for sociodemographic differences. Two Australian cities. Parents (n 371) of 2-5-year-old children. Health, nutrition and taste were key motivators for parents, whereas price, political concerns and advertising were among the motives considered least important. The more parents' food choice for their children was driven by what their children wanted, the less children liked vegetables (β =-0·27, Pfoods (r=0·17, Pmotives (vegetables β=0·17, Pmotives bordered on statistical significance as predictors of children's fruit and vegetable preferences. Although parents appear well intentioned in their motives for selecting children's foods, there are gaps to be addressed in the nature of such motives (e.g. selecting foods in line with the child's desires) or the translation of health motives into healthy food choices.

Consumers' store choice behavior for fresh food

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meulenberg, M.T.G.; Trijp, van J.C.M.

1991-01-01

Consumers' preference for fresh food stores is analyzed. In particular the choice between supermarkets and specialized shops for purchasing fresh food is analyzed. Attention is given to the factors influencing this choice. For this purpose a number of research questions with respect to store choice

Healthy food choices are happy food choices: Evidence from a real life sample using smartphone based assessments.

Science.gov (United States)

Wahl, Deborah R; Villinger, Karoline; König, Laura M; Ziesemer, Katrin; Schupp, Harald T; Renner, Britta

2017-12-06

Research suggests that "healthy" food choices such as eating fruits and vegetables have not only physical but also mental health benefits and might be a long-term investment in future well-being. This view contrasts with the belief that high-caloric foods taste better, make us happy, and alleviate a negative mood. To provide a more comprehensive assessment of food choice and well-being, we investigated in-the-moment eating happiness by assessing complete, real life dietary behaviour across eight days using smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment. Three main findings emerged: First, of 14 different main food categories, vegetables consumption contributed the largest share to eating happiness measured across eight days. Second, sweets on average provided comparable induced eating happiness to "healthy" food choices such as fruits or vegetables. Third, dinner elicited comparable eating happiness to snacking. These findings are discussed within the "food as health" and "food as well-being" perspectives on eating behaviour.

Moral intensity and climate-friendly food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Mäkiniemi, Jaana-Piia; Vainio, Annukka

2013-07-01

By changing individual food consumption patterns, it might be possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change. The aim of the current study was to examine how perceptions of the moral intensity of climate change are related to climate friendly-food choices. The participants were 350 Finnish university students in the social and behavioral sciences who completed a questionnaire during class. The results indicated that moral perceptions mainly affected the moral evaluation and intentions to make climate-friendly food choices. We suggest that the results can be used to promote climate-friendly food choices, for example, by increasing the recognition of climate change as a moral imperative and by combining environmental motives with other relevant food choice motives. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Food choices during Ramadan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thamina Rashid

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Few studies have assessed the dietary Practices of people with diabetes during Ramadan (1. A sub study of Ramadan prospective diabetes study (2 which was conducted at the outpatient department of Baqai Institute of Diabetology and endocrinology, Karachi Pakistan in 2009 analyzed the food choices of patients with diabetes during Ramadan. Several irregularities regarding dietary intake and food choices were noted among the study participants. Although, the patients were counseled regarding diet before Ramadan, many did not follow the dietary advice. All patients had taken food at Iftar but majority of them preferred fried items like samosas, pakoras (fried snack, chicken rolls etc. these deeply fried items can lead to post Iftar hyperglycemia. Patients were also opted for fruit chat, dahibara and chanachaat at Iftar, higher load of these items can also worsen glycemic control. The striking finding was almost absence of meat (protein intake at Iftar but study from India showed increment of all three macronutrients during Ramadan (3. This may result in higher intake of items from carbohydrate and fat groups resulting in hyperglycemia after iftar. Intake of vegetables at Iftar was also negligible and hence the diet was not well balanced. The food choices at sahoor included roti, paratha (fried bread, slices, khajla, pheni, meat, egg and milk. Though it is advisable to take complex carbohydrates, protein and fat at sahoor as these are slowly digestible and can prevent hypoglycemia during fasting but khajla pheni are extremely rich in fat and carbohydrate content and should be avoided (4. However, paratha in 2 teaspoon of oil can be taken at sahoor.Patients with diabetes who fast during the month of Ramadan should have pre Ramadan dietary guidance and counseling session in order to modify their food preferences and choices during the holy month of Ramadan (4.

Adolescents’ Food Choice and the Place of Plant-Based Foods

Science.gov (United States)

Ensaff, Hannah; Coan, Susan; Sahota, Pinki; Braybrook, Debbie; Akter, Humaira; McLeod, Helen

2015-01-01

A diet dominated by plant foods, with limited amounts of refined processed foods and animal products conveys substantial health benefits. This study sought to explore adolescents’ attitudes and perceptions towards plant-based foods. Semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with adolescents (age 14–15 years) (n = 29) attending an inner city school in Yorkshire, UK. Using a grounded theory methodology, data analysis provided four main categories and related concepts revolving around adolescents’ perspectives on plant-based foods: food choice parameters; perceived drivers and benefits of plant-based foods; environmental food cues; barriers to plant-based food choice. In the emergent grounded theory, a clear disconnect between plant-based foods and the parameters that adolescents use to make food choices, is highlighted. Further, key barriers to adolescents adopting a plant-based diet are differentiated and considered with respect to practice and policy. The analysis offers a framework to remodel and re-present plant-based foods. In this way, it is proposed that a closer connection is possible, with consequent shifts in adolescents’ dietary behaviour towards a more plant-based diet and associated health benefits. PMID:26066012

Can food choice be influenced by priming with food odours?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Polet, I.A.; Vingerhoeds, M.H.; Perez-Cueto, F.J.A.; Wijk, de R.A.

2018-01-01

Recent research suggests that non-attentively perceived odours may significantly influence people's food choices. This study's aim was to examine the effects of different types of non-attentively perceived food odours, namely, bread odour and cucumber odour, on subsequent lunch choices in a

A Review of Factors Influencing Athletes' Food Choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Birkenhead, Karen L; Slater, Gary

2015-11-01

Athletes make food choices on a daily basis that can affect both health and performance. A well planned nutrition strategy that includes the careful timing and selection of appropriate foods and fluids helps to maximize training adaptations and, thus, should be an integral part of the athlete's training programme. Factors that motivate food selection include taste, convenience, nutrition knowledge and beliefs. Food choice is also influenced by physiological, social, psychological and economic factors and varies both within and between individuals and populations. This review highlights the multidimensional nature of food choice and the depth of previous research investigating eating behaviours. Despite numerous studies with general populations, little exploration has been carried out with athletes, yet the energy demands of sport typically require individuals to make more frequent and/or appropriate food choices. While factors that are important to general populations also apply to athletes, it seems likely, given the competitive demands of sport, that performance would be an important factor influencing food choice. It is unclear if athletes place the same degree of importance on these factors or how food choice is influenced by involvement in sport. There is a clear need for further research exploring the food choice motives of athletes, preferably in conjunction with research investigating dietary intake to establish if intent translates into practice.

Health concern, food choice motives, and attitudes toward healthy eating: the mediating role of food choice motives.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Yu-Hua Christine

2008-07-01

This study addresses how various health concerns might influence not only consumers' food choice motives but also consumers' subsequent attitudes toward healthy eating. This study expects that those consumers with greater health concerns would have different food choice motives and better attitudes toward healthy eating. A self-completion questionnaire was used to gather information. Participants, a random sample of 500 undergraduate students from a national university in Taipei, Taiwan, provided a total of 456 usable questionnaires, representing a valid response rate of 91%. The average age of the respondents at the time of the survey was 21 years and 63% of respondents were females. The relationship between health concern and healthy eating attitudes was confirmed. The relationship between health concern of developing diseases and attitudes toward healthy eating was fully mediated by food choice motives. However, the relationship between calorie consumption health concern and healthy eating attitudes was only partially mediated by food choice motives. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Functional MRI of Challenging Food Choices: Forced Choice between Equally Liked High- and Low-Calorie Foods in the Absence of Hunger

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Charbonnier, L.; Laan, van der L.N.; Viergever, M.A.; Smeets, P.A.M.

2015-01-01

We are continuously exposed to food and during the day we make many food choices. These choices play an important role in the regulation of food intake and thereby in weight management. Therefore, it is important to obtain more insight into the mechanisms that underlie these choices. While several

Functional MRI of Challenging Food Choices : Forced Choice between Equally Liked High- and Low-Calorie Foods in the Absence of Hunger

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Charbonnier, Lisette; Van Der Laan, Laura N.; Viergever, Max A.; Smeets, Paul A M; Tregellas, Jason R.

2015-01-01

We are continuously exposed to food and during the day we make many food choices. These choices play an important role in the regulation of food intake and thereby in weight management. Therefore, it is important to obtain more insight into the mechanisms that underlie these choices. While several

438 An Investigation of Food Choice Behaviour of Food Allergic and Non-food Allergic Children

OpenAIRE

Sommer, Isolde; Mackenzie, Heather; Venter, Carina; Dean, Taraneh

2012-01-01

Background Childrens food choice behaviour is influenced by a number of family and social factors. About 20% to 30% of the population modifies their diet for a suspected adverse reaction to food. Since avoidance is the mainstay of managing food allergy, it can be assumed to significantly affect food choices. It is therefore important to understand if and to what extent food allergy influences the way parents and children make their food choice decisions. Methods The research project has utili...

Socioeconomic inequalities in the healthiness of food choices: Exploring the contributions of food expenditures.

Science.gov (United States)

Pechey, Rachel; Monsivais, Pablo

2016-07-01

Investigations of the contribution of food costs to socioeconomic inequalities in diet quality may have been limited by the use of estimated (vs. actual) food expenditures, not accounting for where individuals shop, and possible reverse mediation between food expenditures and healthiness of food choices. This study aimed to explore the extent to which food expenditure mediates socioeconomic inequalities in the healthiness of household food choices. Observational panel data on take-home food and beverage purchases, including expenditure, throughout 2010 were obtained for 24,879 UK households stratified by occupational social class. Purchases of (1) fruit and vegetables and (2) less-healthy foods/beverages indicated healthiness of choices. Supermarket choice was determined by whether households ever visited market-defined high-price and/or low-price supermarkets. Results showed that higher occupational social class was significantly associated with greater food expenditure, which was in turn associated with healthier purchasing. In mediation analyses, 63% of the socioeconomic differences in choices of less-healthy foods/beverages were mediated by expenditure, and 36% for fruit and vegetables, but these figures were reduced to 53% and 31% respectively when controlling for supermarket choice. However, reverse mediation analyses were also significant, suggesting that 10% of socioeconomic inequalities in expenditure were mediated by healthiness of choices. Findings suggest that lower food expenditure is likely to be a key contributor to less-healthy food choices among lower socioeconomic groups. However, the potential influence of cost may have been overestimated previously if studies did not account for supermarket choice or explore possible reverse mediation between expenditure and healthiness of choices. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Russian consumers' motives for food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Honkanen, Pirjo; Frewer, Lynn

2009-04-01

Knowledge about food choice motives which have potential to influence consumer consumption decisions is important when designing food and health policies, as well as marketing strategies. Russian consumers' food choice motives were studied in a survey (1081 respondents across four cities), with the purpose of identifying consumer segments based on these motives. These segments were then profiled using consumption, attitudinal and demographic variables. Face-to-face interviews were used to sample the data, which were analysed with two-step cluster analysis (SPSS). Three clusters emerged, representing 21.5%, 45.8% and 32.7% of the sample. The clusters were similar in terms of the order of motivations, but differed in motivational level. Sensory factors and availability were the most important motives for food choice in all three clusters, followed by price. This may reflect the turbulence which Russia has recently experienced politically and economically. Cluster profiles differed in relation to socio-demographic factors, consumption patterns and attitudes towards health and healthy food.

The Effect of Fast Food Globalisation on Students' Food Choice

OpenAIRE

Ijeoma Chinyere Ukonu

2016-01-01

This research seeks to investigate how the globalisation of fast food has affected students' food choice. A mixed method approach was used in this research; basically involving quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative method uses a self-completion questionnaire to randomly sample one hundred and four students; while the qualitative method uses a semi structured interview technique to survey four students on their knowledge and choice to consume fast food. A cross tabulation of v...

"Choice Set" for health behavior in choice-constrained settings to frame research and inform policy: examples of food consumption, obesity and food security.

Science.gov (United States)

Dover, Robert V H; Lambert, Estelle V

2016-03-16

Using the nexus between food consumption, food security and obesity, this paper addresses the complexity of health behavior decision-making moments that reflect relational social dynamics in context-specific dialogues, often in choice-constrained conditions. A pragmatic review of literature regarding social determinants of health in relation to food consumption, food security and obesity was used to advance this theoretical model. We suggest that health choice, such as food consumption, is based on more than the capacity and volition of individuals to make "healthy" choices, but is dialogic and adaptive. In terms of food consumption, there will always be choice-constrained conditions, along a continuum representing factors over which the individual has little or no control, to those for which they have greater agency. These range from food store geographies and inventories and food availability, logistical considerations such as transportation, food distribution, the structure of equity in food systems, state and non-government food and nutrition programs, to factors where the individual exercises a greater degree of autonomy, such as sociocultural foodways, family and neighborhood shopping strategies, and personal and family food preferences. At any given food decision-making moment, many factors of the continuum are present consciously or unconsciously when the individual makes a decision. These health behavior decision-making moments are mutable, whether from an individual perspective, or within a broader social or policy context. We review the construct of "choice set", the confluence of factors that are temporally weighted by the differentiated and relationally-contextualized importance of certain factors over others in that moment. The choice transition represents an essential shift of the choice set based on the conscious and unconscious weighting of accumulated evidence, such that people can project certain outcomes. Policies and interventions should avoid

Impact of Perceived Healthiness of Food on Food Choices and Intake.

Science.gov (United States)

Provencher, Véronique; Jacob, Raphaëlle

2016-03-01

Healthy eating is an important determinant of health, but adherence to dietary guidelines remains a public health concern. Identifying factors that impact dietary habits is therefore important to facilitate healthy eating. One widely used strategy to help consumers make healthier food choices is nutrition information, such as labeling and claims. Despite the intention of these strategies to improve decision making, they can also be misunderstood or misinterpreted by consumers. The aim of this review is to explore food perceptions by examining how cognitive factors influence perceived healthiness of food, and the impact of perceived healthiness of food on food choices and intake. Overall findings of this review suggest that cognitive factors, such as type of food and branding, significantly contribute to judgmental bias and have an impact on perceived healthiness while not consistently or systematically influencing choice and intake.

Healthy food choices are happy food choices : evidence from a real life sample using smartphone based assessments

OpenAIRE

Wahl, Deborah R.; Villinger, Karoline; König, Laura M.; Ziesemer, Katrin; Schupp, Harald T.; Renner, Britta

2017-01-01

Research suggests that "healthy" food choices such as eating fruits and vegetables have not only physical but also mental health benefits and might be a long-term investment in future well-being. This view contrasts with the belief that high-caloric foods taste better, make us happy, and alleviate a negative mood. To provide a more comprehensive assessment of food choice and well-being, we investigated in-the-moment eating happiness by assessing complete, real life dietary behaviour across ei...

Training impulsive choices for healthy and sustainable food

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veling, H.P.; Chen, Z.; Tombrock, M.C.; Verpaalen, I.A.M.; Schmitz, L.I.; Dijksterhuis, A.J.; Holland, R.W.

2017-01-01

Many people find it hard to change their dietary choices. Food choice often occurs impulsively, without deliberation, and it has been unclear whether impulsive food choice can be experimentally created. Across 3 exploratory and 2 confirmatory preregistered experiments we examined whether impulsive

Pricing effects on food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

French, Simone A

2003-03-01

Individual dietary choices are primarily influenced by such considerations as taste, cost, convenience and nutritional value of foods. The current obesity epidemic has been linked to excessive consumption of added sugars and fat, as well as to sedentary lifestyles. Fat and sugar provide dietary energy at very low cost. Food pricing and marketing practices are therefore an essential component of the eating environment. Recent studies have applied economic theories to changing dietary behavior. Price reduction strategies promote the choice of targeted foods by lowering their cost relative to alternative food choices. Two community-based intervention studies used price reductions to promote the increased purchase of targeted foods. The first study examined lower prices and point-of-purchase promotion on sales of lower fat vending machine snacks in 12 work sites and 12 secondary schools. Price reductions of 10%, 25% and 50% on lower fat snacks resulted in an increase in sales of 9%, 39% and 93%, respectively, compared with usual price conditions. The second study examined the impact of a 50% price reduction on fresh fruit and baby carrots in two secondary school cafeterias. Compared with usual price conditions, price reductions resulted in a four-fold increase in fresh fruit sales and a two-fold increase in baby carrot sales. Both studies demonstrate that price reductions are an effective strategy to increase the purchase of more healthful foods in community-based settings such as work sites and schools. Results were generalizable across various food types and populations. Reducing prices on healthful foods is a public health strategy that should be implemented through policy initiatives and industry collaborations.

FOOD CHOICE MOTIVES OF JUICES’ CONSUMERS – PILOT STUDIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarzyna Włodarska

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to evaluate the food choice motives of consumers. Preliminary studies were carried out on a group of 96 consumers of juices based on the Food Choice Questionnaire. It is a tool, which enables the systematic measurement of the importance of diff erent food choices. The confi rmatory (CFA and exploratory factor analysis (EFA and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA methods were used for analysis of data. The results of factor analysis revealed 12 new groups of factors determining the choice of food. The most important factors infl uencing selection of food were: taste, worth the money and a positive eff ect on external appearance. Using hierarchical cluster analysis three segments of consumer were identifi ed, with diff erent attitudes towards food choices: engaged – enthusiasts of healthy nutrition, indiff erent – not attaching attention to what they eat and practical – focused on the price and availability of products. Segmentation of consumers with similar attitudes towards choice of food can help the producers in precise targeting of marketing messages to a selected group of consumers.

Development and Preliminary Testing of the Food Choice Priorities Survey (FCPS): Assessing the Importance of Multiple Factors on College Students' Food Choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Vilaro, Melissa J; Zhou, Wenjun; Colby, Sarah E; Byrd-Bredbenner, Carol; Riggsbee, Kristin; Olfert, Melissa D; Barnett, Tracey E; Mathews, Anne E

2017-12-01

Understanding factors that influence food choice may help improve diet quality. Factors that commonly affect adults' food choices have been described, but measures that identify and assess food choice factors specific to college students are lacking. This study developed and tested the Food Choice Priorities Survey (FCPS) among college students. Thirty-seven undergraduates participated in two focus groups ( n = 19; 11 in the male-only group, 8 in the female-only group) and interviews ( n = 18) regarding typical influences on food choice. Qualitative data informed the development of survey items with a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = not important, 5 = extremely important). An expert panel rated FCPS items for clarity, relevance, representativeness, and coverage using a content validity form. To establish test-retest reliability, 109 first-year college students completed the 14-item FCPS at two time points, 0-48 days apart ( M = 13.99, SD = 7.44). Using Cohen's weighted κ for responses within 20 days, 11 items demonstrated moderate agreement and 3 items had substantial agreement. Factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure (9 items). The FCPS is designed for college students and provides a way to determine the factors of greatest importance regarding food choices among this population. From a public health perspective, practical applications include using the FCPS to tailor health communications and behavior change interventions to factors most salient for food choices of college students.

Stop signals decrease choices for palatable foods through decreased food evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Veling, Harm; Aarts, Henk; Stroebe, Wolfgang

2013-01-01

The present study explores whether presenting specific palatable foods in close temporal proximity of stop signals in a go/no-go task decreases subsequent evaluations of such foods among participants with a relatively high appetite. Furthermore, we tested whether any decreased evaluations could mediate subsequent food choice. Participants first received a go/no-go task in which palatable foods were consistently linked to go cues or no-go cues within participants. Next, evaluation of the palatable foods was measured as well as food choice. Replicating previous work, results show that among participants with a relatively high appetite palatable foods associated with no-go cues are less often chosen as snacks compared to when these foods are associated with go cues, whereas this manipulation did not affect participants with a relatively low appetite. Moreover, this effect was completely mediated by decreased evaluation of the palatable foods that had been associated with the no-go cues, whereas evaluation of the foods associated with go cues did not mediate this effect. Results further showed that the devaluation effect of foods associated with no-go cues was independent of the amount of pairings (4 vs. 12 vs. 24) with the no-go cues. The current findings suggest that decreased food evaluation is a mechanism that explains effects of stop signals on food choice. PMID:24324451

Factors that influence beverage choices at meal times. An application of the food choice kaleidoscope framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller Loose, S; Jaeger, S R

2012-12-01

Beverages are consumed at almost every meal occasion, but knowledge about the factors that influence beverage choice is less than for food choice. The aim of this research was to characterize and quantify factors that influence beverage choices at meal times. Insights into what beverages are chosen by whom, when and where can be helpful for manufacturers, dieticians/health care providers, and health policy makers. A descriptive framework - the food choice kaleidoscope (Jaeger et al., 2011) - was applied to self-reported 24h food recall data from a sample of New Zealand consumers. Participants (n=164) described 8356 meal occasions in terms of foods and beverages consumed, and the contextual characteristics of the occasion. Beverage choice was explored with random-parameter logit regressions to reveal influences linked to food items eaten, context factors and person factors. Thereby this study contributed to the food choice kaleidoscope research approach by expressing the degree of context dependency in the form of odds ratios and according significance levels. The exploration of co-occurrence of beverages with food items suggests that beverage-meal item combinations can be meal specific. Furthermore, this study integrates psychographic variables into the 'person' mirror of the food choice kaleidoscope. A measure of habit in beverage choice was obtained from the inter-participant correlation. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Food Choice and Nutrition: A Social Psychological Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Hardcastle, Sarah J; Thøgersen-Ntoumani, Cecilie; Chatzisarantis, Nikos L D

2015-10-01

In this Special Issue, entitled "Food choice and Nutrition: A Social Psychological Perspective", three broad themes have been identified: (1) social and environmental influences on food choice; (2) psychological influences on eating behaviour; and (3) eating behaviour profiling.The studies that addressed the social and environmental influences indicated that further research would do well to promote positive food choices rather than reduce negative food choices; promote the reading and interpretation of food labels and find ways to effectively market healthy food choices through accessibility, availability and presentation. The studies on psychological influences found that intentions, perceived behavioural control, and confidence were predictors of healthy eating. Given the importance of psychological factors, such as perceived behavioural control and self-efficacy, healthy eating interventions should reduce barriers to healthy eating and foster perceptions of confidence to consume a healthy diet. The final theme focused on the clustering of individuals according to eating behaviour. Some "types" of individuals reported more frequent consumption of fast foods, ready meals or convenience meals or greater levels of disinhibitiona nd less control over food cravings. Intervention designs which make use of multi-level strategies as advocated by the Ecological Model of Behaviour change that proposes multi-level (combining psychological, social and environmental) strategies are likely to be more effective in reaching and engaging individuals susceptible to unhealthy eating habits than interventions operating on a single level.

Anxiety and Search during Food Choice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Torben; Uth Thomsen, Thyra; Mukherjee, Ashkesh

2011-01-01

this type of condensed information will in fact motivate extended information search. Originality/value – This paper contributes to research in marketing on food choice and consumption: a consumption area that is important but difficult to navigate due to an increasing complexity of nutritional information......Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the effect of anxiety on information search during food choice and to test a key moderator of the effect of anxiety on search, namely attitude towards nutritional claims. Design/methodology/approach – By means of qualitative study the paper investigates...... the notion that consumers experience anxiety about health outcomes during food choice. Further, by means of structural equation modelling based on two studies with representative samples of Danish consumers, the paper investigates the effects outlined above. Findings – The authors show that anxiety during...

Attention! Can choices for low value food over high value food be trained?

Science.gov (United States)

Zoltak, Michael J; Veling, Harm; Chen, Zhang; Holland, Rob W

2018-05-01

People choose high value food items over low value food items, because food choices are guided by the comparison of values placed upon choice alternatives. This value comparison process is also influenced by the amount of attention people allocate to different items. Recent research shows that choices for food items can be increased by training attention toward these items, with a paradigm named cued-approach training (CAT). However, previous work till now has only examined the influence of CAT on choices between two equally valued items. It has remained unclear whether CAT can increase choices for low value items when people choose between a low and high value food item. To address this question in the current study participants were cued to make rapid responses in CAT to certain low and high value items. Next, they made binary choices between low and high value items, where we systematically varied whether the low and high value items were cued or uncued. In two experiments, we found that participants overall preferred high over low value food items for real consumption. More important, their choices for low value items increased when only the low value item had been cued in CAT compared to when both low and high value items had not been cued. Exploratory analyses revealed that this effect was more pronounced for participants with a relatively small value difference between low and high value items. The present research thus suggests that CAT may be used to boost the choice and consumption of low value items via enhanced attention toward these items, as long as the value difference is not too large. Implications for facilitating choices for healthy food are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Influence of Televised Food Commercials on Children's Food Choices: Evidence from Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Activations.

Science.gov (United States)

Bruce, Amanda S; Pruitt, Stephen W; Ha, Oh-Ryeong; Cherry, J Bradley C; Smith, Timothy R; Bruce, Jared M; Lim, Seung-Lark

2016-10-01

To investigate how food commercials influence children's food choices. Twenty-three children ages 8-14 years provided taste and health ratings for 60 food items. Subsequently, these children were scanned with the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging while making food choices (ie, "eat" or "not eat") after watching food and nonfood television commercials. Our results show that watching food commercials changes the way children consider the importance of taste when making food choices. Children did not use health values for their food choices, indicating children's decisions were largely driven by hedonic, immediate rewards (ie, "tastiness"); however, children placed significantly more importance on taste after watching food commercials compared with nonfood commercials. This change was accompanied by faster decision times during food commercial trials. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a reward valuation brain region, showed increased activity during food choices after watching food commercials compared with after watching nonfood commercials. Overall, our results suggest watching food commercials before making food choices may bias children's decisions based solely on taste, and that food marketing may systematically alter the psychological and neurobiologic mechanisms of children's food decisions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ability to Categorize Food Predicts Hypothetical Food Choices in Head Start Preschoolers.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholson, Jody S; Barton, Jennifer M; Simons, Ali L

2018-03-01

To investigate whether preschoolers are able to identify and categorize foods, and whether their ability to classify food as healthy predicts their hypothetical food choice. Structured interviews and body measurements with preschoolers, and teacher reports of classroom performance. Six Head Start centers in a large southeastern region. A total of 235 preschoolers (mean age [SD], 4.73 [0.63] years; 45.4% girls). Teachers implemented a nutrition education intervention across the 2014-2015 school year in which children were taught to identify and categorize food as sometimes (ie, unhealthy) and anytime (ie, healthy). Preschooler responses to a hypothetical snack naming, classifying, and selection scenario. Hierarchical regression analyses to examine predictors of child hypothetical food selection. While controlling for child characteristics and cognitive functioning, preschoolers who were better at categorizing food as healthy or unhealthy were more likely to say they would choose the healthy food. Low-contrast food pairs in which food had to be classified based on multiple dimensions were outside the cognitive abilities of the preschoolers. Nutrition interventions may be more effective in helping children make healthy food choices if developmental limitations in preschoolers' abilities to categorize food is addressed in their curriculum. Classification of food into evaluative categories is challenging for this age group. Categorizing on multiple dimensions is difficult, and dichotomous labeling of food as good or bad is not always accurate in directing children toward making food choices. Future research could evaluate further preschoolers' developmental potential for food categorization and nutrition decision making and consider factors that influence healthy food choices at both snack and mealtime. Copyright © 2017 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Determinants of Food Choice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leng, Gareth; Adan, Roger A. H.; Belot, Michele

2017-01-01

, we need to be able to make valid predictions about the consequences of proposed interventions, and for this, we need a better understanding of the determinants of food choice. These determinants include dietary components (e.g. highly palatable foods and alcohol), but also diverse cultural and social...

Make Better Food Choices

Science.gov (United States)

10 tips Nutrition Education Series make better food choices 10 tips for women’s health Fruits Grains Dairy Vegetables Protein Make yourself a priority and take time to care for yourself. ChooseMyPlate. gov ...

Attention! Can choices for low value food over high value food be trained?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zoltak, M.J.; Veling, H.P.; Chen, Z.; Holland, R.W.

2018-01-01

People choose high value food items over low value food items, because food choices are guided by the comparison of values placed upon choice alternatives. This value comparison process is also influenced by the amount of attention people allocate to different items. Recent research shows that

An exploratory investigation of food choice behavior of teenagers with and without food allergies.

Science.gov (United States)

Sommer, Isolde; Mackenzie, Heather; Venter, Carina; Dean, Taraneh

2014-05-01

Understanding food choice behavior in adolescence is important because many core eating habits may be tracked into adulthood. The food choices of at least 2.3% of teenagers living in the United Kingdom are determined by food allergies. However, the effect of food allergies on eating habits in teenagers has not yet been studied. To provide an understanding of how teenagers with food allergies make food choice decisions and how these differ from those of non-food-allergic teenagers. One focus group discussion with non-food-allergic teenagers (n = 11) and 14 semistructured interviewers (7 with food-allergic and 7 with non-food-allergic teenagers) were performed (age range, 12-18 years). The focus group discussion and interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic content analysis. Teenagers from both groups (food-allergic and non-food-allergic) named sensory characteristics of foods as the main reason for choosing them. Some food-allergic teenagers downplayed their allergy and frequently engaged in risk-taking behavior in terms of their food choices. However, they reported difficulties in trying new foods, especially when away from home. Parental control was experienced as protective by those with food allergies, whereas non-food-allergic teenagers felt the opposite. Most teenagers, including food-allergic ones, expressed the wish to eat similar foods to their friends. Other themes did not vary between the 2 groups. Food-allergic teenagers strive to be able to make similar food choices to their friends, although differences to non-food-allergic teenagers exist. It is important to address these differences to improve their dietary management. Copyright © 2014 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Food Choice and Nutrition: A Social Psychological Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah J. Hardcastle

2015-10-01

Full Text Available In this Special Issue, entitled “Food choice and Nutrition: A Social Psychological Perspective”, three broad themes have been identified: (1 social and environmental influences on food choice; (2 psychological influences on eating behaviour; and (3 eating behaviour profiling. The studies that addressed the social and environmental influences indicated that further research would do well to promote positive food choices rather than reduce negative food choices; promote the reading and interpretation of food labels and find ways to effectively market healthy food choices through accessibility, availability and presentation. The studies on psychological influences found that intentions, perceived behavioural control, and confidence were predictors of healthy eating. Given the importance of psychological factors, such as perceived behavioural control and self-efficacy, healthy eating interventions should reduce barriers to healthy eating and foster perceptions of confidence to consume a healthy diet. The final theme focused on the clustering of individuals according to eating behaviour. Some “types” of individuals reported more frequent consumption of fast foods, ready meals or convenience meals or greater levels of disinhibition and less control over food cravings. Intervention designs which make use of multi-level strategies as advocated by the Ecological Model of Behaviour change that proposes multi-level (combining psychological, social and environmental strategies are likely to be more effective in reaching and engaging individuals susceptible to unhealthy eating habits than interventions operating on a single level.

Food choice, appetite and physical activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Bellisle, F

1999-09-01

Food choices and diet composition have been studied less often than energy intake in subjects with varying levels of physical activity. The reported effects of exercise on food choices are not fully consistent, especially on the short term. Type of exercise, intensity, duration can affect the results as well as subjects' characteristics (gender, age, previous training and fitness). A crucial role could also be played by psychological (chronic dieting, attitudes toward health and food, long-established food habits and preferences) and social (traditions, food availability, appropriate times and places) factors. In short-term intervention studies, where a meal is ingested a few minutes following a bout of exercise of varying duration and intensity, an increase in CHO intake is most often reported, while increased protein intake is an occasional observation. In long-term (several weeks) training interventions, intake is assessed from dietary records. Again CHO intake is augmented in exercised subjects as compared to controls, while that of saturated fats and cholesterol may also be affected. Epidemiological studies (without dietary or exercise intervention) often report that habitually active persons eat more and ingest more fruits and vegetables than less active peers. It is not known to what extent such food choices are driven by biological needs (e.g. replacement of glycogen) or elicited by social and psychological factors.

Association between food marketing exposure and adolescents' food choices and eating behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Scully, Maree; Wakefield, Melanie; Niven, Philippa; Chapman, Kathy; Crawford, David; Pratt, Iain S; Baur, Louise A; Flood, Victoria; Morley, Belinda

2012-02-01

The present study examined associations between food marketing exposure and adolescents' food choices and reported consumption of energy-dense and nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods. A cross-sectional survey of 12,188 Australian secondary students aged 12-17 years was conducted, using a web-based self-report questionnaire. Measures included students' level of exposure to commercial television and non-broadcast types of food marketing, whether they had tried a new product or requested a product they had seen advertised, and their reported consumption of fast food, sugary drinks and sweet and salty snacks. Results indicated greater exposure to commercial television, print/transport/school food marketing and digital food marketing were all independently associated with students' food choices. High commercial television viewers (>2h/day) were more likely to report higher consumption of EDNP foods (ORs ranged from 1.31 for fast food to 1.91 for sweet snacks). Some associations between digital food marketing exposure and students' eating behaviors were found; however, print/transport/school food marketing was only related to sweet snack consumption. These study results suggest that cumulative exposure to television food advertising and other food marketing sources are positively linked to adolescents' food choices and eating behaviors. Policy changes to restrict food marketing to young people should include both television and non-broadcast media. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cultural specificity in food choice - The case of ethnography in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Freedman, Irith

2016-01-01

Previous studies examining food choice from a cross-cultural perspective were based primarily on quantitative research using the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ). This study suggests ethnography as a complementary research method in cross-cultural food choice studies. While use of the FCQ resulted in findings of cultural differences in food choice processes, within a preliminary motive list, ethnography allows the exploration of new, possibly culture-specific motives for food choice. Moreover, ethnography allows a deeper understanding of the cultural background of food choice processes in a studied culture. Using Japan as a case study, this research demonstrates the use of ethnography to argue that variety is a primary motive for food choice in contemporary Japanese culture. Variety is hence regarded here as a part of a larger food culture attribute, an "adventurous palate," which can also provide a background for previous FCQ findings (Prescott, Young, O'neill, Yau, & Stevens, 2002). Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustainable food consumption. Product choice or curtailment?

Science.gov (United States)

Verain, Muriel C D; Dagevos, Hans; Antonides, Gerrit

2015-08-01

Food consumption is an important factor in shaping the sustainability of our food supply. The present paper empirically explores different types of sustainable food behaviors. A distinction between sustainable product choices and curtailment behavior has been investigated empirically and predictors of the two types of behavior have been identified. Respondents were classified into four segments based on their sustainable food behaviors: unsustainers, curtailers, product-oriented consumers, and sustainers. Significant differences between the segments were found with regard to food choice motives, personal and social norms, food involvement, subjective knowledge on sustainable food, ability to judge how sustainably a product has been produced and socio-demographics. It is concluded that distinguishing between behavioral strategies toward sustainable food consumption is important as consumer segments can be identified that differ both in their level of sustainable food consumption and in the type of behavior they employ. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using non-food information to identify food-choice segment membership

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kornelis, M.; Herpen, van E.; Lans, van der I.A.; Aramyan, L.H.

2010-01-01

Food companies, governments, and societal organizations use an increasing number of food-choice motives to persuade consumers to buy food products, and the question which combinations of motives matter for which type of consumer has become of central relevance. In this study, we use a concomitant

Socioeconomic inequalities in the healthiness of food choices: Exploring the contributions of food expenditures

OpenAIRE

Pechey, Rachel; Monsivais, Pablo

2016-01-01

Investigations of the contribution of food costs to socioeconomic inequalities in diet quality may have been limited by the use of estimated (vs. actual) food expenditures, not accounting for where individuals shop, and possible reverse mediation between food expenditures and healthiness of food choices. This study aimed to explore the extent to which food expenditure mediates socioeconomic inequalities in the healthiness of household food choices. Observational panel data on take-home food a...

Current issues in the analysis of consumer food choice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grunert, Klaus G.

2001-01-01

before or during purchase, and then have a quality experience after the purchase. However, an increasing role of credence characteristics in food choice assigns communication a stronger role in understanding food choice, and consumer concern for food production technologies gives prior attitudes...

Traffic-light labels and choice architecture: promoting healthy food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Thorndike, Anne N; Riis, Jason; Sonnenberg, Lillian M; Levy, Douglas E

2014-02-01

Preventing obesity requires maintenance of healthy eating behaviors over time. Food labels and strategies that increase visibility and convenience of healthy foods (choice architecture) promote healthier choices, but long-term effectiveness is unknown. Assess effectiveness of traffic-light labeling and choice architecture cafeteria intervention over 24 months. Longitudinal pre-post cohort follow-up study between December 2009 and February 2012. Data were analyzed in 2012. Large hospital cafeteria with a mean of 6511 transactions daily. Cafeteria sales were analyzed for (1) all cafeteria customers and (2) a longitudinal cohort of 2285 hospital employees who used the cafeteria regularly. After a 3-month baseline period, cafeteria items were labeled green (healthy); yellow (less healthy); or red (unhealthy) and rearranged to make healthy items more accessible. Proportion of cafeteria sales that were green or red during each 3-month period from baseline to 24 months. Changes in 12- and 24-month sales were compared to baseline for all transactions and transactions by the employee cohort. The proportion of sales of red items decreased from 24% at baseline to 20% at 24 months (pchoice architecture cafeteria intervention resulted in sustained healthier choices over 2 years, suggesting that food environment interventions can promote long-term changes in population eating behaviors. © 2013 American Journal of Preventive Medicine Published by American Journal of Preventive Medicine All rights reserved.

Food choice: the battle between package, taste and consumption situation.

Science.gov (United States)

Gutjar, Swetlana; de Graaf, Cees; Palascha, Aikaterini; Jager, Gerry

2014-09-01

The present study compared how intrinsic (sensory) and extrinsic (packaging) product properties influence actual food choice in combination with the concept of product appropriateness in a specific consumption context. Food choice of seven test products was measured in three breakfast sessions within a simulated cafeteria setting with subsequent product consumption. Test products were five breakfast drinks and two dessert products considered as inappropriate for breakfast. One hundred and three participants took part in a blind taste session, after which they chose one out of the seven foods to consume for breakfast. In a second session (familiar package session), the same participants based their choice on the package of the seven foods they tasted in the first session. An additional group of 65 participants took part in a third naïve package session, where they chose just on the basis of package without being previously exposed to the foods. Results showed that food choices in the naïve package session were guided by the package that labelled the products as "breakfast product". Food choices in the blind session were strongly correlated (r = 0.8) with the liking of the products. Food choice in the "familiar package session" lay between the blind and naïve package session. It is concluded that food choice in a simulated cafeteria setting is guided by extrinsic (package) as well as intrinsic (sensory) properties and both can act as a cue for product appropriateness given a specific consumption context. Depending on the salience of either intrinsic or extrinsic properties during the choice moment their impact on choice is stronger. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Changing memory of food enjoyment to increase food liking, choice and intake.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Eric; Blissett, Jackie; Higgs, Suzanne

2012-10-28

Novel ways to increase liking and intake of food are needed to encourage acceptance of healthier food. How enjoyable we remember food to have been is likely to be a significant predictor of food choice. Two studies examined whether remembered enjoyment of eating a food can be increased and whether this makes individuals more likely to eat that food in the future. In Study One, a simple manipulation of instructing participants to rehearse what they found enjoyable about a food immediately after eating it was used to increase remembered enjoyment (relative to controls). In a separate study; Study Two, the effect of increasing remembered enjoyment on food choice was tested by examining whether the manipulation to increase remembered enjoyment resulted in participants choosing to eat more of a food as part of a later buffet lunch. The experimental manipulation increased remembered enjoyment for the food (Study One). A change in remembered enjoyment was shown to have a significant effect on the amount of a food participants chose to eat the following day for lunch (Study Two). The present studies suggest that remembered enjoyment can be increased via a simple act of rehearsal, resulting in a later increase in the amount of food chosen and eaten. Interventions based on altering remembered enjoyment of healthy food choices warrant further investigation.

Modeling Dynamic Food Choice Processes to Understand Dietary Intervention Effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Marcum, Christopher Steven; Goldring, Megan R; McBride, Colleen M; Persky, Susan

2018-02-17

Meal construction is largely governed by nonconscious and habit-based processes that can be represented as a collection of in dividual, micro-level food choices that eventually give rise to a final plate. Despite this, dietary behavior intervention research rarely captures these micro-level food choice processes, instead measuring outcomes at aggregated levels. This is due in part to a dearth of analytic techniques to model these dynamic time-series events. The current article addresses this limitation by applying a generalization of the relational event framework to model micro-level food choice behavior following an educational intervention. Relational event modeling was used to model the food choices that 221 mothers made for their child following receipt of an information-based intervention. Participants were randomized to receive either (a) control information; (b) childhood obesity risk information; (c) childhood obesity risk information plus a personalized family history-based risk estimate for their child. Participants then made food choices for their child in a virtual reality-based food buffet simulation. Micro-level aspects of the built environment, such as the ordering of each food in the buffet, were influential. Other dynamic processes such as choice inertia also influenced food selection. Among participants receiving the strongest intervention condition, choice inertia decreased and the overall rate of food selection increased. Modeling food selection processes can elucidate the points at which interventions exert their influence. Researchers can leverage these findings to gain insight into nonconscious and uncontrollable aspects of food selection that influence dietary outcomes, which can ultimately improve the design of dietary interventions.

Choice with frequently changing food rates and food ratios.

Science.gov (United States)

Baum, William M; Davison, Michael

2014-03-01

In studies of operant choice, when one schedule of a concurrent pair is varied while the other is held constant, the constancy of the constant schedule may exert discriminative control over performance. In our earlier experiments, schedules varied reciprocally across components within sessions, so that while food ratio varied food rate remained constant. In the present experiment, we held one variable-interval (VI) schedule constant while varying the concurrent VI schedule within sessions. We studied five conditions, each with a different constant left VI schedule. On the right key, seven different VI schedules were presented in seven different unsignaled components. We analyzed performances at several different time scales. At the longest time scale, across conditions, behavior ratios varied with food ratios as would be expected from the generalized matching law. At shorter time scales, effects due to holding the left VI constant became more and more apparent, the shorter the time scale. In choice relations across components, preference for the left key leveled off as the right key became leaner. Interfood choice approximated strict matching for the varied right key, whereas interfood choice hardly varied at all for the constant left key. At the shortest time scale, visit patterns differed for the left and right keys. Much evidence indicated the development of a fix-and-sample pattern. In sum, the procedural difference made a large difference to performance, except for choice at the longest time scale and the fix-and-sample pattern at the shortest time scale. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Mindful eating reduces impulsive food choice in adolescents and adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendrickson, Kelsie L; Rasmussen, Erin B

2017-03-01

The present study tested the extent to which age and obesity predicted impulsive choices for food and monetary outcomes and tested how a brief mindful-eating training would alter delay discounting for food and money choices compared with control groups. First, 172 adolescents (M age = 13.13 years) and 176 (M age = 23.33 years) adults completed the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) and Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) as measures of food and money delay discounting, respectively. Then, participants returned to the lab and were randomly assigned to complete a brief mindful-eating training, watch a DVD on nutrition, or serve as a control. Participants completed the FCQ and MCQ again as a postmanipulation measure. Participants with high percent body fat (PBF) were more impulsive for food than those with low PBF. Adults with high PBF were also more impulsive for money compared with adults with low PBF; no PBF-related differences were found for adolescents. Participants in the mindful-eating group exhibited more self-controlled choices for food, but not for money. The control conditions did not exhibit changes. The study suggests that individuals with high PBF make more impulsive food choices relative to those with low PBF, which could increase the risk of obesity over time. It also is the first to demonstrate shifts in choice patterns for food and money using a brief mindful-eating training with adolescents. Mindful eating is a beneficial strategy to reduce impulsive food choice, at least temporarily, that may impede weight gain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The added value of sustainability motivations in understanding sustainable food choices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verain, M.C.D.; Onwezen, M.C.; Sijtsema, S.J.; Dagevos, H.

2016-01-01

Understanding consumer food choices is crucial to stimulate sustainable food consumption. Food choice motives are shown to be relevant in understanding consumer food choices. However, there is a focus on product motives, such as price and taste, whereas process motives (i.e. environmental welfare)

Cookery Books and Maltese national ideology.

OpenAIRE

Pisani, Elise; Works in Progress Seminars Series

2009-01-01

A talk organised in the Works in Progress Seminars Series about cookery books and Maltese national ideology. The talk is given by Elise Billiard Pisani. Cookery books can become powerful tools for promoting national ideology in the hands of some food amateurs. In this paper she will explain how popular gastronomy has become a subject of national pride and a large number of cookery books have constructed a particular image of Maltese food.

Consumers' practical understanding of healthy food choices: a fake food experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Mötteli, Sonja; Keller, Carmen; Siegrist, Michael; Barbey, Jana; Bucher, Tamara

2016-08-01

Little is known about laypeople's practical understanding of a healthy diet, although this is important to successfully promote healthy eating. The present study is the first to experimentally examine how consumers define healthy and balanced food choices for an entire day compared with normal choices and compared with dietary guidelines. We used an extensive fake food buffet (FFB) with 179 foods commonly consumed in the Swiss diet. The FFB is a validated method to investigate food choice behaviour in a well-controlled laboratory setting. People from the general population in Switzerland (n 187; 51·9 % females), aged between 18 and 65 years, were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the control group, the participants were instructed to serve themselves foods they would eat on a normal day, whereas in the 'healthy' group they were instructed to choose foods representing a healthy diet. Participants chose significantly more healthy foods, with 4·5 g more dietary fibre, 2 % more protein and 2 % less SFA in the 'healthy' group compared with the control group. However, in both experimental conditions, participants served themselves foods containing twice as much sugar and salt than recommended by dietary guidelines. The results suggest that laypeople lack knowledge about the recommended portion sizes and the amounts of critical nutrients in processed food, which has important implications for communicating dietary guidelines. Furthermore, the energy of the food served was substantially correlated with the energy needs of the participants, demonstrating the potential of the fake food buffet method.

Food Choice Motives among the Students of a Dental Institution in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Food is a focus of social interaction ... the role of other influences on food choice. ... Results indicated statistically significant differences in terms of food choice .... This interpretation would support the argument that ... Gender, age and motives underlying food choice affected the .... eating behavior and body weight regulation.

The effect of student residence on food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Beerman, K A; Jennings, G; Crawford, S

1990-03-01

This study assessed the effect of student residence on food choices and dietary practices of students enrolled in an undergraduate nutrition class at Washington State University. We compared food consumption patterns of students living on campus, off campus, and in Greek housing. We also identified differences between men and women in food consumption and dietary practices. The results suggested that students' residence and sex may influence food choice and dietary practices. Significant differences in food choice related to students' residence were found for 8 of the 27 variables included on a food frequency list. Differences in the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, beer, fish, unsweetened cereal, white bread, and cookies were identified. In addition, students who lived in Greek housing were found to skip meals less frequently than other students, and men were found to consume significantly more beer, sugar-sweetened soft drinks, meat, and white bread than women students. Men were also more accurate in their perception of their body weight.

Nudging consumers towards healthier choices: a systematic review of positional influences on food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Bucher, Tamara; Collins, Clare; Rollo, Megan E; McCaffrey, Tracy A; De Vlieger, Nienke; Van der Bend, Daphne; Truby, Helen; Perez-Cueto, Federico J A

2016-06-01

Nudging or 'choice architecture' refers to strategic changes in the environment that are anticipated to alter people's behaviour in a predictable way, without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. Nudging strategies may be used to promote healthy eating behaviour. However, to date, the scientific evidence has not been systematically reviewed to enable practitioners and policymakers to implement, or argue for the implementation of, specific measures to support nudging strategies. This systematic review investigated the effect of positional changes of food placement on food choice. In total, seven scientific databases were searched using relevant keywords to identify interventions that manipulated food position (proximity or order) to generate a change in food selection, sales or consumption, among normal-weight or overweight individuals across any age group. From 2576 identified articles, fifteen articles comprising eighteen studies met our inclusion criteria. This review has identified that manipulation of food product order or proximity can influence food choice. Such approaches offer promise in terms of impacting on consumer behaviour. However, there is a need for high-quality studies that quantify the magnitude of positional effects on food choice in conjunction with measuring the impact on food intake, particularly in the longer term. Future studies should use outcome measures such as change in grams of food consumed or energy intake to quantify the impact on dietary intake and potential impacts on nutrition-related health. Research is also needed to evaluate potential compensatory behaviours secondary to such interventions.

Factors Influencing Food Choice in the Elderly Mauritian Population

African Journals Online (AJOL)

admpather

food choice in order to help people make healthful food and beverage choices .... consumption patterns, lifestyles, health status and the different factors .... relative importance in human eating behaviour: review and preliminary suggestions for.

Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective--Higher Cost of Food in Some Areas May Affect Food Stamp Households' Ability To Make Healthy Food Choices

OpenAIRE

Nord, Mark; Hopwood, Heather

2007-01-01

The cost of “enough food,” estimated from the amount that low- and medium-income households in a geographic area report needing to spend to just meet their food needs, differs substantially across States and among metropolitan areas. In areas with high food costs, many food-stamp recipients are likely to have inadequate food resources to support healthy food choices.

Sustainable food consumption. Product choice or curtailment?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verain, M.C.D.; Dagevos, H.; Antonides, G.

2015-01-01

Food consumption is an important factor in shaping the sustainability of our food supply. The present paper empirically explores different types of sustainable food behaviors. A distinction between sustainable product choices and curtailment behavior has been investigated empirically and predictors

It’s who I am and what we eat: Mothers’ food-related identities in family food choice

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Cassandra M.; Sharkey, Joseph R.; Dean, Wesley R.; McIntosh, W. Alex; Kubena, Karen S.

2011-01-01

This study aimed to understand mothers’ everyday food choices using one type of visual method-participant-driven photo-elicitation (PDPE). The sample consisted of 12 low/moderate income mothers (26–53 years) living in Bryan/College Station, Texas. Each mother completed a photography activity, where she created photographs of her food experience, and an in-depth interview using the mother’s photographs. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach and coded using qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti. Mothers emphasized their identities related to food and eating as they described food-related decisions and activities. These identities influenced a mother’s food choices for herself and those she made for her children. Analysis revealed that mothers with a more defined health identity made healthier choices for themselves and similar food choices for their children. In addition, they exhibited behaviors that positively influenced their children’s food choices. Mothers who struggled to see themselves as healthy indulged with more junk food and indicated feelings of anxiety and guilt; these mothers’ food choices were more disconnected from their children’s. These findings underscore the importance of understanding how identities related to food and eating can influence food choices. Encouraging mothers to develop and maintain health identities may be one way to improve food and eating habits in families. PMID:21600253

Traffic-Light Labels and Choice Architecture Promoting Healthy Food Choices

Science.gov (United States)

Thorndike, Anne N.; Riis, Jason; Sonnenberg, Lillian M.; Levy, Douglas E.

2014-01-01

Background Preventing obesity requires maintenance of healthy eating behaviors over time. Food labels and strategies that increase visibility and convenience of healthy foods (choice architecture) promote healthier choices, but long-term effectiveness is unknown. Purpose Assess effectiveness of traffic-light labeling and choice architecture cafeteria intervention over 24 months. Design Longitudinal pre–post cohort follow-up study between December 2009 and February 2012. Data were analyzed in 2012. Setting/participants Large hospital cafeteria with mean of 6511 transactions daily. Cafeteria sales were analyzed for: (1) all cafeteria customers and (2) longitudinal cohort of 2285 hospital employees who used the cafeteria regularly. Intervention After 3-month baseline period, cafeteria items were labeled green (healthy), yellow (less healthy) or red (unhealthy) and rearranged to make healthy items more accessible. Main outcome measures Proportion of cafeteria sales that were green or red during each 3-month period from baseline to 24 months. Changes in 12- and 24-month sales were compared to baseline for all transactions and transactions by the employee cohort. Results The proportion of sales of red items decreased from 24% at baseline to 20% at 24 months (p<0.001), and green sales increased from 41% to 46% (p<0.001). Red beverages decreased from 26% of beverage sales at baseline to 17% at 24 months (p<0.001); green beverages increased from 52% to 60% (p<0.001). Similar patterns were observed for the cohort of employees, with largest change for red beverages (23% to 14%, p<0.001). Conclusions A traffic-light and choice architecture cafeteria intervention resulted in sustained healthier choices over 2 years, suggesting food environment interventions can promote long-term changes in population eating behaviors. PMID:24439347

Making Healthy Choices at Fast Food Restaurants

Science.gov (United States)

... Conditions Prevention and Wellness Staying Healthy Healthy Living Travel Occupational Health First Aid and Injury Prevention Crisis Situations Pets and Animals myhealthfinder Food and Nutrition Healthy Food Choices Weight Loss and ...

Flemish consumer attitudes towards more sustainable food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Vanhonacker, Filiep; Van Loo, Ellen J; Gellynck, Xavier; Verbeke, Wim

2013-03-01

Intensive agricultural practices and current western consumption patterns are associated with increased ecological pressure. One way to reduce the ecological impact could be a shift to more sustainable food choices. This study investigates consumer opinions towards a series of food choices with a lower ecological impact. The investigated food choices range from well-known meat substitutes to alternatives which are more radical or innovative and that require an adaptation of food habits and cultural patterns. Results are obtained through a survey among 221 Flemish respondents in Spring 2011. Many consumers underestimate the ecological impact of animal production. Well-known alternatives such as organic meat, moderation of meat consumption and sustainable fish are accepted, although willingness to pay is clearly lower than willingness to consume. Consumers are more reluctant to alternatives that (partly) ban or replace meat in the meal. Opportunities of introducing insects currently appear to be non-existent. Five consumer segments were identified based on self-evaluated ecological footprint and personal relevance of the ecological footprint. The segments were termed Conscious, Active, Unwilling, Ignorant and Uncertain. A profile in terms of demographics, attitudinal and behavioral characteristics is developed for each segments, and conclusions with respect to opportunities for sustainable food choices are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Food choice decision-making by women with gestational diabetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hui, Amy Leung; Sevenhuysen, Gustaaf; Harvey, Dexter; Salamon, Elizabeth

2014-02-01

To enhance the dietary education presented to women with gestational diabetes (GDM) by exploring the reasons and experiences that women with GDM reported in making their food-choice decisions after receipt of dietary education from a healthcare professional. Food Choice Map (FCM) semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 women with GDM living in the Winnipeg area during their pregnancies. Verbatim transcripts were generated from the interviews. A constant comparative method was used to generate common themes to answer research inquiries. Personal food preferences, hunger and cravings were the main factors affecting food choice decision-making in women with GDM. Although the information from healthcare professionals was 1 factor that affected food choice decision-making for most of the participants, more than half of the women, including all the women who were on insulin, reported difficulties in quick adaptation to dietary management in a limited time period. Information from other sources such as family members, friends, and internet were used to cope with the adaptation. These difficulties led to a sense of decreased control of GDM and were accompanied by frustration, especially for women taking insulin. Food choice decision-making varied for this group of women with GDM. Knowledge and information aided in making healthy food choices and in portion control. However, balancing individual needs and blood glucose control in a short time period was felt to be difficult and created frustration. The findings suggested that dietary consultation needs to be personalized and to be time sensitive to promote confidence in self-control. Copyright © 2014 Canadian Diabetes Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Appearance matters: neural correlates of food choice and packaging aesthetics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura N Van der Laan

Full Text Available Neuro-imaging holds great potential for predicting choice behavior from brain responses. In this study we used both traditional mass-univariate and state-of-the-art multivariate pattern analysis to establish which brain regions respond to preferred packages and to what extent neural activation patterns can predict realistic low-involvement consumer choices. More specifically, this was assessed in the context of package-induced binary food choices. Mass-univariate analyses showed that several regions, among which the bilateral striatum, were more strongly activated in response to preferred food packages. Food choices could be predicted with an accuracy of up to 61.2% by activation patterns in brain regions previously found to be involved in healthy food choices (superior frontal gyrus and visual processing (middle occipital gyrus. In conclusion, this study shows that mass-univariate analysis can detect small package-induced differences in product preference and that MVPA can successfully predict realistic low-involvement consumer choices from functional MRI data.

Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective--Making Healthy Food Choices Easier: Ideas From Behavioral Economics

OpenAIRE

Mancino, Lisa; Andrews, Margaret S.

2007-01-01

With obesity the most prevalent nutrition problem facing Americans at all economic levels, promoting diets that provide adequate nutrition without too many calories has become an important objective for the Food Stamp Program. Findings from behavioral economics suggest innovative, low-cost ways to improve the diet quality of food stamp participants without restricting their freedom of choice. Unlike more traditional economic interventions, such as changing prices or banning specific foods, th...

Restrictive food intake as a choice--a paradigm for study.

Science.gov (United States)

Steinglass, Joanna; Foerde, Karin; Kostro, Katrina; Shohamy, Daphna; Walsh, B Timothy

2015-01-01

Inadequate intake and preference for low-calorie foods are salient behavioral features of Anorexia Nervosa (AN). The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying pathological food choice have not been characterized. This study aimed to develop a new paradigm for experimentally modeling maladaptive food choice in AN. Individuals with AN (n = 22) and healthy controls (HC, n = 20) participated in a computer-based Food Choice Task, adapted for individuals with eating disorders. Participants first rated 43 food images (including high-fat and low-fat items) for Healthiness and Tastiness; an item rated neutral on both blocks was then selected as the Reference item. On each of 42 subsequent trials participants were asked to choose between the food item presented and the Reference item. The AN group was less likely to choose high-fat foods relative to HC, as evidenced both in multilevel logistic regression (z = 2.59, p = .009) and ANOVA (F(1,39) = 7.80, p = .008) analyses. Health ratings influenced choice significantly more in AN relative to HC (z = 2.7, p = .006), and were more related to Taste among AN (χ(2) = 4.10, p = .04). Additionally, taste ratings declined with duration of illness (r = -.50, p = .02). The Food Choice Task captures the preference for low-fat foods among individuals with AN. The findings suggest that the experience of tastiness changes over time and may contribute to perpetuation of illness. By providing an experimental quantitative measure of food restriction, this task opens the door to new experimental investigations into the cognitive, affective, and neural factors contributing to maladaptive food choices characteristic of AN. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Health on impulse: when low self-control promotes healthy food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Salmon, Stefanie J; Fennis, Bob M; de Ridder, Denise T D; Adriaanse, Marieke A; de Vet, Emely

2014-02-01

Food choices are often made mindlessly, when individuals are not able or willing to exert self-control. Under low self-control, individuals have difficulties to resist palatable but unhealthy food products. In contrast to previous research aiming to foster healthy choices by promoting high self-control, this study exploits situations of low self-control, by strategically using the tendency under these conditions to rely on heuristics (simple decision rules) as quick guides to action. More specifically, the authors associated healthy food products with the social proof heuristic (i.e., normative cues that convey majority endorsement for those products). One hundred seventy-seven students (119 men), with an average age of 20.47 years (SD = 2.25) participated in the experiment. This study used a 2 (low vs. high self-control) × 2 (social proof vs. no heuristic) × 2 (trade-off vs. control choice) design, with the latter as within-subjects factor. The dependent variable was the number of healthy food choices in a food-choice task. In line with previous studies, people made fewer healthy food choices under low self-control. However, this negative effect of low self-control on food choice was reversed when the healthy option was associated with the social proof heuristic. In that case, people made more healthy choices under conditions of low self-control. Low self-control may be even more beneficial for healthy food choices than high self-control in the presence of a heuristic. Exploiting situations of low self-control is a new and promising method to promote health on impulse. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Understanding the motives for food choice in Western Balkan Countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Milošević, Jasna; Žeželj, Iris; Gorton, Matthew; Barjolle, Dominique

2012-02-01

Substantial empirical evidence exists regarding the importance of different factors underlying food choice in Western Europe. However, research results on eating habits and food choice in the Western Balkan Countries (WBCs) remain scarce. A Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ), an instrument that measures the reported importance of nine factors underlying food choice, was administered to a representative sample of 3085 adult respondents in six WBCs. The most important factors reported are sensory appeal, purchase convenience, and health and natural content; the least important are ethical concern and familiarity. The ranking of food choice motives across WBCs was strikingly similar. Factor analysis revealed eight factors compared to nine in the original FCQ model: health and natural content scales loaded onto one factor as did familiarity and ethical concern; the convenience scale items generated two factors, one related to purchase convenience and the other to preparation convenience. Groups of consumers with similar motivational profiles were identified using cluster analysis. Each cluster has distinct food purchasing behavior and socio-economic characteristics, for which appropriate public health communication messages can be drawn. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The added value of sustainability motivations in understanding sustainable food choices

OpenAIRE

Verain, M.C.D.; Onwezen, M.C.; Sijtsema, S.J.; Dagevos, H.

2016-01-01

Understanding consumer food choices is crucial to stimulate sustainable food consumption. Food choice motives are shown to be relevant in understanding consumer food choices. However, there is a focus on product motives, such as price and taste, whereas process motives (i.e. environmental welfare) are understudied. The current study aims to add to the existing literature by investigating the added value of sustainable process motives (environmental welfare, animal welfare and social justice) ...

Caveat Emptor! The Rhetoric of Choice in Food Politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew Calabrese

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This project is about a form of corporate predation that entails both policy influence and cultural legitimation. Neoliberal explanations of the inability of citizens to thrive in the current socio- economic condition typically rest on a combination of victim-blaming and appeals to the individualistic rhetoric that assumes we all enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom of choice. It is common for corporate lobbyists, and politicians under their influence, to argue against consumer protection on the grounds that such efforts are paternalistic, and that they therefore undermine consumer sovereignty. By this logic, illnesses that are highly correlated to diet are problems that consumers can avoid, and it is not the duty of food companies or government to prevent consumers from making “bad choices.” Implicit in this moralistic narrative is that consumers have sufficient knowledge about the alternatives to enable them to make “good choices.” Major food lobbies use their political influence to oppose government regulations of food, based on the reasoning that consumers deserve the right to choose. Food industry groups also will sometimes invest heavily to prevent legal requirements to disclose information that might enable consumers to make informed choices, creating a predatory double-bind. In this essay, I discuss how the rhetoric of choice is employed by the food industry, how it is formulated within the political context of the United States, and how that rhetoric poses threats to food systems globally.

Motives for consumer choice of traditional food and European food in mainland China.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ou; De Steur, Hans; Gellynck, Xavier; Verbeke, Wim

2015-04-01

The demand for European (-style) foods in mainland China has been increasing dramatically during the last decade. Nevertheless, European food producers often appear to be not capable to fully exploit this huge market potential, partially due to the competition with traditional (Chinese) foods. This study examines the determinants of mainland Chinese consumers' choice of traditional food and European food. A web-based survey was administered with 541 consumers from two cities: Shanghai and Xi'an. Thereby, the Food Choice Motives model, predominantly used thus far in a European or developed context, is applied to mainland China in order to address the lack of knowledge on food motives of its consumer market and to detect associations between these motives, attitudes, and purchase intentions. Factor analysis resulted in a new Food Choice Motive construct that is considered more appropriate within the context of mainland Chinese consumers, encompassing six dimensions: Health concern, Time or money saving, Sensory appeal, Availability and familiarity, Mood and Food safety concern. Path analysis demonstrated that Time or money saving was negatively associated with attitude toward traditional food on the one hand and purchase intentions toward European food on the other hand. Availability and familiarity had a positive association with attitude toward traditional food. Mood was a positive factor driving attitude toward European food. For both food types, Sensory appeal and Attitude were positively linked to purchase intentions. Furthermore, Mood was negatively linked to the purchase intention toward traditional food in Shanghai. Food safety concern was positively associated with attitudes toward traditional food in Xi'an. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Piloting an online grocery store simulation to assess children's food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Heard, Amy M; Harris, Jennifer L; Liu, Sai; Schwartz, Marlene B; Li, Xun

2016-01-01

Public health interventions must address poor diet among U.S. children, but research is needed to better understand factors influencing children's food choices. Using an online grocery store simulation, this research piloted a novel method to assess children's snack selection in a controlled but naturalistic laboratory setting, evaluate predictors of choice, and experimentally test whether promotions on food packages altered choices. Children (7-12 years, N = 61) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: promotions on healthy products; promotions on unhealthy products; and no promotions (control). They selected from a variety of healthy and unhealthy foods and beverages and rated all products on healthfulness and taste. Promotions on food packaging did not affect snack selection in this study, but findings supported our other hypothesis that perceived taste would be the strongest predictor of food choice. Children accurately rated product healthfulness, but these ratings did not predict healthy snack choices or taste ratings for healthy or unhealthy snacks. These results suggest that interventions to improve children's food choices should focus on increasing availability of healthy options and identifying opportunities to enhance children's liking of healthy options. However, nutrition education alone is unlikely to improve children's diets. Further testing is required, but the simulated online grocery store method shows potential for measuring children's food choices. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

General and Food-Specific Inhibitory Control As Moderators of the Effects of the Impulsive Systems on Food Choices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuemeng Zhang

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The present study aimed to extend the application of the reflective-impulsive model to restrained eating and explore the effect of automatic attention (impulsive system on food choices. Furthermore, we examined the moderating effects of general inhibitory control (G-IC and food-specific inhibitory control (F-IC on successful and unsuccessful restrained eaters (US-REs. Automatic attention was measured using “the EyeLink 1000,” which tracked eye movements during the process of making food choices, and G-IC and F-IC were measured using the Stop-Signal Task. The results showed that food choices were related to automatic attention and that G-IC and F-IC moderated the predictive relationship between automatic attention and food choices. Furthermore, among successful restrained eaters (S-REs, automatic attention to high caloric foods did not predict food choices, regardless of whether G-IC or F-IC was high or low. Whereas food choice was positively correlated with automatic attention among US-REs with poor F-IC, this pattern was not observed in those with poor G-IC. In conclusion, the S-REs had more effective self-management skills and their food choices were affected less by automatic attention and inhibitory control. Unsuccessful restrained eating was associated with poor F-IC (not G-IC and greater automatic attention to high caloric foods. Thus, clinical interventions should focus on enhancing F-IC, not G-IC, and on reducing automatic attention to high caloric foods.

Children's food choice process in the home environment. A qualitative descriptive study.

Science.gov (United States)

Holsten, Joanna E; Deatrick, Janet A; Kumanyika, Shiriki; Pinto-Martin, Jennifer; Compher, Charlene W

2012-02-01

This qualitative descriptive study explored children's food choices in the home with particular attention to environmental influences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11- to 14-year-old children (n=47) from one middle school. A data-driven content analysis using selected principles of grounded theory was performed. Children's food choices in the home emerged as a process that involved three interacting components, the child, the parent, and the food, embedded within the context of time. Children's structured activities throughout the day, week, and year provided an overall context for food choices. Parents affected children's food choices through their presence in the home, time pressure and activity prioritization, incorporation of family members' preferences, food preparation effort and skills, and financial and health concerns. Parents created food options through food purchasing and preparation and indirectly affected children's food choices by setting rules, providing information, and modeling behaviors. Children affected parents' decisions by communicating food preferences. For children, important aspects of the food itself included its availability at home and attributes related to taste, preparation, and cost. Children evaluated potential food options based on their hunger level, food preferences, time pressure and activity prioritization, food preparation effort and skills, and expected physical consequences of food. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effects of food advertising and cognitive load on food choices

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background Advertising has been implicated in the declining quality of the American diet, but much of the research has been conducted with children rather than adults. This study tested the effects of televised food advertising on adult food choice. Methods Participants (N = 351) were randomized into one of 4 experimental conditions: exposure to food advertising vs. exposure to non-food advertising, and within each of these groups, exposure to a task that was either cognitively demanding or not cognitively demanding. The number of unhealthy snacks chosen was subsequently measured, along with total calories of the snacks chosen. Results Those exposed to food advertising chose 28% more unhealthy snacks than those exposed to non-food-advertising (95% CI: 7% - 53%), with a total caloric value that was 65 kcal higher (95% CI: 10-121). The effect of advertising was not significant among those assigned to the low-cognitive-load group, but was large and significant among those assigned to the high-cognitive-load group: 43% more unhealthy snacks (95% CI: 11% - 85%) and 94 more total calories (95% CI: 19-169). Conclusions Televised food advertising has strong effects on individual food choice, and these effects are magnified when individuals are cognitively occupied by other tasks. PMID:24721289

The effects of food advertising and cognitive load on food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmerman, Frederick J; Shimoga, Sandhya V

2014-04-10

Advertising has been implicated in the declining quality of the American diet, but much of the research has been conducted with children rather than adults. This study tested the effects of televised food advertising on adult food choice. Participants (N = 351) were randomized into one of 4 experimental conditions: exposure to food advertising vs. exposure to non-food advertising, and within each of these groups, exposure to a task that was either cognitively demanding or not cognitively demanding. The number of unhealthy snacks chosen was subsequently measured, along with total calories of the snacks chosen. Those exposed to food advertising chose 28% more unhealthy snacks than those exposed to non-food-advertising (95% CI: 7% - 53%), with a total caloric value that was 65 kcal higher (95% CI: 10-121). The effect of advertising was not significant among those assigned to the low-cognitive-load group, but was large and significant among those assigned to the high-cognitive-load group: 43% more unhealthy snacks (95% CI: 11% - 85%) and 94 more total calories (95% CI: 19-169). Televised food advertising has strong effects on individual food choice, and these effects are magnified when individuals are cognitively occupied by other tasks.

Implicit markers of food choice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Laan, L.N.

2013-01-01

Because of the health risks associated with unhealthy eating and overweight, it is important to better understand the motives underlying (un)healthy food choice. Explicit measures, such as questionnaires and focus groups, are suboptimal because they only tap into that specific part of the motive

The influence of media characters on children's food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Kotler, Jennifer A; Schiffman, Jennifer M; Hanson, Katherine G

2012-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to assess the role of media characters in influencing children's food choices; the first focused on children's self-reported preference, whereas the second focused on actual choice. The results of the experiments suggest that popular characters can make a difference in encouraging children to select one food over another. In the first experiment, children were more likely to indicate a preference for one food over another when one was associated with characters that they liked and with whom they were familiar. This effect was particularly strong when a sugary or salty snack branded by a favored character was competing with a healthier option branded by an unknown character or no character. Alternatively, when children were asked to choose between a healthy food and a sugary or salty snack, branding of the healthy food with a favored character did not significantly change appeal of that healthy snack. However, when foods within the same category (i.e., 2 vegetables, 2 fruits, or 2 grains) were asked to compete against each other, character branding strongly influenced children's food choice. Findings from the second experiment suggest that children are more willing to try more pieces of a healthy food if a favored character, in comparison with an unknown character, is promoting that food.

Influence of convenience on healthy food choice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mueller Loose, Simone; Peschel, Anne; Grebitus, Carola

Although seafood is considered to be a healthy food choice, the recommended consumption level of two servings per week is still not reached in most countries. Previous research has identified potential barriers of seafood consumption, including purchase and consumption convenience, but it is still...... participated in an online choice experiment with visual product stimuli to simulate their choice of oysters in a retail store. Considering preference heterogeneity respondents’ choices were analyzed with a scale adjusted latent class model and six different consumer segments differing in their preferences were...

Food choice: The battle between package, taste and consumption situation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gutjar, S.; Graaf, de C.; Palascha, A.; Jager, G.

2014-01-01

The present study compared how intrinsic (sensory) and extrinsic (packaging) product properties influence actual food choice in combination with the concept of product appropriateness in a specific consumption context. Food choice of seven test products was measured in three breakfast sessions

Impact of communication on consumers' food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Verbeke, Wim

2008-08-01

Consumers' food choices and dietary behaviour can be markedly affected by communication and information. Whether the provided information is processed by the receiver, and thus becomes likely to be effective, depends on numerous factors. The role of selected determinants such as uncertainty, knowledge, involvement, health-related motives and trust, as well as message content variables, are discussed in the present paper based on previous empirical studies. The different studies indicate that: uncertainty about meat quality and safety does not automatically result in more active information search; subjective knowledge about fish is a better predictor of fish consumption than objective knowledge; high subjective knowledge about functional foods as a result of a low trusted information source such as mass media advertising leads to a lower probability of adopting these foods in the diet. Also, evidence of the stronger impact of negative news as compared with messages promoting positive outcomes of food choices is discussed. Finally, three audience-segmentation studies based on consumers' involvement with fresh meat, individuals' health-related-motive orientations and their use of and trust in fish information sources are presented. A clear message from these studies is that communication and information provision strategies targeted to a specific audience's needs, interests or motives stand a higher likelihood of being attended to and processed by the receiving audience, and therefore also stand a higher chance of yielding their envisaged impact in terms of food choice and dietary behaviour.

Food4Me study: Validity and reliability of Food Choice Questionnaire in 9 European countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Markovina, J.; Stewart-Knox, B.J.; Rankin, A.; Gibney, M.; Almeida, M.D.V.; Fischer, A.R.H.; Kuznesof, S.A.; Poínhos, R.; Panzone, L.; Frewer, L.J.

2015-01-01

This analysis has been conducted to explore the validity and reliability of the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) across 9 European countries. Variation in the factor structure and the perceived importance of food choice motives have been compared cross-nationally. Volunteers (N = 9381) were recruited

Food labels promote healthy choices by a decision bias in the amygdala.

Science.gov (United States)

Grabenhorst, Fabian; Schulte, Frank P; Maderwald, Stefan; Brand, Matthias

2013-07-01

Food labeling is the major health policy strategy to counter rising obesity rates. Based on traditional economic theory, such strategies assume that detailed nutritional information will necessarily help individuals make better, healthier choices. However, in contrast to the well-known utility of labels in food marketing, evidence for the efficacy of nutritional labeling is mixed. Psychological and behavioral economic theories suggest that successful marketing strategies activate automatic decision biases and emotions, which involve implicit emotional brain systems. Accordingly, simple, intuitive food labels that engage these neural systems could represent a promising approach for promoting healthier choices. Here we used functional MRI to investigate this possibility. Healthy, mildly hungry subjects performed a food evaluation task and a food choice task. The main experimental manipulation was to pair identical foods with simple labels that emphasized either taste benefits or health-related food properties. We found that such labels biased food evaluations in the amygdala, a core emotional brain system. When labels biased the amygdala's evaluations towards health-related food properties, the strength of this bias predicted behavioral shifts towards healthier choices. At the time of decision-making, amygdala activity encoded key decision variables, potentially reflecting active amygdala participation in food choice. Our findings underscore the potential utility of food labeling in health policy and indicate a principal role for emotional brain systems when labels guide food choices. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effects of food advertising and cognitive load on food choices

OpenAIRE

Zimmerman, Frederick J; Shimoga, Sandhya V

2014-01-01

Background Advertising has been implicated in the declining quality of the American diet, but much of the research has been conducted with children rather than adults. This study tested the effects of televised food advertising on adult food choice. Methods Participants (N = 351) were randomized into one of 4 experimental conditions: exposure to food advertising vs. exposure to non-food advertising, and within each of these groups, exposure to a task that was either cognitively demanding or n...

Using stop signals to reduce impulsive choices for palatable unhealthy foods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veling, H.P.; Aarts, H.A.G.; Stroebe, W.

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Exposure to palatable foods in the environment can trigger impulsive reactions to obtain them, which may lead to unhealthy food choices and eating behaviour. Two studies tested the fundamental question whether impulsive unhealthy food choices can be altered by means of linking unhealthy

Choice between delayed food and immediate oxycodone in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Secci, Maria E; Factor, Julie A; Schindler, Charles W; Panlilio, Leigh V

2016-12-01

The choice to seek immediate drug effects instead of more meaningful but delayed rewards is a defining feature of addiction. To develop a rodent model of this behavior, we allowed rats to choose between immediate intravenous delivery of the prescription opioid oxycodone (50 μg/kg) and delayed delivery of palatable food pellets. Rats preferred food at delays up to 30 s, but they chose oxycodone and food equally at 60-s delay and preferred oxycodone over food at 120-s delay. Comparison of food-drug choice, food-only, and drug-only conditions indicated that food availability decreased drug intake, but drug availability increased food intake. In the food-only condition, food was effective as a reinforcer even when delayed by 120 s. Pre-session feeding with chow slowed acquisition of food and drug self-administration, but did not affect choice. To establish procedures for testing potential anti-addiction medications, noncontingent pre-treatment with oxycodone or naltrexone (analogous to substitution and antagonist therapies, respectively) were tested on a baseline in which oxycodone was preferred over delayed food. Naltrexone pre-treatment decreased drug intake and increased food intake. Oxycodone pre-treatment decreased drug intake, but also produced extended periods with no food or drug responding. These findings show that the contingencies that induce preference for drugs over more meaningful but less immediate rewards in humans can be modeled in rodents, and they suggest that the model could be useful for assessing the therapeutic potential of treatments and exploring the underlying behavioral and neural mechanisms involved in addiction.

Barriers to climate-friendly food choices among young adults in Finland.

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Mäkiniemi, Jaana-Piia; Vainio, Annukka

2014-03-01

The aim of the study was to examine how young adults in Finland perceive barriers to climate-friendly food choices and how these barriers are associated with their choices. The participants were 350 university students of the social and behavioral sciences who completed a questionnaire during class. The study found that the barriers the participants perceived as being the most relevant were different from those that were associated with the omission of climate-friendly food choices. High prices were perceived as the most relevant barrier, but were only weakly associated with the participants' food choices. Instead, habit and disbelief in the effects of food consumption on the climate were found to be the barriers that had the greatest association with climate-friendly choices. Moreover, women considered high prices and poor supply more important compared to men, whereas men considered disbelief and habit more important. In addition, vegetarians perceived fewer barriers than those who followed other diets. The findings increase our understanding of young adults' perceptions of barriers to climate-friendly food choices, as well as their effects. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The food choice kaleidoscope. A framework for structured description of product, place and person as sources of variation in food choices.

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Jaeger, Sara R; Bava, Christina M; Worch, Thierry; Dawson, John; Marshall, David W

2011-04-01

Despite a wide range of research approaches already being used to study eating and drinking, this complex aspect of human activity lacks conceptualisation and methodology for structured description of food choices. This paper introduces a metaphoric framework--the food choice kaleidoscope--as an approach to such inquiry. It conceptualises individual food choice events (or eating occasions) as being shaped by three main factors--product, person and place--and provides a descriptive approach through which patterns and variability in food choice events can be observed. The factors can be studied separately or in combination to reveal the joint influence of product, place and/or person factors. The approach is 'data hungry' and requires information about large numbers of eating occasions obtained for a variety of foods/beverage in a variety of situations. Using information about ∼5800 eating occasions obtained from 25 New Zealand women who self-completed 24-h recall diaries, the kaleidoscopic approach is illustrated. The data are analysed in relation to 30 food/beverage categories and 37 contextual (or 'place') variables, and at the level of individual participants. Results are presented that document: product-to-product variability in who eats/drinks what and where/how it is consumed; place-to-place variation in what is consumed and by whom; and person-to-person variability in what is consumed and where/how it is consumed. The most significant insight to emerge is the considerable heterogeneity that is hidden beneath the average patterns, and that average values may be inappropriate/irrelevant for this type of data. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Associations of parental food-choice control and use of food to soothe with adiposity in childhood and adolescence.

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Chong, Shiau Y; Chittleborough, Catherine R; Gregory, Tess; Lynch, John W; Mittinty, Murthy N; Smithers, Lisa G

2017-06-01

Associations of parental feeding techniques with adiposity are mixed and largely rely on cross-sectional studies. We examined associations between parental food-choice control and using food to soothe at 3.5 years on adiposity at 7 and 15 years. Participants were from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (n = 7312). Food-choice control was assessed using the item 'how much choice do you allow him/her in deciding what foods he eats at meals?'. Use of food to soothe was reported by mothers on the item 'how often do you use sweets or other foods to stop his/her crying or fussing?'. BMI at 7 and 15 years was converted to sex- and age-adjusted z-scores. Fat mass was assessed at 15 years using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. In fully-adjusted models, children given the least choice had 0.08 lower BMI z-score at age 7 years and 0.12 lower BMI z-score,1.46 kg lower fat mass at 15 years than children with the most choices. There was no evidence of an association between using food to soothe and adiposity. Contrary to some studies, higher parental control over food choice was associated with lower adiposity, but use of food to soothe was not associated with adiposity at ages 7 and 15. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The influence of ethical values and food choice motivations on intentions to purchase sustainably sourced foods.

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Dowd, Kylie; Burke, Karena J

2013-10-01

This study examined a three-step adaptation of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) applied to the intention of consumers to purchase sustainably sourced food. The sample consisted of 137 participants, of which 109 were female, who were recruited through a farmers market and an organic produce outlet in an Australian capital city. Participants completed an online questionnaire containing the TPB scales of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and intention; measures of positive moral attitude and ethical self identity; and food choice motives. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine the predictive utility of the TPB in isolation (step 1) and the TPB expanded to include the constructs of moral attitude and ethical self-identity (step 2). The results indicated the expansion of the TPB to include these constructs added significantly to the predictive model measuring intention to purchase sustainably sourced food. The third step in the adaptation utilised this expanded TPB model and added a measure of retail channel (where consumers reported buying fresh produce) and 9 food choice motives, in order to assess the predictive utility of the inclusion of choice motivations in this context. Of the 8 food choice motives examined, only health and ethical values significantly predicted intention to purchase sustainably sourced food. However, with the addition of food choice motives, ethical self-identity was no longer a significant predictor of intention to purchase sustainably sourced food. Overall the adapted TPB model explained 76% of the variance in intention to purchase sustainably sourced food. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Discrete Choice Model of Food Store Trips Using National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS).

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Hillier, Amy; Smith, Tony E; Whiteman, Eliza D; Chrisinger, Benjamin W

2017-09-27

Where households across income levels shop for food is of central concern within a growing body of research focused on where people live relative to where they shop, what they purchase and eat, and how those choices influence the risk of obesity and chronic disease. We analyzed data from the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) using a conditional logit model to determine where participants shop for food to be prepared and eaten at home and how individual and household characteristics of food shoppers interact with store characteristics and distance from home in determining store choice. Store size, whether or not it was a full-service supermarket, and the driving distance from home to the store constituted the three significant main effects on store choice. Overall, participants were more likely to choose larger stores, conventional supermarkets rather than super-centers and other types of stores, and stores closer to home. Interaction effects show that participants receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were even more likely to choose larger stores. Hispanic participants were more likely than non-Hispanics to choose full-service supermarkets while White participants were more likely to travel further than non-Whites. This study demonstrates the value of explicitly spatial discrete choice models and provides evidence of national trends consistent with previous smaller, local studies.

Discrete Choice Model of Food Store Trips Using National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amy Hillier

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Where households across income levels shop for food is of central concern within a growing body of research focused on where people live relative to where they shop, what they purchase and eat, and how those choices influence the risk of obesity and chronic disease. We analyzed data from the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS using a conditional logit model to determine where participants shop for food to be prepared and eaten at home and how individual and household characteristics of food shoppers interact with store characteristics and distance from home in determining store choice. Store size, whether or not it was a full-service supermarket, and the driving distance from home to the store constituted the three significant main effects on store choice. Overall, participants were more likely to choose larger stores, conventional supermarkets rather than super-centers and other types of stores, and stores closer to home. Interaction effects show that participants receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP were even more likely to choose larger stores. Hispanic participants were more likely than non-Hispanics to choose full-service supermarkets while White participants were more likely to travel further than non-Whites. This study demonstrates the value of explicitly spatial discrete choice models and provides evidence of national trends consistent with previous smaller, local studies.

ABOUT THE NEW IDEOLOGY OF RUSSIA

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A. I. Amosov

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In article the author’s formulation of national idea is given. Necessity of transition to the new ideology reflecting interests of all stratum of a society, providing education of new generations, observance moral and moral standards in private life and in public relationships is shown.The special attention is given to influence of ideology on crisis of a primary cell of a society – families. Problems of a choice of new strategy of construction of the family which decision demands scale transformations of all real sector of economy are considered.

Evaluating the Environmental Consequences of Swedish Food Consumption and Dietary Choices

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Michael Martin

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In recent years, a growing interest from consumers to know the origins and contents of foods has put alternative choices, such as organic foods and dietary changes, on the agenda. Dietary choices are important to address, as many studies find that activities related to food production account for nearly 20–30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG emissions. Nonetheless, while GHG emissions are important, often other environmental impact categories are not considered in the assessment of the sustainability of different foods, diets and choices. This study aims to quantify the implications of dietary choices for Swedish food consumption on a broad range of environmental impact categories using life cycle assessment to provide insight into the impacts, and potential tradeoffs, associated with certain food products and dietary choices. Scenarios are used to assess the implications of diets with reduced meat, increased Swedish food consumption, increased organic foods, vegan and semi-vegetarian diets. The results indicate that tradeoffs could be possible with certain dietary choices. Increasing Swedish food production and consumption may lead to lower impacts for all impact categories by reducing imports, although limitations in growing season and availability of foods in Sweden allows only for minor increases. The results also indicate that large reductions of greenhouse gas emissions are possible by reducing meat consumption, i.e., by halving meat consumption and through vegan and vegetarian diets. Nonetheless, an increase in vegetable, legume and fruit products may lead to a potential increase in human and ecosystem toxicity. Diets based on nutritional guidelines, show reductions in all impact categories, as these guidelines call for an increase in vegetables and fruits and a reduction in meat consumption. An increase in organic foods showed no significant change in climate impact, although toxicity potential was reduced significantly

Consumers and Food Choice: Quality, Nutrition and Genes

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Tijskens, L.M.M.; Iztok Ostan, I.; Borut Poljsak, B.; Simcic, M.

2010-01-01

The quantity and quality of food needed for reproduction differs from nutritional needs for health and longevity. The choice of food type and amount is driven by our genetic need for growth and reproduction, not for long term health. So, fast digestible food, rich in energy is searched for. We

Food Store Choice Among Urban Slum Women Is Associated With Consumption of Energy-Dense Food.

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Anggraini, Roselynne; Februhartanty, Judhiastuty; Bardosono, Saptawati; Khusun, Helda; Worsley, Anthony

2016-07-01

The aim of this study was to examine the associations of food store choice with food consumption among urban slum women. A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 188 urban slum women (19-50 years old) in Jakarta, Indonesia. A semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire was used to assess food consumption. Associations between food consumption and food store choice were tested by linear regression. This study found that frequencies of buying food from small shops (warung), street food vendors, and modern food stores were significantly associated with consumption of snacks, mixed dishes, and fruit respectively. In addition, buying food from traditional markets and small cafes (warung makan) was not significantly associated with particular types of food consumption. As modern food stores are rarely utilized by these women, small shops (warung) and street food vendors are likely to be important channels to improve slum dwellers' diet. © 2016 APJPH.

Cross-Cultural Differences in Taste Thresholds and Food Choice Motives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dehlholm, Christian

2007-01-01

Psychophysical, physiological and behavioural aspects of taste perception and food choice were examined cross-culturally between Chinese people living in China (n=25), Chinese people living in Denmark (n=16) and Danish people living in Denmark (n=28). Groups were subdivided by males (n=26...... were found on average in each group with a mean diameter at 0.66mm for the Chinese and 0.72mm for the Danish. A questionnaire including general demographic questions, food frequency questions and the Food Choice Questionnaire (Steptoe et al., 1995) were completed by all subjects (n=69). The Danish...... subjects had a higher intake of sweets, tea and coffee and Chinese subject living in China had a higher intake of spicy food. All subject groups rated Sensory Appeal, Health and Price as very important food choice factors while dissimilarities between the groups were shown in rating the factors Mood...

Impact of typical rather than nutrient-dense food choices in the US Department of Agriculture Food Patterns.

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Britten, Patricia; Cleveland, Linda E; Koegel, Kristin L; Kuczynski, Kevin J; Nickols-Richardson, Sharon M

2012-10-01

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Patterns, released as part of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, are designed to meet nutrient needs without exceeding energy requirements. They identify amounts to consume from each food group and recommend that nutrient-dense forms-lean or low-fat, without added sugars or salt-be consumed. Americans fall short of most food group intake targets and do not consume foods in nutrient-dense forms. Intake of calories from solid fats and added sugars exceed maximum limits by large margins. Our aim was to determine the potential effect on meeting USDA Food Pattern nutrient adequacy and moderation goals if Americans consumed the recommended quantities from each food group, but did not implement the advice to select nutrient-dense forms of food and instead made more typical food choices. Food-pattern modeling analysis using the USDA Food Patterns, which are structured to allow modifications in one or more aspects of the patterns, was used. Nutrient profiles for each food group were modified by replacing each nutrient-dense representative food with a similar but typical choice. Typical nutrient profiles were used to determine the energy and nutrient content of the food patterns. Moderation goals are not met when amounts of food in the USDA Food Patterns are followed and typical rather than nutrient-dense food choices are made. Energy, total fat, saturated fat, and sodium exceed limits in all patterns, often by substantial margins. With typical choices, calories were 15% to 30% (ie, 350 to 450 kcal) above the target calorie level for each pattern. Adequacy goals were not substantially affected by the use of typical food choices. If consumers consume the recommended quantities from each food group and subgroup, but fail to choose foods in low-fat, no-added-sugars, and low-sodium forms, they will not meet the USDA Food Patterns moderation goals or the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Copyright © 2012 Academy of

Loss of lateral prefrontal cortex control in food-directed attention and goal-directed food choice in obesity.

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Janssen, Lieneke K; Duif, Iris; van Loon, Ilke; Wegman, Joost; de Vries, Jeanne H M; Cools, Roshan; Aarts, Esther

2017-02-01

Loss of lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC)-mediated attentional control may explain the automatic tendency to eat in the face of food. Here, we investigate the neurocognitive mechanism underlying attentional bias to food words and its association with obesity using a food Stroop task. We tested 76 healthy human subjects with a wide body mass index (BMI) range (19-35kg/m 2 ) using fMRI. As a measure of obesity we calculated individual obesity scores based on BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio using principal component analyses. To investigate the automatic tendency to overeat directly, the same subjects performed a separate behavioral outcome devaluation task measuring the degree of goal-directed versus automatic food choices. We observed that increased obesity scores were associated with diminished lPFC responses during food attentional bias. This was accompanied by decreased goal-directed control of food choices following outcome devaluation. Together these findings suggest that deficient control of both food-directed attention and choice may contribute to obesity, particularly given our obesogenic environment with food cues everywhere, and the choice to ignore or indulge despite satiety. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Health promotion messages: the role of social presence for food choices.

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Bittner, Jenny V; Kulesz, Micaela M

2015-04-01

We investigated whether social presence cues encourage consumers to self-regulate and select healthier food products. In the first experiment, workers completed food choices in an e-commerce environment. After the activation of health-related goals, they saw a social presence cue and were asked to choose between healthy and unhealthy food options. The analyses revealed main effects of social presence and health goal activation on food choices. These effects were additive, such that the combination of social presence and health goals induced significantly healthier choices compared with the control group. The second experiment further examined social presence cues that were presented on a menu. The results showed significant effects on food choices and on the perceived self-regulatory success in dieting. These findings indicate that social presence cues could be employed to increase healthful eating and, furthermore, that it may be useful to co-activate multiple cues in health promotion messages. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Work conditions and the food choice coping strategies of employed parents.

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Devine, Carol M; Farrell, Tracy J; Blake, Christine E; Jastran, Margaret; Wethington, Elaine; Bisogni, Carole A

2009-01-01

How work conditions relate to parents' food choice coping strategies. Pilot telephone survey. City in the northeastern United States (US). Black, white, and Hispanic employed mothers (25) and fathers (25) randomly recruited from low-/moderate-income zip codes; 78% of those reached and eligible participated. Sociodemographic characteristics; work conditions (hours, shift, job schedule, security, satisfaction, food access); food choice coping strategies (22 behavioral items for managing food in response to work and family demands (ie, food prepared at/away from home, missing meals, individualizing meals, speeding up, planning). Two-tailed chi-square and Fisher exact tests (P restaurant meals, missed breakfast, and prepared entrees. Job security, satisfaction, and food access were also associated with gender-specific strategies. Structural work conditions among parents such as job hours, schedule, satisfaction, and food access are associated with food choice coping strategies with importance for dietary quality. Findings have implications for worksite interventions but need examination in a larger sample.

Completed egoism and intended altruism boost healthy food choices.

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Weibel, Christian; Messner, Claude; Brügger, Adrian

2014-06-01

Based on the self-licensing literature and goal theory, we expected and found that completed (im)moral actions lead to markedly different food choices (Studies 1 & 2) than intended (im)moral actions (Study 2). In Study 1, people more often chose healthy over unhealthy food options when they recalled a completed egoistic action than when they recalled a completed altruistic action. Study 2 confirmed this finding and furthermore showed that the self-licensing effect in food choices is moderated by the action stage (completed versus intended) of the moral or immoral action. This article extends the existing self-licensing literature and opens up new perspectives for changing consumers' food consumption behavior. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Protect Your Heart: Check Food Labels to Make Heart-Healthy Choices

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... Protein 15g Total Amounts To make heart-healthy food choices, look at the totals and cut back on • ... Toolkit No. 8: Protect Your Heart: Make Smart Food Choices • Toolkit No. 9: Protect Your Heart: Choose Fats ...

Motives underlying food choice: dentists, porters and dietary health promotion.

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Crossley, M L; Khan, S N

2001-08-25

Differences in dental decay and disease amongst socioeconomic groups are thought to derive, in part, from variations in dietary practices and differences in education. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine whether differences in motivating factors affecting food choice could be found in a comparison of two groups at very different ends of the social spectrum: dentists and porters/cleaners. A convenience sample of 100 people (51 porters/cleaners and 49 dentists) working in the dental school at a university in the North West of England were approached to interview face-to-face and complete the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ), a previously validated measure designed to assess nine main factors relevant to peoples' food choices. A sample size of 100 was chosen because it was adequate to test validity (using a two-group Chi-square test with a 0.050 two sided significance). Findings were analysed using independent sample t-test and multiple linear regression. Results indicated significant differences between porters/cleaners and dentists in terms of their motives for food choice on six of the nine FCQ factors. These included convenience (p motivational factors affecting food choice between different social groups is important to dental practitioners who are being taught to play an increasing role in health promotion. If dental practitioners are to partake meaningfully in such a role, it is necessary for them to be aware not only of their own motives in food selection, but also of the way in which those motives may differ from those of their clients.

Consumer food choices: the role of price and pricing strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Steenhuis, Ingrid H M; Waterlander, Wilma E; de Mul, Anika

2011-12-01

To study differences in the role of price and value in food choice between low-income and higher-income consumers and to study the perception of consumers about pricing strategies that are of relevance during grocery shopping. A cross-sectional study was conducted using structured, written questionnaires. Food choice motives as well as price perceptions and opinion on pricing strategies were measured. The study was carried out in point-of-purchase settings, i.e. supermarkets, fast-food restaurants and sports canteens. Adults (n 159) visiting a point-of-purchase setting were included. Price is an important factor in food choice, especially for low-income consumers. Low-income consumers were significantly more conscious of value and price than higher-income consumers. The most attractive strategies, according to the consumers, were discounting healthy food more often and applying a lower VAT (Value Added Tax) rate on healthy food. Low-income consumers differ in their preferences for pricing strategies. Since price is more important for low-income consumers we recommend mainly focusing on their preferences and needs.

Political science. Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on Facebook.

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Bakshy, Eytan; Messing, Solomon; Adamic, Lada A

2015-06-05

Exposure to news, opinion, and civic information increasingly occurs through social media. How do these online networks influence exposure to perspectives that cut across ideological lines? Using deidentified data, we examined how 10.1 million U.S. Facebook users interact with socially shared news. We directly measured ideological homophily in friend networks and examined the extent to which heterogeneous friends could potentially expose individuals to cross-cutting content. We then quantified the extent to which individuals encounter comparatively more or less diverse content while interacting via Facebook's algorithmically ranked News Feed and further studied users' choices to click through to ideologically discordant content. Compared with algorithmic ranking, individuals' choices played a stronger role in limiting exposure to cross-cutting content. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Food choice in the laboratory pigeon.

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Biedermann, Traci; Garlick, Dennis; Blaisdell, Aaron P

2012-09-01

Although food reward plays a large role in learning and behavioral experiments, there have been few studies examining the most motivating food reward for pigeons. Brown (1969) found that pigeons had a tendency to prefer peas, while Killeen et al. (1993) found pigeons to prefer peas and popcorn in Experiment 1A. We looked to further explore these options as well as expand upon the types of foods examined beyond mainly grains and seeds. Pigeons were presented with six novel foods (granulated peanuts, popping corn, freeze-dried mealworms, bread crumbs, split peas, and sunflower hearts) allocated into two sets of three food items. Once the most consumed food from each food set was determined, they were pooled together with sorghum seeds (a familiar food) to form a third set. Sunflower hearts were the most consumed of all the food items, followed by corn and granulated peanuts. We discuss the potential factors mediating consumption choice, including nutritional profile and food particle size. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Influence of Brand Equity Characters on Children's Food Preferences and Choices.

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McGale, Lauren Sophie; Halford, Jason Christian Grovenor; Harrold, Joanne Alison; Boyland, Emma Jane

2016-10-01

To assess the influence of brand equity characters displayed on food packaging on children's food preferences and choices, 2 studies were conducted. Brand equity characters are developed specifically to represent a particular brand or product. Despite existing literature suggesting that promotional characters influence children's food choices, to date, no research has assessed the influence of brand equity characters specifically. We recruited 209 children 4-8 years of age from schools and childcare centers in the UK. In a mixed-measures design, the children were asked to rate their taste preferences and preferred snack choice for 3 matched food pairs, presented either with or without a brand equity character displayed on packaging. Study 1 addressed congruent food-character associations and study 2 addressed incongruent associations. Participants were also asked to rate their recognition and liking of characters used. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and χ(2) analyses were used where appropriate. Children were significantly more likely to show a preference for foods with a brand equity character displayed on the packaging compared with a matched food without a brand equity character, for both congruent and incongruent food-character associations. The presence of a brand equity character also significantly influenced the children's within-pair preferences, within-pair choices, and overall snack choice (congruent associations only). Displaying brand equity characters promotes unhealthy food choices in children. The findings are consistent with those of studies exploring other types of promotional characters. In the context of a childhood obesity epidemic, the use of brand equity characters in the promotion of foods high in fat, salt, and sugar to children should be restricted. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Food choices in the presence of 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' eating partners.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Eric; Higgs, Suzanne

2013-02-28

Eating with others has been shown to influence the amount of food eaten in a meal or snack. We examined whether choosing food in the presence of another person who is choosing either predominantly low-energy-dense or high-energy-dense foods affects food choices. A between-subjects laboratory-based study was used. A group of 100 young females selected a lunch-time meal from a buffet consisting of a range of high-energy-dense and low-energy-dense foods, in the presence of an 'unhealthy' eating partner (who chose predominantly high-energy-dense foods) or a 'healthy' eating partner (who chose predominantly low-energy-dense foods) or when alone. Participants in the 'unhealthy' eating partner condition were significantly less likely to choose and consume a low-energy-dense food item (carrots), than when choosing alone or in the presence of a 'healthy' eater. Choice of high-energy-dense food did not differ across the conditions, nor did the total energy consumed. These data suggest that social influences on food choice are limited in this context but the presence of an 'unhealthy' eating partner may undermine intentions to consume low-energy-dense foods.

Food Choices of Minority and Low-Income Employees

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, Douglas E.; Riis, Jason; Sonnenberg, Lillian M.; Barraclough, Susan J.; Thorndike, Anne N.

2012-01-01

Background Effective strategies are needed to address obesity, particularly among minority and low-income individuals. Purpose To test whether a two-phase point-of-purchase intervention improved food choices across racial, socioeconomic (job type) groups. Design A 9-month longitudinal study from 2009 to 2010 assessing person-level changes in purchases of healthy and unhealthy foods following sequentially introduced interventions. Data were analyzed in 2011. Setting/participants Participants were 4642 employees of a large hospital in Boston MA who were regular cafeteria patrons. Interventions The first intervention was a traffic light–style color-coded labeling system encouraging patrons to purchase healthy items (labeled green) and avoid unhealthy items (labeled red). The second intervention manipulated “choice architecture” by physically rearranging certain cafeteria items, making green-labeled items more accessible, red-labeled items less accessible. Main outcome measures Proportion of green- (or red-) labeled items purchased by an employee. Subanalyses tracked beverage purchases, including calories and price per beverage. Results Employees self-identified as white (73%), black (10%), Latino (7%), and Asian (10%). Compared to white employees, Latino and black employees purchased a higher proportion of red items at baseline (18%, 28%, and 33%, respectively, p0.05 for interaction between race or job type and intervention). Mean calories per beverage decreased similarly over the study period for all racial groups and job types, with no increase in per-beverage spending. Conclusions Despite baseline differences in healthy food purchases, a simple color-coded labeling and choice architecture intervention improved food and beverage choices among employees from all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. PMID:22898116

Effect of nutrition label format and product assortment on healthfulness of food choice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aschemann-Witzel, Jessica; Grunert, Klaus G; van Trijp, Hans

2013-01-01

This study aims to find out whether front-of-pack nutrition label formats influence the healthfulness of consumers’ food choices and important predictors of healthful choices, depending on the size of the choice set that is made available to consumers. The predictors explored were health motivati...... the results revealed no consistent differences in the effects between the formats, they indicate that manipulating choice sets by including healthier options is an effective strategy to increase the healthfulness of food choices........ The results showed that food choices were more healthful in the extended 20-product (vs. 10-product) choice set and that this effect is stronger than a random choice would produce. The formats colour coding and texts, particularly colour coding in Germany, increased the healthfulness of product choices when...

Does the Swedish consumer's choice of food influence greenhouse gas emissions?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wallen, Anna; Brandt, Nils; Wennersten, Ronald

2004-01-01

Consumer's choice of food can influence the environment. In Sweden, in common with many other countries, consumers need to be given information so they can make environmentally informed shopping choices. However, what is the most advantageous dietary choice to lower greenhouse emissions? This study investigates the greenhouse gas emissions associated with food production for food consumed in Sweden annually. Specifically, this study compares greenhouse gas emissions associated with a nutritionally and environmentally sustainable diet with the average consumption of food in Sweden 1999. The study concludes that the change in energy use and greenhouse gas emission associated with this change of diet is negligible. Lowering greenhouse gas emissions by changing food production processes results in more profound changes than teaching consumers to make environmentally correct choices. There is a basic need for a reduction or a replacement of the use of fossil fuels to produce and distribute our food in order to reach any significant reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases. Swedish agricultural policy does not provide ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In Sweden therefore there is an immediate need to design policy instruments with the primary aim of reducing the greenhouse effect

Unconventional Participation in Time of Crisis: How Ideology Shapes Citizens’ Political Actions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vincenzo Memoli

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Since democracy requires the involvement of citizens, the topic of political participation has attracted great attention from both practitioners and scholars. During the current financial and economic crisis, there have been various protest movements in many European countries. In this paper, which employs data from the European Social Survey and analyzes some European countries using a longitudinal study (2002-2012, I measure unconventional political participation considering three types of action - signed a petition, participated in a lawful demonstration and joined a boycott. By linking citizens to government ideology and vote for party government to political action through a multilevel model, this paper argues that both ideology and citizens’ electoral choices have a bearing on unconventional political participation. In times of crisis, government choices do not feed the level of unconventional political participation. However, differences emerge in terms of political behavior when I consider citizens’ ideology, loser status and government ideology.

Health on Impulse : When Low Self-Control Promotes Healthy Food Choices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salmon, S.J.; Fennis, B.M.; Ridder, D.T.D.; Adriaanse, M.A.; de Vet, E.

Objective: Food choices are often made mindlessly, when individuals are not able or willing to exert self-control. Under low self-control, individuals have difficulties to resist palatable but unhealthy food products. In contrast to previous research aiming to foster healthy choices by promoting

Health on impulse: when low self-control promotes healthy food choices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salmon, S.J.; Fennis, B.M.; Ridder, de D.T.D.; Adriaanse, M.A.; Vet, de E.

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Food choices are often made mindlessly, when individuals are not able or willing to exert self-control. Under low self-control, individuals have difficulties to resist palatable but unhealthy food products. In contrast to previous research aiming to foster healthy choices by promoting

Persistent optimizing: how mothers make food choices for their preschool children.

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Audrey; Meagher-Stewart, Donna; Macdonald, Marilyn

2015-04-01

Mothers' ability to provide healthy food choices for their children has become more complex in our current obesogenic environment. We conducted a total of 35 interviews with 18 mothers of preschool children. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, we developed a substantive theory of how mothers make food choices for their preschoolers. Our substantive theory, persistent optimizing, consists of three main integrated conceptual categories: (a) acknowledging contextual constraints, (b) stretching boundaries, and (c) strategic positioning. Implications to improve mothers' ability to make healthy food choices that reduce their children's risk of becoming overweight or obese are discussed. © The Author(s) 2014.

Changes in a middle school food environment affect food behavior and food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Wordell, Doug; Daratha, Kenn; Mandal, Bidisha; Bindler, Ruth; Butkus, Sue Nicholson

2012-01-01

Increasing rates of obesity among children ages 12 to 19 years have led to recommendations to alter the school food environment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are associations between an altered school food environment and food choices of middle school students both in and outside of school. In a midsized western city, two of six middle schools allowed only bottled water in vending machines, only milk and fruit on à la carte menus, and offered a seasonal fruit and vegetable bar. Three years after the intervention was initiated, seventh- and eighth-grade students attending the two intervention schools and four control middle schools were surveyed about their food choices. A total of 2,292 surveys were completed. Self-reported frequency of consumption for nine food groups in the survey was low; consumption was higher outside than in school. Boys consumed more milk than girls although girls consumed more fruits and vegetables. Significant socioeconomic differences existed. Compared with students who paid the full lunch fee, students qualifying for free and reduced-price meals consumed more milk and juice in schools but less outside school; more candy and energy drinks in school; and more sweet drinks, candy, pastries, and energy drinks outside school. Students in intervention schools were 24% more likely to consume milk outside school, 27% less likely to consume juice in school, and 56% less likely to consume sweet pastries in school. There were no differences in fruit and vegetable consumption reported by children in control and intervention schools. Overall, there was a positive association between a modified school food environment and student food behavior in and outside school. Policies related to the school food environment are an important strategy to address the obesity epidemic in our country. Copyright © 2012 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nutrieconomic model can facilitate healthy and low-cost food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Primavesi, Laura; Caccavelli, Giovanna; Ciliberto, Alessandra; Pauze, Emmanuel

2015-04-01

Promotion of healthy eating can no longer be postponed as a priority, given the alarming growth rate of chronic degenerative diseases in Western countries. We elaborated a nutrieconomic model to assess and identify the most nutritious and affordable food choices. Seventy-one food items representing the main food categories were included and their nationally representative prices monitored. Food composition was determined using CRA-NUT (Centro di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione) and IEO (Istituto Europeo di Oncologia) databases. To define food nutritional quality, the mean adequacy ratio and mean excess ratio were combined. Both prices and nutritional quality were normalised for the edible food content and for the recommended serving sizes for the Italian adult population. Stores located in different provinces throughout Italy. Not applicable. Cereals and legumes presented very similar nutritional qualities and prices per serving. Seasonal fruits and vegetables presented differentiated nutritional qualities and almost equal prices. Products of animal origin showed similar nutritional qualities and varied prices: the best nutrieconomic choices were milk, oily fish and poultry for the dairy products, fish and meat groups, respectively. Analysing two balanced weekly menus, our nutrieconomic model was able to note a significant decrease in cost of approximately 30 % by varying animal-protein sources without affecting nutritional quality. Healthy eating does not necessarily imply spending large amounts of money but rather being able to make nutritionally optimal choices. The nutrieconomic model is an innovative and practical way to help consumers make correct food choices and nutritionists increase the compliance of their patients.

Influence of gender, age and motives underlying food choice on perceived healthiness and willingness to try functional foods.

Science.gov (United States)

Ares, Gastón; Gámbaro, Adriana

2007-07-01

The aims of the present study were to study the effect of different carriers and enrichments on the perceived healthiness and willingness to try functional foods; and to evaluate the effect of age, gender and motives underlying food choice. Participants had to evaluate different functional food concepts and had to answer a food choice questionnaire. Results showed that carrier products had the largest effect on consumers' perception of healthiness and willingness to try of the evaluated functional foods concepts. The highest positive relative utilities were achieved when the enrichment was a functional ingredient inherent in the product. Furthermore, gender, age and motives underlying food choice affected the preference patterns for the evaluated functional foods concepts, but it depended on the carrier and enrichment considered, suggesting that functional foods might not be accepted by all the consumers and that they could be tailored for certain groups.

Serotonin enhances the impact of health information on food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Vlaev, Ivo; Crockett, Molly J; Clark, Luke; Müller, Ulrich; Robbins, Trevor W

2017-06-01

Serotonin has been implicated in promoting self-control, regulation of hunger and physiological homeostasis, and regulation of caloric intake. However, it remains unclear whether the effects of serotonin on caloric intake reflect purely homeostatic mechanisms, or whether serotonin also modulates cognitive processes involved in dietary decision making. We investigated the effects of an acute dose of the serotonin reuptake inhibitor citalopram on choices between food items that differed along taste and health attributes, compared with placebo and the noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor atomoxetine. Twenty-seven participants attended three sessions and received single doses of atomoxetine, citalopram, and placebo in a double-blind randomised cross-over design. Relative to placebo, citalopram increased choices of more healthy foods over less healthy foods. Citalopram also increased the emphasis on health considerations in decisions. Atomoxetine did not affect decision making relative to placebo. The results support the hypothesis that serotonin may influence food choice by enhancing a focus on long-term goals. The findings are relevant for understanding decisions about food consumption and also for treating health conditions such as eating disorders and obesity.

Model for understanding consumer textural food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeltema, Melissa; Beckley, Jacqueline; Vahalik, Jennifer

2015-05-01

The current paradigm for developing products that will match the marketing messaging is flawed because the drivers of product choice and satisfaction based on texture are misunderstood. Qualitative research across 10 years has led to the thesis explored in this research that individuals have a preferred way to manipulate food in their mouths (i.e., mouth behavior) and that this behavior is a major driver of food choice, satisfaction, and the desire to repurchase. Texture, which is currently thought to be a major driver of product choice, is a secondary factor, and is important only in that it supports the primary driver-mouth behavior. A model for mouth behavior is proposed and the qualitative research supporting the identification of different mouth behaviors is presented. The development of a trademarked typing tool for characterizing mouth behavior is described along with quantitative substantiation of the tool's ability to group individuals by mouth behavior. The use of these four groups to understand textural preferences and the implications for a variety of areas including product design and weight management are explored.

Food choice motives and bread liking of consumers embracing hedonistic and traditional values.

Science.gov (United States)

Pohjanheimo, Terhi; Paasovaara, Rami; Luomala, Harri; Sandell, Mari

2010-02-01

This study addresses the effect of personal values on consumers' food choice motives and on the liking of bread. A total of 224 consumers participated in the study in three groups: traditional and hedonistic consumers, who presented opposite value types according to the Schwartz value theory, and a control group. Three different rye breads were evaluated for liking and their sensory profiles were determined. The consumer groups' values, food choice motives measured with the Food Choice Questionnaire and a Concern scale, and liking of the breads differed significantly according to the analysis of variance and a partial least squares regression analysis. For hedonistic consumers, rye bread characterized by a soft and porous texture influenced liking positively, and food choice motives "mood" and "price" correlated positively with their values. Traditional consumers were more positive toward different types of rye bread, and food choice motives "natural content", "familiarity" and "health concern" were more important to them than to hedonists. Overall, this study demonstrated that values are connected to food choice motives and, to some extent liking and, thus, values can be utilized both in product development and in advertising. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Drug specificity in drug versus food choice in male rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Tunstall, Brendan J; Riley, Anthony L; Kearns, David N

2014-08-01

Although different classes of drug differ in their mechanisms of reinforcement and effects on behavior, little research has focused on differences in self-administration behaviors maintained by users of these drugs. Persistent drug choice despite available reinforcement alternatives has been proposed to model behavior relevant to addiction. The present study used a within-subjects procedure, where male rats (Long-Evans, N = 16) were given a choice between cocaine (1.0 mg/kg/infusion) and food (a single 45-mg grain pellet) or between heroin (0.02 mg/kg/infusion) and food in separate phases (drug order counterbalanced). All rats were initially trained to self-administer each drug, and the doses used were based on previous studies showing that small subsets of rats tend to prefer drug over food reinforcement. The goal of the present study was to determine whether rats that prefer cocaine would also prefer heroin. Choice sessions consisted of 2 forced-choice trials with each reinforcer, followed by 14 free-choice trials (all trials separated by 10-min intertrial interval). Replicating previous results, small subsets of rats preferred either cocaine (5 of the 16 rats) or heroin (2 of the 16 rats) to the food alternative. Although 1 of the 16 rats demonstrated a preference for both cocaine and heroin to the food alternative, there was no relationship between degree of cocaine and heroin preference in individual rats. The substance-specific pattern of drug preference observed suggests that at least in this animal model, the tendencies to prefer cocaine or heroin in preference to a nondrug alternative are distinct behavioral phenomena.

Individual differences in political ideology are effects of adaptive error management.

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Michael Bang; Aarøe, Lene

2014-06-01

We apply error management theory to the analysis of individual differences in the negativity bias and political ideology. Using principles from evolutionary psychology, we propose a coherent theoretical framework for understanding (1) why individuals differ in their political ideology and (2) the conditions under which these individual differences influence and fail to influence the political choices people make.

Influence of social norms and palatability on amount consumed and food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Pliner, Patricia; Mann, Nikki

2004-04-01

In two parallel studies, we examined the effect of social influence and palatability on amount consumed and on food choice. In Experiment 1, which looked at amount consumed, participants were provided with either palatable or unpalatable food; they were also given information about how much previous participants had eaten (large or small amounts) or were given no information. In the case of palatable food, participants ate more when led to believe that prior participants had eaten a great deal than when led to believe that prior participants had eaten small amounts or when provided with no information. This social-influence effect was not present when participants received unpalatable food. In Experiment 2, which looked at food choice, some participants learned that prior participants had chosen the palatable food, others learned that prior participants had chosen the unpalatable food, while still others received no information about prior participants' choices. The social-influence manipulation had no effect on participants' food choices; nearly all of them chose the palatable food. The results were discussed in the context of Churchfield's (1995) distinction between judgments about matters of fact and judgments about preferences. The results were also used to illustrate the importance of palatability as a determinant of eating behavior.

Supermarket Choice, Shopping Behavior, Socioeconomic Status, and Food Purchases.

Science.gov (United States)

Pechey, Rachel; Monsivais, Pablo

2015-12-01

Both SES and supermarket choice have been associated with diet quality. This study aimed to assess the contributions of supermarket choice and shopping behaviors to the healthfulness of purchases and social patterning in purchases. Observational panel data on purchases of fruit and vegetables and less-healthy foods/beverages from 2010 were obtained for 24,879 households, stratified by occupational social class (analyzed in 2014). Households' supermarket choice was determined by whether they ever visited market-defined high- or low-price supermarkets. Analyses also explored extent of use within supermarket choice groups. Shopping behaviors included trip frequency, trip size, and number of store chains visited. Households using low-price (and not high-price) supermarkets purchased significantly lower percentages of energy from fruit and vegetables and higher percentages of energy from less-healthy foods/beverages than households using high-price (and not low-price) supermarkets. When controlling for SES and shopping behaviors, the effect of supermarket choice was reduced but remained significant for both fruit and vegetables and less-healthy foods/beverages. The extent of use of low- or high-price supermarkets had limited effects on outcomes. More-frequent trips and fewer small trips were associated with healthier purchasing for both outcomes; visiting more store chains was associated with higher percentages of energy from fruit and vegetables. Although both supermarket choice and shopping behaviors are associated with healthfulness of purchases, neither appears to contribute to socioeconomic differences. Moreover, differences between supermarket environments may not be primary drivers of the relationship between supermarket choice and healthfulness of purchases. Copyright © 2015 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Factors Influencing Food Choices Among Older Adults in the Rural Western USA.

Science.gov (United States)

Byker Shanks, Carmen; Haack, Sarah; Tarabochia, Dawn; Bates, Kate; Christenson, Lori

2017-06-01

Nutrition is an essential component in promoting health and quality of life into the older adults years. The purpose of this qualitative research is to explore how the rural food environment influences food choices of older adults. Four focus groups were conducted with 33 older adults (50 years of age and older) residing in rural Montana communities. Four major themes related to factors influencing food choices among rural older adults emerged from this study: perception of the rural community environment, support as a means of increasing food access, personal access to food sources, and dietary factors. The findings from this current study warrant further research and promotion of specifically tailored approaches that influence the food choices of older adults in the rural western USA, including the developing and expanding public transportation systems, increasing availability of local grocers with quality and affordable food options, increasing awareness and decreasing stigma surrounding community food programs, and increasing nutrition education targeting senior health issues.

Hedonic changes in food choices following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Thea Toft; Jakobsen, Tine Anette; Nielsen, Mette Søndergaard

2016-01-01

It has been suggested that a shift in food choices leading to a diet with a lower energy density plays an important role in successful weight loss after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery. A decreased hedonic drive to consume highly palatable foods may explain these changes in eating behavio...... to consume highly palatable foods. Still, in order to fully understand the complexity of these changes, we need studies combining sociological and psychological approaches with objective measures of actual food choices examining different measures of hedonic drive....

Instruments for analysing the influence of advertising on children's food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Gwozdz, W; Reisch, L A

2011-04-01

The aim of this report was to present methodological aspects of assessing the effects of advertising on children's food choices and preferences. Two instruments have been used: first, a choice experiment on children's food knowledge and preferences, and second, a questionnaire on children's knowledge about and attitudes towards advertising. The choice experiment employed 10 matched pairs of food items, each represented in two magazines, one that tested knowledge and the other food preferences. The children's questionnaire contained four dimensions that tested children's credibility and suspiciousness of, as well as entertainment by, advertising. Although based on already developed tools, both instruments were modified to suit the young target group and ensure cross-cultural comparability. The questionnaire was validated via Cronbach's alpha and factor analysis. A total of 393 children aged 5-11 years from seven European countries participated in the study. Both instruments proved to be valid and reliable to analyse the food knowledge and preferences of children, as well as knowledge about and attitudes towards advertising. While 92.2% of the children predominantly recognised the healthier food, only 33.2% also preferred the healthier food. The Cronbach's alpha values for the dimensions were 0.470 for credibility, 0.409 for suspiciousness and 0.295 for entertainment factor. The gathered data revealed that children are rather critical and suspicious of advertising and only moderately entertained. Both instruments are applicable for the 5- to 11-year-old age group in different European countries. Descriptive results indicate additional insights into the effects of advertising on children's food knowledge, preferences and food choice.

Consumption intention toward ethnic food: determinants of Dayak food choice by Malaysians

OpenAIRE

Ting, Hiram; Tan, Sharon; Alexandra Nastassia, John

2017-01-01

Background: The awareness and trying of ethnic cuisine have increased due to the developing exchange of trade, movement of ethnicities across the globe, and tourist traveling opportunities. More people consume ethnic food for the appreciation of the culture and taste. Although the Dayaks are the largest indigenous group in Malaysia, little is done to date to explicate why Malaysians consume Dayak food. The present study aims to investigate the Dayak food choice of non-Dayak Malaysians and to ...

Attention to food and beverage advertisements as measured by eye-tracking technology and the food preferences and choices of youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Velazquez, Cayley E; Pasch, Keryn E

2014-04-01

The purpose of this study was to examine how objective measures of attention to food/beverage advertising were associated with the unhealthy food/beverage preferences and choices of children and adolescents. A self-report survey and eye-tracking session were completed by 102 youth (mean age=11.6 years; 56.4% were white; 43.1% were female) between April and November 2010. Participants viewed 40 food/beverage advertisements on a computer and their eye movements were recorded. Objective attention measures included total viewing time, fixation length (time spent viewing characters/logos, unhealthy food/beverage items), and fixation count (number of times an individual stops to examine characters/logos, unhealthy food/beverage items). Food/beverage preferences and choices were measured by self-report. The preferences index summed responses to 12 questions measuring snack food and sugar-sweetened beverage preferences and the choices index summed responses to eight questions measuring consumption of snack foods and sugar-sweetened beverages. Regression models examined whether attention to food/beverage advertising was associated with food preferences and choices, controlling for sex, age, and body mass index z score. The length of time and number of times participants looked at unhealthy food and beverage items within advertisements were each significantly associated with unhealthy food/beverage preferences of youth (Ppurchase requests, given the important role of parents in the decision-making process surrounding food choice. Copyright © 2014 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Estradiol increases choice of cocaine over food in male rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Bagley, Jared R; Adams, Julia; Bozadjian, Rachel V; Bubalo, Lana; Ploense, Kyle L; Kippin, Tod E

2017-10-19

Estradiol modulates the rewarding and reinforcing properties of cocaine in females, including an increase in selection of cocaine over alternative reinforcers. However, the effects of estradiol on male cocaine self-administration behavior are less studied despite equivalent levels of estradiol in the brains of adult males and females, estradiol effects on motivated behaviors in males that share underlying neural substrates with cocaine reinforcement as well as expression of estrogen receptors in the male brain. Therefore, we sought to characterize the effects of estradiol in males on choice between concurrently-available cocaine and food reinforcement as well as responding for cocaine or food in isolation. Male castrated rats (n=46) were treated daily with estradiol benzoate (EB) (5μg/0.1, S.C.) or vehicle (peanut oil) throughout operant acquisition of cocaine (1mg/kg, IV; FI20 sec) and food (3×45mg; FI20 sec) responding, choice during concurrent access and cocaine and food reinforcement under progressive ratio (PR) schedules. EB increased cocaine choice, both in terms of percent of trials on which cocaine was selected and the proportion of rats exhibiting a cocaine preference as well as increased cocaine, but not food, intake under PR. Additionally, within the EB treated group, cocaine-preferring rats exhibited enhanced acquisition of cocaine, but not food, reinforcement whereas no acquisition differences were observed across preferences in the vehicle treated group. These findings demonstrate that estradiol increases cocaine choice in males similarly to what is observed in females. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Factors affecting food choices of older adults from high and low socioeconomic groups: a discrete choice experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Kamphuis, Carlijn B M; de Bekker-Grob, Esther W; van Lenthe, Frank J

2015-04-01

Healthiness, price, and convenience are typically indicated as important motives for food choices; however, it is largely unknown to what extent older adults from high and low socioeconomic groups differ in these underlying motives. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) is an innovative way to elicit implicit motives for food choices. The aim was to investigate differences in food motives between socioeconomic groups by means of a DCE. A DCE was carried out during a face-to-face interview among older adults as part of the Health and Living Conditions in Eindhoven and surrounding cities (GLOBE) cohort study, The Netherlands. Participants (n = 399; mean age: 63.3 y) were offered a series of choice sets about a usual dinner at home and were asked to choose in each choice set between 2 meals and an opt-out choice, with different combinations of attribute levels. We included 5 meal attributes (taste, healthiness, preparation time, travel time to shops, and price) and 3 or 4 levels for each attribute. Data were analyzed by multinomial logit models. Healthiness, taste, price, and travel time to the grocery store proved to significantly influence older adults' meal decisions; preparation time was not significant. Healthiness was the most important attribute for all of the participants. More highly educated participants rated a healthy and less expensive meal to be more important than did less educated participants. Those with a high income rated a meal that was healthy and very tasteful to be more important than did those with a lower income. Healthiness, taste, price, and travel time to grocery shops influenced older adults' meal decisions. Higher socioeconomic groups valued health more than did lower socioeconomic groups. DCEs represent a promising method to gain insight into the relative importance of motives for food choices. This trial was registered at www.isrctn.com as ISRCTN60293770. © 2015 American Society for Nutrition.

Pairing images of unhealthy and healthy foods with images of negative and positive health consequences: Impact on attitudes and food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Hollands, Gareth J; Marteau, Theresa M

2016-08-01

To examine the impact of presenting images of foods paired with images of positive and negative health consequences of their consumption on food choice and attitudes. Participants (N = 711) were randomly allocated in a 2 × 3 factorial design (Food Type × Affective Valence) to 1 of 6 conditioning procedures that paired images of either energy-dense snack foods or fruit, with (a) images of negative health outcomes, (b) images of positive health outcomes, or (c) a no image control. The primary outcome was food choice assessed postintervention with a behavioral choice task. Secondary outcomes were implicit attitudes (assessed pre- and postintervention) and explicit attitudes (assessed postintervention). Presenting images of negative health outcomes led to more healthy food choices relative to control and positive image conditions, irrespective of whether they were paired with images of energy-dense snack foods or fruit. This relationship was partially mediated by changes in implicit and explicit attitudes. Images of positive health outcomes did not alter food choices. This study replicates and extends previous research showing that presenting images of negative health consequences increases healthy food choices. Because effects were elicited by manipulating affective valence irrespective of paired food type, these results appear more consistent with an explanation based on priming than on evaluative conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Delay discounting of food by rhesus monkeys: Cocaine and food choice in isomorphic and allomorphic situations.

Science.gov (United States)

Huskinson, Sally L; Woolverton, William L; Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel; Freeman, Kevin B

2015-06-01

Research on delay discounting has focused largely on nondrug reinforcers in an isomorphic context in which choice is between alternatives that involve the same type of reinforcer. Less often, delay discounting has been studied with drug reinforcers in a more ecologically valid allomorphic context where choice is between alternatives involving different types of reinforcers. The present experiment is the first to examine discounting of drug and nondrug reinforcers in both isomorphic and allomorphic situations using a theoretical model (i.e., the hyperbolic discounting function) that allows for comparisons of discounting rates between reinforcer types and amounts. The goal of the current experiment was to examine discounting of a delayed, nondrug reinforcer (food) by male rhesus monkeys when the immediate alternative was either food (isomorphic situation) or cocaine (allomorphic situation). In addition, we sought to determine whether there was a magnitude effect with delayed food in the allomorphic situation. Choice of immediate food and immediate cocaine increased with amount and dose, respectively. Choice functions for immediate food and cocaine generally shifted leftward as delay increased. Compared to isomorphic situations in which food was the immediate alternative, delayed food was discounted more steeply in allomorphic situations where cocaine was the immediate alternative. Notably, discounting was not affected by the magnitude of the delayed reinforcer. These data indicate that how steeply a delayed nondrug reinforcer is discounted may depend more on the qualitative characteristics of the immediate reinforcer and less on the magnitude of the delayed one. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Influencing Food Selection with Point-of-Choice Nutrition Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis-Chervin, Doryn; And Others

1985-01-01

Evaluated the effectiveness of a point-of-choice nutrition information program that used a comprehensive set of communication functions in its design. Results indicate that point-of-choice information without direct tangible rewards can (to a moderate degree) modify food-selection behavior of cafeteria patrons. (JN)

Choosing front-of-package food labelling nutritional criteria: how smart were 'Smart Choices'?

Science.gov (United States)

Roberto, Christina A; Bragg, Marie A; Livingston, Kara A; Harris, Jennifer L; Thompson, Jackie M; Seamans, Marissa J; Brownell, Kelly D

2012-02-01

The 'Smart Choices' programme was an industry-driven, front-of-package (FOP) nutritional labelling system introduced in the USA in August 2009, ostensibly to help consumers select healthier options during food shopping. Its nutritional criteria were developed by members of the food industry in collaboration with nutrition and public health experts and government officials. The aim of the present study was to test the extent to which products labelled as 'Smart Choices' could be classified as healthy choices on the basis of the Nutrient Profile Model (NPM), a non-industry-developed, validated nutritional standard. A total of 100 packaged products that qualified for a 'Smart Choices' designation were sampled from eight food and beverage categories. All products were evaluated using the NPM method. In all, 64 % of the products deemed 'Smart Choices' did not meet the NPM standard for a healthy product. Within each 'Smart Choices' category, 0 % of condiments, 8·70 % of fats and oils, 15·63 % of cereals and 31·58 % of snacks and sweets met NPM thresholds. All sampled soups, beverages, desserts and grains deemed 'Smart Choices' were considered healthy according to the NPM standard. The 'Smart Choices' programme is an example of industries' attempts at self-regulation. More than 60 % of foods that received the 'Smart Choices' label did not meet standard nutritional criteria for a 'healthy' food choice, suggesting that industries' involvement in designing labelling systems should be scrutinized. The NPM system may be a good option as the basis for establishing FOP labelling criteria, although more comparisons with other systems are needed.

What should primary health care practitioners know about factors influencing young people’s food choices?

OpenAIRE

Louise Holmberg; John Coveney; Julie Henderson; Samantha Meyer

2010-01-01

BackgroundTo identify factors that determine the nature and extent ofyoung consumers trust in food; sources of information whichinfluence young consumer food choices; and how trustimpacts on young people’s food choices.MethodIn-depth qualitative research interviews were conducted withyoung women and men, who are the primary food purchasersin their household (n=8)ResultsFood choices of young adults were generally determined bycost and convenience. The overall perception was thatAustralian food...

The structure of a food product assortment modulates the effect of providing choice on food intake.

Science.gov (United States)

Parizel, Odile; Sulmont-Rossé, Claire; Fromentin, Gilles; Delarue, Julien; Labouré, Hélène; Benamouzig, Robert; Marsset-Baglieri, Agnès

2016-09-01

Several authors showed that providing choice may increase food liking and food intake. However, the impact of choice may be modulated by assortment's characteristics, such as the number of alternatives or their dissimilarity. The present study compared the impact of choice on food liking and intake under the two following conditions: (1) when choosing a product to consume from among similar products versus dissimilar products; and (2) when choosing a product to consume from among pleasant products versus unpleasant products. Two experiments were carried out using the same design: the "apple puree" experiment (n = 80), where the volunteers choose from among similar products (apple purees varying in texture) and the "dessert" experiment (n = 80), where the volunteers choose from among dissimilar products (fruit dessert, dairy dessert, custard, pudding). During the first session, participants rated their liking for 12 products (apples purees or desserts). Then the participants were divided into a "pleasant" group (n = 40) in which volunteers were assigned three pleasant products, and an "unpleasant" group (n = 40) in which volunteers were assigned three unpleasant products. Finally, all of the volunteers participated in a choice session - volunteers were presented with their three assigned products and asked to choose one of the products, and a no-choice session - volunteers were served with one product that was randomly selected from among their three assigned products. Providing choice led to an increase in food liking in both experiments and an increase in food intake only for the desserts, namely only when the volunteers chose the product to consume from among "not too similar" alternatives. No effect of assortment's pleasantness was observed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Providing Choice in Exercise Influences Food Intake at the Subsequent Meal.

Science.gov (United States)

Beer, Natalya J; Dimmock, James A; Jackson, Ben; Guelfi, Kym J

2017-10-01

The benefits of regular exercise for health are well established; however, certain behaviors after exercise, such as unhealthy or excessive food consumption, can counteract some of these benefits. To investigate the effect of autonomy support (through the provision of choice) in exercise-relative to a no-choice condition with matched energy expenditure-on appetite and subsequent energy intake. Fifty-eight men and women (body mass index, 22.9 ± 2.3 kg·m; peak oxygen consumption, 52.7 ± 6.4 mL·kg·min) completed one familiarization session and one experimental trial, in which they were randomized to either a choice or no-choice exercise condition using a between-subjects yoked design. Ad libitum energy intake from a laboratory test meal was assessed after exercise, together with perceptions of mood, perceived choice, enjoyment, and value. Despite similar ratings of perceived appetite across conditions (P > 0.05), energy intake was significantly higher after exercise performed under the no-choice condition (2456 ± 1410 kJ) compared with the choice condition (1668 ± 1215 kJ; P = 0.026; d = 0.60). In particular, the proportion of energy intake from unhealthy foods was significantly greater after exercise in the no-choice condition (1412 ± 1304 kJ) compared with the choice condition (790 ± 861 kJ; P = 0.037, d = 0.56). Participants in the choice condition also reported higher perceptions of choice (P 0.05). A lack of choice in exercise is associated with greater energy intake from "unhealthy" foods in recovery. This finding highlights the importance of facilitating an autonomy supportive environment during exercise prescription and instruction.

The influence of time of day on decision fatigue in online food choice experiments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Søren Bøye; Meyerhoff, Jürgen; Mørkbak, Morten Raun

2017-01-01

is linked with knowledge from a food sociology survey on typical meal times as well as biophysical research linking food intake to blood sugar and mental energy in order to generate a proxy variable for each respondent’s level of mental energy when answering the food choice tasks in the questionnaire......Purpose: Fatigue effects related to answering a sequence of choice tasks have received much scrutiny in the stated choice experiments (SCE) literature. However, decision fatigue related to the time of day when respondents answer questionnaires has been largely overlooked in this literature even...... though time of day related fatigue effects are well known in the psychology literature. The purpose of this paper is to hypothesize that variations in the time of day when respondents answer an online food choice experiment will translate into observable fatigue effects in the food choices. Design...

On Your Own: Older Adults’ Food Choice and Dietary Habits

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emily Whitelock

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The United Kingdom, in common with many countries, has an ageing demographic. Changes accompanying ageing can influence food choice and dietary habits. This study explored older adults’ perceptions and practices related to dietary behaviour and the factors influencing their food choice in later life. Semi-structured focus-group discussions were conducted with 30 individuals (aged 63–90 years in a UK city. An inductive thematic approach was adopted for data analysis, and 4 themes and 12 sub-themes emerged: age-related changes (lower appetite, food changes, declining physical function; food access (food cost, support with food, maintaining independence; on your own (cooking for one, eating alone, shopping for one; and relationship with food (food variety, eating what you want, dieting. These influenced participants’ food acquisition, food preparation and cooking, as well as eating habits. Living alone and its substantial influence, as well as associated social isolation and loneliness, were highlighted in many of the discussions. Given the possible implications for nutritional intake, further work is recommended in this area. Likewise, steps should be taken to improve food access, increase opportunities for commensal eating and, fundamentally, address social isolation and loneliness in the older population.

On Your Own: Older Adults' Food Choice and Dietary Habits.

Science.gov (United States)

Whitelock, Emily; Ensaff, Hannah

2018-03-27

The United Kingdom, in common with many countries, has an ageing demographic. Changes accompanying ageing can influence food choice and dietary habits. This study explored older adults' perceptions and practices related to dietary behaviour and the factors influencing their food choice in later life. Semi-structured focus-group discussions were conducted with 30 individuals (aged 63-90 years) in a UK city. An inductive thematic approach was adopted for data analysis, and 4 themes and 12 sub-themes emerged: age-related changes (lower appetite, food changes, declining physical function); food access (food cost, support with food, maintaining independence); on your own (cooking for one, eating alone, shopping for one); and relationship with food (food variety, eating what you want, dieting). These influenced participants' food acquisition, food preparation and cooking, as well as eating habits. Living alone and its substantial influence, as well as associated social isolation and loneliness, were highlighted in many of the discussions. Given the possible implications for nutritional intake, further work is recommended in this area. Likewise, steps should be taken to improve food access, increase opportunities for commensal eating and, fundamentally, address social isolation and loneliness in the older population.

On Your Own: Older Adults’ Food Choice and Dietary Habits

Science.gov (United States)

Whitelock, Emily; Ensaff, Hannah

2018-01-01

The United Kingdom, in common with many countries, has an ageing demographic. Changes accompanying ageing can influence food choice and dietary habits. This study explored older adults’ perceptions and practices related to dietary behaviour and the factors influencing their food choice in later life. Semi-structured focus-group discussions were conducted with 30 individuals (aged 63–90 years) in a UK city. An inductive thematic approach was adopted for data analysis, and 4 themes and 12 sub-themes emerged: age-related changes (lower appetite, food changes, declining physical function); food access (food cost, support with food, maintaining independence); on your own (cooking for one, eating alone, shopping for one); and relationship with food (food variety, eating what you want, dieting). These influenced participants’ food acquisition, food preparation and cooking, as well as eating habits. Living alone and its substantial influence, as well as associated social isolation and loneliness, were highlighted in many of the discussions. Given the possible implications for nutritional intake, further work is recommended in this area. Likewise, steps should be taken to improve food access, increase opportunities for commensal eating and, fundamentally, address social isolation and loneliness in the older population. PMID:29584644

?Choice Set? for health behavior in choice-constrained settings to frame research and inform policy: examples of food consumption, obesity and food security

OpenAIRE

Dover, Robert V. H.; Lambert, Estelle V.

2016-01-01

Objectives Using the nexus between food consumption, food security and obesity, this paper addresses the complexity of health behavior decision-making moments that reflect relational social dynamics in context-specific dialogues, often in choice-constrained conditions. Methods A pragmatic review of literature regarding social determinants of health in relation to food consumption, food security and obesity was used to advance this theoretical model. Results and discussion We suggest that heal...

Why women of lower educational attainment struggle to make healthier food choices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lawrence, Wendy; Skinner, Chas; Haslam, Cheryl

2009-01-01

Women of lower educational attainment are more likely to eat unhealthy diets than women of higher educational attainment. To identify influences on the food choices of women with lower educational attainment, 11 focus groups (eight with women of lower, and three with women of higher educational...... attainment) were held. Using a semi-structured discussion guide, environmental, social, historical and psychological factors known to be associated with food choice were explored. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Compared to women of higher educational attainment, women...... of lower educational attainment had less control over their families' food choices, less support for attempts to eat healthily, fewer opportunities to observe and learn good food-related practices, more negative affect, more perceived environmental constraints and more ambiguous beliefs about...

Regulatory focus and food choice motives. Prevention orientation associated with mood, convenience, and familiarity.

Science.gov (United States)

Pula, Kacy; Parks, Craig D; Ross, Carolyn F

2014-07-01

The authors tested the robustness of the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) with a U.S. sample and examined the relationship between individual differences in regulatory focus and everyday food choice motives. Although a popular measure in cross-culture research, the FCQ has seen limited use with U.S. samples, and its psychometric properties have not been tested in this population. American participants (n = 408) completed the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire and a measure of food choice motives. The data did not support the nine-factor FCQ structure. An ad hoc revised measure of food choice motives showed complete measurement invariance (loadings, intercepts, and residuals) across regulatory focus. Regarding everyday food choices, participants with a prevention focus placed greater importance on mood, convenience, and familiarity than participants with a promotion focus. There were no significant differences regarding the importance of health, environmental protection, impression management, natural content, price, and sensory appeal. Several food choice motives were positively correlated. Compared with the promotion-focused participants, the prevention-focused participants more strongly associated the importance of sensory appeal with the importance of natural content and the importance of price. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An experimental study on the effects of exposure to magazine advertising on children's food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Sandra C; Kervin, Lisa

2011-08-01

The present study sought to determine the feasibility of an experimental research design to investigate the effects of exposure to magazine advertising on children's food choices. Children were randomized to read either a magazine with food advertisements or a magazine with no food advertisements. They then chose two food items from the intervention 'store' to eat after the session. Data were also collected on attitudes to advertising and snack food preferences. Finally, participants' parents were provided with a self-completion survey on food choices and other variables (n 24). Three vacation care centres in regional New South Wales, Australia. Children aged 5-12 years (n 47). Children in the experimental condition were more likely to choose advertised foods than those in the control group. Interestingly, the majority reported taste and healthiness as the most important factors in snack food choices; however, when faced with the actual food choice, they predominantly chose unhealthy foods (eighty-two unhealthy and only twelve healthy items were chosen). This was the first study to assess the effects on children of exposure to food advertising within the context of reading a child-targeted magazine. Importantly, even with the small sample size and venue limitations, we found that exposure to magazine advertising influenced food choices. Children's magazines are an under-researched and poorly regulated medium, with considerable potential to influence children's food choices. The present study shows that the methodology is feasible, and future studies could replicate this with larger samples.

Food choice motives, attitude towards and intention to adopt personalised nutrition.

Science.gov (United States)

Rankin, Audrey; Bunting, Brendan P; Poínhos, Rui; van der Lans, Ivo A; Fischer, Arnout Rh; Kuznesof, Sharron; Almeida, Mdv; Markovina, Jerko; Frewer, Lynn J; Stewart-Knox, Barbara J

2018-05-17

The present study explored associations between food choice motives, attitudes towards and intention to adopt personalised nutrition, to inform communication strategies based on consumer priorities and concerns.Design/SettingA survey was administered online which included the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) and items assessing attitudes towards and intention to adopt personalised nutrition. Nationally representative samples were recruited in nine EU countries (n 9381). Structural equation modelling indicated that the food choice motives 'weight control', 'mood', 'health' and 'ethical concern' had a positive association and 'price' had a negative association with attitude towards, and intention to adopt, personalised nutrition. 'Health' was positively associated and 'familiarity' negatively associated with attitude towards personalised nutrition. The effects of 'weight control', 'ethical concern', 'mood' and 'price' on intention to adopt personalised nutrition were partially mediated by attitude. The effects of 'health' and 'familiarity' were fully mediated by attitude. 'Sensory appeal' was negatively and directly associated with intention to adopt personalised nutrition. Personalised nutrition providers may benefit from taking into consideration the importance of underlying determinants of food choice in potential users, particularly weight control, mood and price, when promoting services and in tailoring communications that are motivationally relevant.

Shopping for food with children: A strategy for directing their choices toward novel foods containing vegetables.

Science.gov (United States)

Allirot, Xavier; Maiz, Edurne; Urdaneta, Elena

2018-01-01

Involving children in the different steps of meal preparation has been suggested as a strategy for enhancing dietary habits in childhood. It has previously been shown that involving children in cooking can increase their willingness to taste novel foods and direct their food choices towards foods containing vegetables. The objective of the present study was to assess the effect of involving children in food purchasing on food choices, intake, liking and appetite. A between-subject experiment was conducted with 86 children (from 8 to 10 years old). Forty-three children (PURCHASE group) participated in a workshop dedicated to purchasing the necessary ingredients online for the preparation of three unfamiliar foods containing vegetables: apple and beetroot juice, zucchini tortilla sandwich and spinach cookies. Forty-three children (CONTROL group) participated instead in a creativity workshop. Afterwards, all the children were invited to choose, for an afternoon snack, between three familiar vs. unfamiliar foods: orange vs. apple and beetroot juice, potatoes vs. zucchini tortilla sandwich and chocolate vs. spinach cookie. The mean number of unfamiliar foods chosen per child was higher in the PURCHASE (0.70 ± 0.14) vs. CONTROL (0.19 ± 0.07) group (P = 0.003). The liking for 1 of the 3 unfamiliar foods was higher in the PURCHASE group (P < 0.05). We did not find any difference between the two groups in food intake estimation and in the levels of subjective appetite. This study demonstrates that involving children in purchasing food can help in directing their food choices towards unfamiliar foods containing vegetables. It highlights the importance of involving children in the different steps of meal preparation for decreasing food neophobia. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hedonic Changes in Food Choices Following Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Thea Toft; Jakobsen, Tine Anette; Nielsen, Mette Søndergaard; Sjödin, Anders; Le Roux, Carel W; Schmidt, Julie Berg

2016-08-01

It has been suggested that a shift in food choices leading to a diet with a lower energy density plays an important role in successful weight loss after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery. A decreased hedonic drive to consume highly palatable foods may explain these changes in eating behavior. Here, we review the literature examining postoperative changes in mechanisms contributing to hedonic drive (food preferences, reinforcing value of food, dopamine signaling, and activity reward-related brain regions). The majority of studies reviewed support that RYGB decrease the hedonic drive to consume highly palatable foods. Still, in order to fully understand the complexity of these changes, we need studies combining sociological and psychological approaches with objective measures of actual food choices examining different measures of hedonic drive.

Food Choices under Stress: Considering Internet Usage and Social Support

OpenAIRE

Drescher, Larissa S.; Hasselbach, Johanna

2014-01-01

It is a known fact that stress negatively affects food choices. Consequentially, this paper analyzes three different research questions using a sample of 330 international students in Germany. Firstly, it is observed if stress affects students’ motivations to eat, i.e. if it triggers changes in the motivation behind food choices. Results show that this is not the case. Secondly, it is tested if social support acts as a buffer on the relationship between stress and healthy eating, similarly to...

Development of a measure of the motives underlying the selection of food: the food choice questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Steptoe, A; Pollard, T M; Wardle, J

1995-12-01

A number of factors are thought to influence people's dietary choices, including health, cost, convenience and taste, but there are no measures that address health-related and non-health-related factors in a systematic fashion. This paper describes the development of a multidimensional measure of motives related to food choice. The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) was developed through factor analysis of responses from a sample of 358 adults ranging in age from 18 to 87 years. Nine factors emerged, and were labelled health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity and ethical concern. The questionnaire structure was verified using confirmatory factor analysis in a second sample (n = 358), and test-retest reliability over a 2- to 3-week period was satisfactory. Convergent validity was investigated by testing associations between FCQ scales and measures of dietary restraint, eating style, the value of health, health locus of control and personality factors. Differences in motives for food choice associated with sex, age and income were found. The potential uses of this measure in health psychology and other areas are discussed.

Glucocorticoid Regulation of Food-Choice Behavior in Humans: Evidence from Cushing's Syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Moeller, Scott J; Couto, Lizette; Cohen, Vanessa; Lalazar, Yelena; Makotkine, Iouri; Williams, Nia; Yehuda, Rachel; Goldstein, Rita Z; Geer, Eliza B

2016-01-01

The mechanisms by which glucocorticoids regulate food intake and resulting body mass in humans are not well-understood. One potential mechanism could involve modulation of reward processing, but human stress models examining effects of glucocorticoids on behavior contain important confounds. Here, we studied individuals with Cushing's syndrome, a rare endocrine disorder characterized by chronic excess endogenous glucocorticoids. Twenty-three patients with Cushing's syndrome (13 with active disease; 10 with disease in remission) and 15 controls with a comparably high body mass index (BMI) completed two simulated food-choice tasks (one with "explicit" task contingencies and one with "probabilistic" task contingencies), during which they indicated their objective preference for viewing high calorie food images vs. standardized pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral images. All participants also completed measures of food craving, and approximately half of the participants provided 24-h urine samples for assessment of cortisol and cortisone concentrations. Results showed that on the explicit task (but not the probabilistic task), participants with active Cushing's syndrome made fewer food-related choices than participants with Cushing's syndrome in remission, who in turn made fewer food-related choices than overweight controls. Corroborating this group effect, higher urine cortisone was negatively correlated with food-related choice in the subsample of all participants for whom these data were available. On the probabilistic task, despite a lack of group differences, higher food-related choice correlated with higher state and trait food craving in active Cushing's patients. Taken together, relative to overweight controls, Cushing's patients, particularly those with active disease, displayed a reduced vigor of responding for food rewards that was presumably attributable to glucocorticoid abnormalities. Beyond Cushing's, these results may have relevance for elucidating

Eating habits and factors affecting food choice of adolescents living in rural areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Bargiota, Alexandra; Pelekanou, Maria; Tsitouras, Andreas; Koukoulis, Georgios N

2013-01-01

To establish factors that affect food choices among adolescents living in rural areas and to identify their food choices. A random sample of adolescents living in a Greek rural area (n=382) aged 12-18 years were individually interviewed. Food consumption was assessed by a semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire and adherence to the Mediterranean diet was evaluated using the KIDMED questionnaire. Information was collected regarding self-perceived body size, dieting, dietary knowledge, parental control, meal and snack frequency, eating out of home, eating takeaways and precooked meals, eating from the school canteen. Body image concerns, dieting, education about food, parental control, maternal education level and eating with family and peers are factors that were found to affect food choices in this group of Greek adolescents. The adherence to the Mediterranean diet was low (KIDMED index was 4.5±2.7). Regular family meals at home were frequent in this group and 99% of the adolescents ate lunch daily at home. Eating out with peers and eating from the school canteen was related with higher consumption of 'junk type of food'. Girls and younger adolescents and those whose mothers had a higher education level seem to make healthier choices. Factors such as personal issues, family and peer pressure significantly affect food choices among adolescents living in a Greek rural area and highlight the importance of implementing multilevel strategies to promote healthy eating among adolescents.

Product samples stimulate choice of unfamiliar healthful food products.

Science.gov (United States)

Schickenberg, B; van Assema, P; Brug, J; de Vries, N K

2011-08-01

The purpose of this study was to assess whether the availability of a product sample of an unfamiliar low-fat or fruit and vegetable products stimulates choice for this product among food neophobic young adults. The study had a 2 (experimental vs. control group) by 4 (low-fat bread spread, low-fat cheese, fruit juice, fruit and vegetable juice) between subjects design with a pre-and post-experiment questionnaire. The study was conducted in restaurant rooms of several educational institutions in the Netherlands among a convenience sample of 197 food neophobic young adults aged 17-25 years. A small bite or sip-sized sample of the target product was provided as an intervention. The effect measure was choice of either an unfamiliar healthful food product or a traditional food product. Offering a sample of an unfamiliar healthful food product resulted in 51% of the participants in the experimental group choosing this product vs. 36.4% in the control group. Providing food product samples seems to be a promising strategy in healthy diet promotion programs for food neophobic young adults to increase first-time trial of unfamiliar low-fat and fruit and vegetable products. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Discrete Choice Model of Food Store Trips Using National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS)

OpenAIRE

Hillier, Amy; Smith, Tony E.; Whiteman, Eliza D.; Chrisinger, Benjamin W.

2017-01-01

Where households across income levels shop for food is of central concern within a growing body of research focused on where people live relative to where they shop, what they purchase and eat, and how those choices influence the risk of obesity and chronic disease. We analyzed data from the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) using a conditional logit model to determine where participants shop for food to be prepared and eaten at home and how individual and hous...

Environmental, parental, and personal influences on food choice, access, and overweight status among homeless children.

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, Rickelle; Smith, Chery

2007-10-01

In-depth interviews were conducted with homeless children (n=56, aged 6-13 years) in an urban center in Minnesota, USA, to determine factors influencing food choice, food access, and weight status, with interview questions developed using the Social Cognitive Theory. Interview transcripts were coded and then evaluated both collectively and by weight status ( or = 85th percentile=overweight). Forty-five percent of children were overweight. Environmental, parental, and personal factors emerged as common themes influencing food access and choice. Despite children's personal food preferences, homelessness and the shelter environment created restrictive conditions that influenced food choice and access. Shelter rules, lack of adequate storage and cooking facilities, and limited food stores near the shelter, impacted the type and quality of food choices, ultimately affecting hunger, weight status, and perceived health.

Does attention to health labels predict a healthy food choice? An eye-tracking study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fenko, Anna; Nicolaas, Iris; Galetzka, Mirjam

2018-01-01

Visual attention to health labels can indicate a subsequent healthy food choice. This study looked into the relative effects of Choices logos and traffic light labels on consumers’ visual attention and food choice. A field experiment using mobile eye-tracking was conducted in a Dutch university

Do hedonic- versus nutrition-based attitudes toward food predict food choices? a cross-sectional study of 6- to 11-year-olds.

Science.gov (United States)

Marty, Lucile; Miguet, Maud; Bournez, Marie; Nicklaus, Sophie; Chambaron, Stéphanie; Monnery-Patris, Sandrine

2017-11-25

Implicit and explicit attitudes are potential precursors of food choices and combine affective and cognitive components that can vary in their relative dominance. Yet, the affective and cognitive components of attitudes toward food can lead to distinct predisposition toward a food item and potentially to different food choices. In the food domain, the affective component pertains to the hedonic tone of consumption, while the cognitive component encompasses nutritional value or health consequences of food. The present study investigated whether hedonic- versus nutrition-based implicit and/or explicit attitudes toward food predicts children's healthy versus unhealthy food choices. A total of 63 children (age range = 6.3-11.5) participated in a 90-min session at 5 pm (i.e., afterschool snack time in France). The children were asked to choose five food items from a buffet featuring five healthy and five unhealthy sweet foods pretested as being highly liked. Children ate what they had chosen. Moreover, their implicit attitudes were assessed with a pairing task in which children were presented with 10 food triplets and asked to choose two food items that "best go together". For each triplet, foods could be paired according to their hedonic or nutritional characteristics. Explicit attitudes were assessed with a task in which children placed each of 48 food items into one of the following categories: "yummy", "yucky" (i.e., hedonic categories), "makes you strong", or "makes you fat" (i.e., nutritional categories). Both implicit and explicit attitudes significantly influenced children's food choices. We observed that children with more hedonic-based implicit or explicit attitudes toward food were more likely to choose healthy food options from the buffet. Conversely, children with both implicit and explicit nutrition-based attitudes chose less healthy foods. Hedonic-based attitudes toward food seem to drive healthier food choices in children compared with nutrition

The web-buffet--development and validation of an online tool to measure food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Bucher, Tamara; Keller, Carmen

2015-08-01

To date, no data exist on the agreement of food choice measured using an online tool with subsequent actual consumption. This needs to be shown before food choice, measured by means of an online tool, is used as a dependent variable to examine intake in the general population. A 'web-buffet' was developed to assess food choice. Choice was measured as planned meal composition from photographic material; respondents chose preferred foods and proportions for a main meal (out of a possible 144 combinations) online and the validity was assessed by comparison of a meal composed from a web-buffet with actual food intake 24-48 h later. Furthermore, correlations of food preferences, energy needs and health interest with meals chosen from the web-buffet were analysed. Students: n 106 (Study I), n 32 (Study II). Meals chosen from the web-buffet (mean = 2998 kJ, SD = 471 kJ) agreed with actual consumption (rs = 0.63, P choice in the web-buffet agrees sufficiently well with actual intake to measure food choice as a dependent variable in online surveys. However, we found an average underestimation of subsequent consumption. High correlations of preferences with chosen amounts and an inverse association of health interest with total energy further indicate the validity of the tool. Applications in behavioural nutrition research are discussed.

Effects of Recording Food Intake Using Cell Phone Camera Pictures on Energy Intake and Food Choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Doumit, Rita; Long, JoAnn; Kazandjian, Chant; Gharibeh, Nathalie; Karam, Lina; Song, Huaxin; Boswell, Carol; Zeeni, Nadine

2016-06-01

The well-documented increases in obesity and unhealthy dietary practices substantiate the need for evidence-based tools that can help people improve their dietary habits. The current spread of mobile phone-embedded cameras offers new opportunities for recording food intake. Moreover, the act of taking pictures of food consumed may enhance visual consciousness of food choice and quantity. The present study aimed to assess the effect of using cell phone pictures to record food intake on energy intake and food choice in college students. The effectiveness and acceptability of cell phone picture-based diet recording also was assessed. A repeated measures crossover design was used. One group of participants entered their food intake online during 3 days based on their memory, although a second group recorded their food intake using cell phone pictures as their reference. Participants then crossed over to complete 3 more days of diet recording using the alternate method. Focus groups were conducted to obtain feedback on the effectiveness and acceptability of cell phone picture-based diet recording. Intake of meat and vegetable servings were significantly higher in the memory period compared with the cell phone period, regardless of the order. Results from the focus group indicated a positive attitude toward the use of cell phone pictures in recording food intake and an increased awareness of food choice and portion size. Cell phone pictures may be an easy, relevant, and accessible method of diet self-monitoring when aiming at dietary changes. Future trials should combine this technique with healthy eating education. © 2015 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Does my brain want what my eyes like? - How food liking and choice influence spatio-temporal brain dynamics of food viewing.

Science.gov (United States)

Bielser, Marie-Laure; Crézé, Camille; Murray, Micah M; Toepel, Ulrike

2016-12-01

How food valuation and decision-making influence the perception of food is of major interest to better understand food intake behavior and, by extension, body weight management. Our study investigated behavioral responses and spatio-temporal brain dynamics by means of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in twenty-two normal-weight participants when viewing pairs of food photographs. Participants rated how much they liked each food item (valuation) and subsequently chose between the two alternative food images. Unsurprisingly, strongly liked foods were also chosen most often. Foods were rated faster as strongly liked than as mildly liked or disliked irrespective of whether they were subsequently chosen over an alternative. Moreover, strongly liked foods were subsequently also chosen faster than the less liked alternatives. Response times during valuation and choice were positively correlated, but only when foods were liked; the faster participants rated foods as strongly liked, the faster they were in choosing the food item over an alternative. VEP modulations by the level of liking attributed as well as the subsequent choice were found as early as 135-180ms after food image onset. Analyses of neural source activity patterns over this time interval revealed an interaction between liking and the subsequent choice within the insula, dorsal frontal and superior parietal regions. The neural responses to food viewing were found to be modulated by the attributed level of liking only when foods were chosen, not when they were dismissed for an alternative. Therein, the responses to disliked foods were generally greater than those to foods that were liked more. Moreover, the responses to disliked but chosen foods were greater than responses to disliked foods which were subsequently dismissed for an alternative offer. Our findings show that the spatio-temporal brain dynamics to food viewing are immediately influenced both by how much foods are liked and by choices taken on them

Influence of time orientation on food choice: Case study with cookie labels.

Science.gov (United States)

Tórtora, Giuliana; Ares, Gastón

2018-04-01

Time orientation can influence health-related behaviors, including food consumption. The aim of the present work was to study the influence of time orientation on food choice, using cookie labels as case study. A choice-conjoint task was designed using labels differing in type of cookie (chocolate chips vs. granola), front-of-pack nutrition information (nutritional warnings vs. Facts Up Front system) and nutritional claim (no claim vs. "0% cholesterol. 0% trans fat"). An online study was conducted, in which 155 participants evaluated 8 pairs of cookie labels and selected the one they would buy if they were in the supermarket. Then, they were asked to complete a consideration of future consequences scale (CFC) adapted to eating habits, as well as a questionnaire about socio-demographic characteristics. Time orientation influenced participants' choices of cookies labels; particularly the importance attached to type of cookie. Participants with greater consideration of future consequences preferred the granola cookies, associated with health, while those who prioritized immediate consequences preferred chocolate chip cookies. In addition, nutritional warnings discouraged choice regardless of participants' time orientation. Results from the present work provide additional evidence of the influence of time preferences on food choices and suggest that strategies to stimulate and generate a more future-oriented perspective on eating habits could contribute to more healthful food choices. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring International Students' Food Choices Using Photovoice Techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Corcoran, Nova

2018-01-01

This study aimed to explore international student food choices in a semirural setting using participatory photovoice techniques. Eighteen international students took photographs over 7-10 days of a typical food week and then attended a workshop where they completed three photography display and captioning tasks. Ten themes emerged linked to the…

Understanding socio-economic inequalities in food choice behaviour: can Maslow's pyramid help?

Science.gov (United States)

van Lenthe, Frank J; Jansen, Tessa; Kamphuis, Carlijn B M

2015-04-14

Socio-economic groups differ in their material, living, working and social circumstances, which may result in different priorities about their daily-life needs, including the priority to make healthy food choices. Following Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, we hypothesised that socio-economic inequalities in healthy food choices can be explained by differences in the levels of need fulfilment. Postal survey data collected in 2011 (67·2 % response) from 2903 participants aged 20-75 years in the Dutch GLOBE (Gezondheid en Levens Omstandigheden Bevolking Eindhoven en omstreken) study were analysed. Maslow's hierarchy of human needs (measured with the Basic Need Satisfaction Inventory) was added to age- and sex-adjusted linear regression models that linked education and net household income levels to healthy food choices (measured by a FFQ). Most participants (38·6 %) were in the self-actualisation layer of the pyramid. This proportion was highest among the highest education group (47·6 %). Being in a higher level of the hierarchy was associated with a higher consumption of fruits and vegetables as well as more healthy than unhealthy bread, snack and dairy consumption. Educational inequalities in fruit and vegetable intake (B= -1·79, 95 % CI -2·31, -1·28 in the lowest education group) were most reduced after the hierarchy of needs score was included (B= -1·57, 95 % CI - ·09, -1·05). Inequalities in other healthy food choices hardly changed after the hierarchy of needs score was included. People who are satisfied with higher-level needs make healthier food choices. Studies aimed at understanding socio-economic inequalities in food choice behaviour need to take differences in the priority given to daily-life needs by different socio-economic groups into account, but Maslow's pyramid offers little help.

An experimental field study of weight salience and food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Incollingo Rodriguez, Angela C; Finch, Laura E; Buss, Julia; Guardino, Christine M; Tomiyama, A Janet

2015-06-01

Laboratory research has found that individuals will consume more calories and make unhealthy food choices when in the presence of an overweight individual, sometimes even regardless of what that individual is eating. This study expanded these laboratory paradigms to the field to examine how weight salience influences eating in the real world. More specifically, we tested the threshold of the effect of weight salience of food choice to see if a more subtle weight cue (e.g., images) would be sufficient to affect food choice. Attendees (N = 262) at Obesity Week 2013, a weight-salient environment, viewed slideshows containing an image of an overweight individual, an image of a thin individual, or no image (text only), and then selected from complimentary snacks. Results of ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that participants who viewed the image of the overweight individual had higher odds of selecting the higher calorie snack compared to those who viewed the image of the thin individual (OR = 1.77, 95% CI = [1.04, 3.04]), or no image (OR = 2.42, 95% CI = [1.29, 4.54]). Perceiver BMI category did not moderate the influence of image on food choice, as these results occurred regardless of participant BMI. These findings suggest that in the context of societal weight salience, weight-related cues alone may promote unhealthy eating in the general public. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Investigation of the Food Choice, Promoters and Barriers to Food Access Issues, and Food Insecurity Among Low-Income, Free-Living Minnesotan Seniors.

Science.gov (United States)

Oemichen, Megan; Smith, Chery

2016-06-01

Investigate food choice, food access, and food insecurity among seniors. Eight focus groups were conducted in 2 counties with high and low Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation rates. A total of 62 seniors (aged ≥ 60 years) were recruited and each attended 1 focus group at a community center. The sample was 79% female and most were Caucasian (91%), similar to state demographics. The focus group themes of how seniors make food choices and access food, and food insecurity perceptions among this population were identified based on discussion commonalities. For quantitative data, P seniors, but SNAP use was considered unacceptable by some seniors living in county 1 because of the negative stigma attached to the program or because they lacked program knowledge about income criteria. More effort needs to be made to educate seniors about SNAP. It is important to gain insight into how food insecurity affects their food choices. Copyright © 2016 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Students' perspectives on promoting healthful food choices from campus vending machines: a qualitative interview study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, Habiba I; Jarrar, Amjad H; Abo-El-Enen, Mostafa; Al Shamsi, Mariam; Al Ashqar, Huda

2015-05-28

Increasing the healthfulness of campus food environments is an important step in promoting healthful food choices among college students. This study explored university students' suggestions on promoting healthful food choices from campus vending machines. It also examined factors influencing students' food choices from vending machines. Peer-led semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 43 undergraduate students (33 females and 10 males) recruited from students enrolled in an introductory nutrition course in a large national university in the United Arab Emirates. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded to generate themes using N-Vivo software. Accessibility, peer influence, and busy schedules were the main factors influencing students' food choices from campus vending machines. Participants expressed the need to improve the nutritional quality of the food items sold in the campus vending machines. Recommendations for students' nutrition educational activities included placing nutrition tips on or beside the vending machines and using active learning methods, such as competitions on nutrition knowledge. The results of this study have useful applications in improving the campus food environment and nutrition education opportunities at the university to assist students in making healthful food choices.

Consumer choice : Linking consumer intentions to actual purchase of GM labeled food products

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sleenhoff, S.; Osseweijer, P.

2013-01-01

With a mandatory labeling scheme for GM food in Europe since 2004 measuring actual consumer choice in practice has become possible. Anticipating Europeans negative attitude toward GM food, the labeling was enforced to allow consumers to make an informed choice. We studied consumers actual purchase

Effectiveness of Nutrition Education on Fast Food Choices in Adolescents

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Kelly N.; Taylor, Julie Smith; Kuiper, RuthAnne

2007-01-01

Adolescent obesity has become a major health concern in the United States. An increased frequency of fast food restaurant dining is associated with higher intake of calories and calories from fat. The purpose of this study was to gain insight as to how food choices in a "simulated" fast food environment might be influenced by nutrition…

Sign-tracking predicts increased choice of cocaine over food in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Tunstall, Brendan J; Kearns, David N

2015-03-15

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the tendency to sign-track to a food cue was predictive of rats' choice of cocaine over food. First, rats were trained on a procedure where insertion of a retractable lever was paired with food. A sub-group of rats - sign-trackers - primarily approached and contacted the lever, while another sub-group - goal-trackers - approached the site of food delivery. Rats were then trained on a choice task where they could choose between an infusion of cocaine (1.0 mg/kg) and a food pellet (45 mg). Sign-trackers chose cocaine over food significantly more often than did goal-trackers. These results support the incentive-salience theory of addiction and add to a growing number of studies which suggest that sign-trackers may model an addiction-prone phenotype. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prosocial Choice in Rats Depends on Food-Seeking Behavior Displayed by Recipients.

Science.gov (United States)

Márquez, Cristina; Rennie, Scott M; Costa, Diana F; Moita, Marta A

2015-06-29

Animals often are prosocial, displaying behaviors that result in a benefit to one another [1-15] even in the absence of self-benefit [16-21] (but see [22-25]). Several factors have been proposed to modulate these behaviors, namely familiarity [6, 13, 18, 20] or display of seeking behavior [16, 21]. Rats have been recently shown to be prosocial under distress [17, 18] (but see [26-29]); however, what drives prosociality in these animals remains unclear. To address this issue, we developed a two-choice task in which prosocial behavior did not yield a benefit or a cost to the focal rat. We used a double T-maze in which only the focal rat controlled access to the food-baited arms of its own and the recipient rat's maze. In this task, the focal rat could choose between one side of the maze, which yielded food only to itself (selfish choice), and the opposite side, which yielded food to itself and the recipient rat (prosocial choice). Rats showed a high proportion of prosocial choices. By manipulating reward delivery to the recipient and its ability to display a preference for the baited arm, we found that the display of food-seeking behavior leading to reward was necessary to drive prosocial choices. In addition, we found that there was more social investigation between rats in selfish trials than in prosocial trials, which may have influenced the focals' choices. This study shows that rats provide access to food to others in the absence of added direct self-benefit, bringing new insights into the factors that drive prosociality. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

School Choice Acceptance: An Exploratory Explication

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Koven, Steven G.; Khan, Mobin

2014-01-01

School choice is presented by some as a panacea to the challenges facing education in the United States. Acceptance of choice as a solution, however, is far from universal. This article examines two possible contributors to choice adoption: ideology and political culture. Political culture was found to better explain the complex phenomenon of…

Everyday distinction and omnivorous orientation: An analysis of food choice, attitudinal dispositions and social background.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahma, Nina; Niva, Mari; Helakorpi, Satu; Jallinoja, Piia

2016-01-01

In recent years studies on cultural consumption have experienced a Bourdieusian renaissance. This is indicated by a growing body of research analysing distinctions in different areas of culture, and numerous studies on the homology thesis applying the concepts of distinction, field and capital. Concurrently, however, it has been argued that instead of distinctive tastes, distinction and class status are increasingly manifested by cultural omnivorousness. For a good part studies focussing on distinction in food have analysed eating out and stylization through restaurant preferences, rather than everyday food choices. In this article we investigate everyday food choices from the perspective of distinction and omnivorousness. Our analysis draws on cross-sectional quantitative data collected in 2012 among 15-64-year-old Finns (N = 2601). The article maps out the relationship between food choice frequencies, dispositions and social background with Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). The results show that the consumption of fruit and vegetables, ready-meals and convenience foods were among the most divisive food choices. The first structuring dimension juxtaposed processed, fatty and sugared foods with unprocessed foods and fresh ingredients. This dimension was associated with healthiness and weight control as dispositions. On the second structuring dimension there were differences in the valuation of taste, pleasure and sociability, and a contrast between moderate and restrictive choices. Particularly the first dimension was associated with educational, occupational, and gender differences. Distinction within everyday food choices was manifested in the use of healthy and unprocessed foods and 'moderate hedonism' in contrast to more restrictive tastes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The incidence of calorie labeling on fast food choices: A comparison between stated preferences and actual choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Loureiro, Maria L; Rahmani, Djamel

2016-09-01

In order to test the effect of calorie information on fast food choices, we conducted a questionnaire employing two types of stated preferences methods (the best-worst-scaling and intentional questions) and a follow-up randomized field experiment in a sample of 119 participants. This combined approach allowed us to test the internal validity of preferences for fast food meals across elicitation scenarios. The results showed that calorie information reduces the probability of selecting high calorie meals only in the questionnaire, while it did not have any significant impact on actual purchasing behavior in the field experiment. Thus, the findings show that there is a clear difference between the role of calorie information on immediate stated preference choices, and the relatively low level of responsiveness in real choices in a restaurant. We believe that the current results are quite suggestive, indicating the limits of predicting actual fast food behavior, and may open the way to using data sources that combine stated methods with field experiments. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impact of a non-attentively perceived odour on subsequent food choices.

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Gaillet-Torrent, M; Sulmont-Rossé, C; Issanchou, S; Chabanet, C; Chambaron, S

2014-05-01

Current research in psychology suggests that unconscious processes influence a significant proportion of choices and decisions. To study the impact of a non-attentively perceived odour on food choices, we used a priming paradigm. We had previously shown that non-attentively perceived fruity odours could impact food choice intentions (on a menu card), guiding participants toward items containing more fruit and/or vegetables. The present study was designed to extend these findings, in a real-life consumption setting. One hundred and fifteen participants took part in this study, and were assigned randomly to either a control or a scented condition. On arrival in the laboratory, they were seated in a waiting room. For the scented condition, they were unobtrusively exposed to a pear odour, while under the control condition the waiting room was non-odorised. Following this waiting period, all participants moved into a non-odorised test room where they were asked to choose, from dishes served buffet-style, the starter, main course and dessert that they would actually eat for lunch. The results showed that participants subjected to the scented condition chose to consume the 'fruity' dessert (compote) more frequently than those who had waited under the control condition, who chose more frequently the dessert without fruit (brownie). In line with the findings of our previous study, these results confirm the idea of priming effects 'specific to the food cue'. To conclude, a non-attentively perceived fruity odour was shown to influence actual food choices, guiding individuals towards more fruity desserts. The involvement of implicit processes in food choices should be taken into account in guidelines and strategies designed to promote healthy eating. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effect of a Recessionary Economy on Food Choice: Implications for Nutrition Education

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Miller, Carla K.; Branscum, Paul

2012-01-01

Objective: To determine the effect of an economic recession on food choice behaviors. Design: A qualitative study using semistructured, in-depth interviews followed by completion of a nutrition knowledge questionnaire and the Food Choice Questionnaire was conducted. Setting and Participants: A convenience sample from a metropolitan city in the…

Gender and Race Are Significant Determinants of Students' Food Choices on a College Campus

Science.gov (United States)

Boek, Stacey; Bianco-Simeral, Stephanie; Chan, Kenny; Goto, Keiko

2012-01-01

Objective: To examine the roles of gender and race in students' determinants of food choices on a college campus. Methods: A total of 405 college students participated in a survey entitled "Campus Food: You Tell Us!" Chi-square and logistic regression were used to examine associations between demographics and food choice determinants. Results:…

Distinguishing the affective and cognitive bases of implicit attitudes to improve prediction of food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Trendel, Olivier; Werle, Carolina O C

2016-09-01

Eating behaviors largely result from automatic processes. Yet, in existing research, automatic or implicit attitudes toward food often fail to predict eating behaviors. Applying findings in cognitive neuroscience research, we propose and find that a central reason why implicit attitudes toward food are not good predictors of eating behaviors is that implicit attitudes are driven by two distinct constructs that often have diverging evaluative consequences: the automatic affective reactions to food (e.g., tastiness; the affective basis of implicit attitudes) and the automatic cognitive reactions to food (e.g., healthiness; the cognitive basis of implicit attitudes). More importantly, we find that the affective and cognitive bases of implicit attitudes directly and uniquely influence actual food choices under different conditions. While the affective basis of implicit attitude is the main driver of food choices, it is the only driver when cognitive resources during choice are limited. The cognitive basis of implicit attitudes uniquely influences food choices when cognitive resources during choice are plentiful but only for participants low in impulsivity. Researchers interested in automatic processes in eating behaviors could thus benefit by distinguishing between the affective and cognitive bases of implicit attitudes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cocaine Versus Food Choice Procedure in Rats: Environmental Manipulations and Effects of Amphetamine

Science.gov (United States)

Thomsen, Morgane; Barrett, Andrew C.; Negus, S. Stevens; Caine, S. Barak

2014-01-01

We have adapted a nonhuman primate model of cocaine versus food choice to the rat species. To evaluate the procedure, we tested cocaine versus food choice under a variety of environmental manipulations as well as pharmacological pretreatments. Complete cocaine-choice dose-effect curves (0–1.0 mg/kg/infusion) were obtained for each condition under concurrent fixed ratio schedules of reinforcement. Percentage of responding emitted on the cocaine-reinforced lever was not affected significantly by removal of cocaine-associated visual or auditory cues, but it was decreased after removal of response-contingent or response-independent cocaine infusions. Cocaine choice was sensitive to the magnitude and fixed ratio requirement of both the cocaine and food reinforcers. We also tested the effects of acute (0.32, 0.56, 1.0, 1.8 mg/kg) and chronic (0.1, 0.32 mg/kg/hr) d-amphetamine treatment on cocaine choice. Acute and chronic d-amphetamine had opposite effects, with acute increasing and chronic decreasing cocaine choice, similar to observations in humans and in nonhuman primates. The results suggest feasibility and utility of the choice procedure in rats and support its comparability to similar procedures used in humans and monkeys. PMID:23319458

Not All Skepticism Is Equal: Exploring the Ideological Antecedents of Science Acceptance and Rejection

Science.gov (United States)

Rutjens, Bastiaan T.; Sutton, Robbie M.; van der Lee, Romy

2017-01-01

Many topics that scientists investigate speak to people’s ideological worldviews. We report three studies—including an analysis of large-scale survey data—in which we systematically investigate the ideological antecedents of general faith in science and willingness to support science, as well as of science skepticism of climate change, vaccination, and genetic modification (GM). The main predictors are religiosity and political orientation, morality, and science understanding. Overall, science understanding is associated with vaccine and GM food acceptance, but not climate change acceptance. Importantly, different ideological predictors are related to the acceptance of different scientific findings. Political conservatism best predicts climate change skepticism. Religiosity, alongside moral purity concerns, best predicts vaccination skepticism. GM food skepticism is not fueled by religious or political ideology. Finally, religious conservatives consistently display a low faith in science and an unwillingness to support science. Thus, science acceptance and rejection have different ideological roots, depending on the topic of investigation. PMID:29191107

A Conceptual Framework of Consumer Food Choice Behaviour

OpenAIRE

Cristina Marreiros; Mitchell Ness

2009-01-01

The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for the analysis of consumer behaviour concerning the evaluation and choice of food products. The paper presents a review of theory on the processes of consumers' decision making and quality perception. Following this review, a theoretical framework is proposed that integrates the models of Engel, Blackwell and Miniard (1995), the main constructs of the Total Food Quality model of Grunert (1997), together with additional constructs an...

Effects of nutrition label format and product assortment on the healthfulness of food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Aschemann-Witzel, Jessica; Grunert, Klaus G; van Trijp, Hans C M; Bialkova, Svetlana; Raats, Monique M; Hodgkins, Charo; Wasowicz-Kirylo, Grazyna; Koenigstorfer, Joerg

2013-12-01

This study aims to find out whether front-of-pack nutrition label formats influence the healthfulness of consumers' food choices and important predictors of healthful choices, depending on the size of the choice set that is made available to consumers. The predictors explored were health motivation and perceived capability of making healthful choices. One thousand German and Polish consumers participated in the study that manipulated the format of nutrition labels. All labels referred to the content of calories and four negative nutrients and were presented on savoury and sweet snacks. The different formats included the percentage of guideline daily amount, colour coding schemes, and text describing low, medium and high content of each nutrient. Participants first chose from a set of 10 products and then from a set of 20 products, which was, on average, more healthful than the first choice set. The results showed that food choices were more healthful in the extended 20-product (vs. 10-product) choice set and that this effect is stronger than a random choice would produce. The formats colour coding and texts, particularly colour coding in Germany, increased the healthfulness of product choices when consumers were asked to choose a healthful product, but not when they were asked to choose according to their preferences. The formats did not influence consumers' motivation to choose healthful foods. Colour coding, however, increased consumers' perceived capability of making healthful choices. While the results revealed no consistent differences in the effects between the formats, they indicate that manipulating choice sets by including healthier options is an effective strategy to increase the healthfulness of food choices. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Choice Options to Meet Household Food Security in the Cattle Corridor of Uganda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Betty Mbolanyi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This study identified the major options adopted by households in the rangelands of Uganda to meet their food needs, the factors that affect their choices and barriers to making use of various choices. A cross-sectional survey using semi-structured questionnaires was administered among 180 pastoral households in selected rangeland area of Uganda. The options identified include restocking animals, changing planting dates, soil conservation, harnessing new technologies, planting trees and buying food stuffs. Analysis of results from the multinomial logistic model indicated that age, level of education, size of household, years in current location, farm income, non-farm income, livestock ownership, access to extension services and climate and weather information were key determinants of farmers’ choice of options to realize household food security. The major perceived barriers to choice options were lack of information on alternative options, poor technologies, climate variability, inadequate land, high food prices and low income. The analysis of choice of options to meet household food security suggests a number of different policy options such as strengthening production facilitation options available to pastoral communities including among others access to affordable credit, investing in yield-increasing technologies, introduction of livestock species that are better suited to drier conditions, raising awareness on climate related variations, creating opportunities for off-farm employment, encouraging pastoralists to grow more crops, and investing in irrigation.

Shallow discounting of delayed cocaine by male rhesus monkeys when immediate food is the choice alternative.

Science.gov (United States)

Huskinson, Sally L; Myerson, Joel; Green, Leonard; Rowlett, James K; Woolverton, William L; Freeman, Kevin B

2016-12-01

Huskinson et al. (2015) recently examined delay discounting in monkeys choosing between an immediate drug (cocaine) reinforcer and a delayed nondrug (food) reinforcer. The present experiment examined the reverse situation: choice between immediate nondrug (food) and delayed drug (cocaine) reinforcers. Whereas the former choice situation exemplifies drug abuse from a delay-discounting perspective, our interest in the latter choice situation is derived from the observation that drug abusers, who characteristically are associated with impulsive choice, typically must devote considerable time to procuring drugs, often at the expense of immediate nondrug alternatives. Accordingly, we analyzed 3 male rhesus monkeys' choices between immediate food and delayed cocaine (0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg/injection) using a hyperbolic model that allowed us to compare discounting rates between qualitatively different reinforcers. Choice of immediate food increased with food amount, and choice functions generally shifted leftward as delay to cocaine increased, indicating a decrease in the subjective value of cocaine. Compared with our previous delay-discounting experiment with immediate cocaine versus delayed food, both doses of delayed cocaine were discounted at a shallow rate. The present results demonstrate that rhesus monkeys will tolerate relatively long delays in an immediate-food versus delayed-drug situation, suggesting that in intertemporal choices between cocaine and food, the subjective value of cocaine is less affected by the delay until reinforcement than is the subjective value of delayed food. More generally, the present findings suggest that although drug abusers may choose impulsively when immediate drug reinforcement is available, they exercise self-control in the acquisition of a highly preferred, delayed drug reinforcer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Food choices and peer relationships: Examining 'a taste for necessity' in a network context.

Science.gov (United States)

Pachucki, Mark C

2014-01-01

The knowledge of how our taste preferences in food are shaped by our social lives has largely developed without attention to the roles played by relationships with other people. While the well-known sociological work of Pierre Bourdieu highlights the relationship of economic, cultural, and social capital with food consumption, very little scholarship concerned with food has given explicit empirical attention to social network connectivity as a form of social capital. To bridge this gap, this investigation utilizes data from a prospective cohort study of health in which both the food choices of several thousand individuals and their social ties with peers are examined. Comparing the relative social connectedness of individuals and their common food choices provides a new perspective on taste formation and maintenance and provides new evidence of how interpersonal mechanisms play a role in food choice and taste preferences.

The role of working memory sub-components in food choice and dieting success.

Science.gov (United States)

Whitelock, Victoria; Nouwen, Arie; van den Akker, Olga; Higgs, Suzanne

2018-05-01

Evidence suggests a role for self-reported working memory (WM) in self-reported food intake, but it is not known which WM sub-components are involved. It is also important to consider how individual differences in dietary restraint and disinhibition influence WM and the impact of this on food choice. The current study assessed the relationship between WM sub-components and food choice, using computerised measures of WM sub-components and a direct assessment of food intake. The role of dieting success (measured by restraint and disinhibition) as a distal predictor of food choice that influences food choices via WM, and the role of WM more generally in dieting success were investigated. Female undergraduate students (N = 117, mean age: 18.9 years, mean BMI: 21.6 kg/m 2 ) completed computer tasks assessing three components of WM (updating, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad) and a snack food taste-test. Greater visuospatial WM span was associated with a higher (lower) percentage of food intake that was low (high) energy dense. It was also found that unsuccessful dieters (high restraint, high disinhibition) had poorer visuospatial WM span and consumed a lower (higher) percentage of low (high) energy dense food. Visuospatial WM span significantly mediated the relationship between dieting success and percentage of low energy dense food intake. Further, dietary restraint was associated with poorer updating ability, irrespective of disinhibition. These findings suggest that better visuospatial WM is associated with a greater (reduced) preference for low (high) energy dense foods, and that deficits in visuospatial WM may undermine dieting attempts. Future work should assess whether the ability to deal with food cravings mediates the relationship between visuospatial WM and dieting success and investigate how WM may influence the mechanisms underlying behavioural control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the Influence of Nutrition Determinants on Construction Workers' Food Choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Okoro, Chioma Sylvia; Musonda, Innocent; Agumba, Justus

2017-11-01

Nutritional knowledge as well as economic, social, biological, and cultural factors have been known to determine an individual's food choices. Despite the existence of research on the factors which influence nutrition globally, there is little known about the extent to which these factors influence the food choices of construction workers, which in turn influence their health and safety during construction activities. The present article investigates the extent to which construction workers' nutrition is influenced by nutritional knowledge, as well as economic, environmental, social, psychological, and physiological factors. A field questionnaire survey was conducted on site construction workers in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Principal components analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that consumption of foods termed alternative foods including dairy products, eggs, nuts, fish, and cereals, was influenced by nutritional knowledge and resources. Foods termed traditional core foods were influenced by cultural background; foods termed secondary core foods comprising fruits and vegetables were influenced by economic factors, resources, and cultural background; while foods termed core foods were mostly influenced by nutritional knowledge. By providing evidence of the factors which most influence selection and consumption of certain foods by construction workers, relevant nutrition interventions will be designed and implemented, taking cognizance of these factors.

Child Care Choices, Food Choices, and Children’s Obesity Status

OpenAIRE

Mandal, Bidisha; Powell, Lisa M.

2013-01-01

We evaluate the effect of differences in child care and food environments on obesity among children in the age group of four to six years. To address non-random selection of children into different child care settings, we first predict market price of child care and market wages, and then examine how these affect choice of child care settings and the amount of time children spend in different settings. Using panel data models, we analyze the role of care settings on frequency of consumption o...

Comparison of Food Choice Motives between Malay Husbands and Wives in an Urban Community.

Science.gov (United States)

Asma, A; Nawalyah, A G; Rokiah, M Y; Mohd Nasir, M T

2010-04-01

The main objective of this study was to determine the motives underlying the selection of foods between husbands and wives in an urban community. Thiscross-sectional study was carried out in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia among 150 married couples aged 20 and above, who voluntarily agreed to participate and were not on any special diet. Data were collected using the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) which measured the health-related and non health related factor that influence people's food choices. It consisted of 36 items designed to assess the reported importance of nine factors: health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity, and ethical concern. In this study, the FCQ was adapted and a new factor, religion (religious guidelines), was included. Demographic characteristics including age, occupation, education, household income and household size were also collected. Data were analysed using SPSS version 16. Results showed that 40.7% of husbands (mean age= 43.33 + 11.16 years) and 55.3% of wives (mean age= 41.28 + 10.93 years) perceived themselves as the main food shopper while 12.0% of the husbands and 85.3% of the wives perceived themselves as the main meal planner. Husbands rated religion as the most prominent factor in food choice motives with a mean average rating of 4.56 + 0.59 on a 5-point rating scale, followed by health and convenience factor. Meanwhile, the wives rated health as the most essential factor with mean average rating of 4.49 + 0.58, followed by religion and convenience factor. Sensory appeal, ethical concerns and familiarity were rated as the bottom three factors of food choice motives among these two groups. Price of foods was not considered as an important factor in making food choices for the subjects in this study. In conclusion, the husbands and wives of this urban community rated religion, health and convenience as the three most important food choice motives in food selection.

Impulsive-choice patterns for food in genetically lean and obese Zucker rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Boomhower, Steven R; Rasmussen, Erin B; Doherty, Tiffany S

2013-03-15

Behavioral-economic studies have shown that differences between lean and obese Zuckers in food consumption depend on the response requirement for food. Since a response requirement inherently increases the delay to reinforcement, differences in sensitivity to delay may also be a relevant mechanism of food consumption in the obese Zucker rat. Furthermore, the endocannabinoid neurotransmitter system has been implicated in impulsivity, but studies that attempt to characterize the effects of cannabinoid drugs (e.g., rimonabant) on impulsive choice may be limited by floor effects. The present study aimed to characterize impulsive-choice patterns for sucrose using an adjusting-delay procedure in genetically lean and obese Zuckers. Ten lean and ten obese Zucker rats chose between one lever that resulted in one pellet after a standard delay (either 1 s or 5 s) and a second lever that resulted in two or three pellets after an adjusting delay. After behavior stabilized under baseline, rimonabant (0-10 mg/kg) was administered prior to some choice sessions in the two-pellet condition. Under baseline, obese Zuckers made more impulsive choices than leans in three of the four standard-delay/pellet conditions. Additionally, in the 2-pellet condition, rimonabant increased impulsive choice in lean rats in the 1-s standard-delay condition; however, rimonabant decreased impulsive choice in obese rats in the 1-s and 5-s standard-delay conditions. These data suggest that genetic factors that influence impulsive choice are stronger in some choice conditions than others, and that the endocannabinoid system may be a relevant neuromechanism. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sandwiching it in: spillover of work onto food choices and family roles in low- and moderate-income urban households.

Science.gov (United States)

Devine, Carol M; Connors, Margaret M; Sobal, Jeffery; Bisogni, Carole A

2003-02-01

Lower status jobs, high workloads and lack of control at work have been associated with less healthful diets, but the ways through which work is connected to food choices are not well understood. This analysis was an examination of workers' experience of the relationship of their jobs to their food choices. Fifty-one multi-ethnic, urban, low- and moderate-income adults living in Upstate New York in 1995 participated in a qualitative interview study of fruit and vegetable choices and discussed employment and food choices. The workers who participated in this study described a dynamic relationship between work and food choices that they experienced in the context of their other roles and values. These workers presented a relationship that was characterized by positive and negative spillover between their jobs and their ability to fulfill family roles and promote personal health, linked by a spectrum of food choice strategies. Participants' narratives fit into three different domains: characterizations of work and their resources for food choice, strategies used to manage food choices within the constraints of work, and affect related to the negative and positive spillover of these strategies on family roles and on personal food choices. Characterizations of work as demanding and limiting or demanding and manageable differentiated participants who experienced their food choice strategies as a source of guilt and dissatisfaction (negative spillover) from those who experienced food choices as a source of pride and satisfaction (positive spillover). Ideals and values related to food choice and health were balanced against other values for family closeness and nurturing and personal achievement. Some participants found work unproblematic. These findings direct attention to a broad conceptualization of the relationship of work to food choices in which the demands and resources of the work role are viewed as they spill over into the social and temporal context of other

The determinants of food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Leng, Gareth; Adan, Roger A H; Belot, Michele; Brunstrom, Jeffrey M; de Graaf, Kees; Dickson, Suzanne L; Hare, Todd; Maier, Silvia; Menzies, John; Preissl, Hubert; Reisch, Lucia A; Rogers, Peter J; Smeets, Paul A M

2017-08-01

Health nudge interventions to steer people into healthier lifestyles are increasingly applied by governments worldwide, and it is natural to look to such approaches to improve health by altering what people choose to eat. However, to produce policy recommendations that are likely to be effective, we need to be able to make valid predictions about the consequences of proposed interventions, and for this, we need a better understanding of the determinants of food choice. These determinants include dietary components (e.g. highly palatable foods and alcohol), but also diverse cultural and social pressures, cognitive-affective factors (perceived stress, health attitude, anxiety and depression), and familial, genetic and epigenetic influences on personality characteristics. In addition, our choices are influenced by an array of physiological mechanisms, including signals to the brain from the gastrointestinal tract and adipose tissue, which affect not only our hunger and satiety but also our motivation to eat particular nutrients, and the reward we experience from eating. Thus, to develop the evidence base necessary for effective policies, we need to build bridges across different levels of knowledge and understanding. This requires experimental models that can fill in the gaps in our understanding that are needed to inform policy, translational models that connect mechanistic understanding from laboratory studies to the real life human condition, and formal models that encapsulate scientific knowledge from diverse disciplines, and which embed understanding in a way that enables policy-relevant predictions to be made. Here we review recent developments in these areas.

Cocaine versus food choice procedure in rats: environmental manipulations and effects of amphetamine.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomsen, Morgane; Barrett, Andrew C; Negus, S Stevens; Caine, S Barak

2013-03-01

We have adapted a nonhuman primate model of cocaine versus food choice to the rat species. To evaluate the procedure, we tested cocaine versus food choice under a variety of environmental manipulations as well as pharmacological pretreatments. Complete cocaine-choice dose-effect curves (0-1.0 mg/kg/infusion) were obtained for each condition under concurrent fixed ratio schedules of reinforcement. Percentage of responding emitted on the cocaine-reinforced lever was not affected significantly by removal of cocaine-associated visual or auditory cues, but it was decreased after removal of response-contingent or response-independent cocaine infusions. Cocaine choice was sensitive to the magnitude and fixed ratio requirement of both the cocaine and food reinforcers. We also tested the effects of acute (0.32, 0.56, 1.0, 1.8 mg/kg) and chronic (0.1, 0.32 mg/kg/hr) d-amphetamine treatment on cocaine choice. Acute and chronic d-amphetamine had opposite effects, with acute increasing and chronic decreasing cocaine choice, similar to observations in humans and in nonhuman primates. The results suggest feasibility and utility of the choice procedure in rats and support its comparability to similar procedures used in humans and monkeys. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Barriers and Strategies for Healthy Food Choices among American Indian Tribal College Students: A Qualitative Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Keith, Jill F; Stastny, Sherri; Brunt, Ardith; Agnew, Wanda

2018-06-01

American Indian and Alaskan Native individuals experience disproportionate levels of chronic health conditions such as type 2 diabetes and overweight and obesity that are influenced by dietary patterns and food choices. Understanding factors that influence healthy food choices among tribal college students can enrich education and programs that target dietary intake. To build an understanding of factors that influence healthy food choices among tribal college students at increased risk for college attrition. A nonexperimental cohort design was used for qualitative descriptive analysis. Participants (N=20) were purposively sampled, newly enrolled, academically underprepared tribal college students enrolled in a culturally relevant life skills course at an upper Midwest tribal college between September 2013 and May 2015. Participant demographic characteristics included various tribal affiliations, ages, and number of dependents. Participant responses to qualitative research questions about dietary intake, food choices, self-efficacy for healthy food choices, psychosocial determinants, and barriers to healthy food choices during telephone interviews were used as measures. Qualitative analysis included prestudy identification of researcher bias/assumptions, audiorecording and transcription, initial analysis (coding), secondary analysis (sorting and identifying meaning), and verification (comparative pattern analysis). Qualitative analysis revealed a variety of themes and subthemes about healthy food choices. Main themes related to barriers included taste, food gathering and preparation, and difficulty clarifying healthy food choices. Main themes related to strategies included taste, cultural traditions and practices, and personal motivation factors. Qualitative analysis identified barrier and strategy themes that may assist nutrition and dietetics practitioners working with tribal/indigenous communities, tribal college educators and health specialists, and tribal

Influences underlying family food choices in mothers from an economically disadvantaged community.

Science.gov (United States)

Hardcastle, Sarah J; Blake, Nicola

2016-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions and attitudes that underlie food choices, and, the impact of a school-based healthy eating intervention in mothers from an economically-disadvantaged community. The aim of the intervention was to educate children to act as 'health messengers' to their families. Sixteen semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with mothers with four receiving a second interview. Interviews were conducted following their child's participation in a six-week after school healthy cooking intervention. Thematic content analysis revealed four main themes: Cost and budget influence on food choices, diversity in household rules controlling food, role of socialisation on diet, and improved cooking skills and confidence to make homemade meals. The interview findings demonstrated the positive influence of the after-school cooking intervention on children and their families in cooking skills, promoting healthier cooking methods and increasing confidence to prepare homemade meals. The findings demonstrated the wider economic and social influences on food choices and eating practices. Socialisation into, and strong cultural norms around, eating habits were significant influences on family diet and on parental decisions underpinning food choices and attitudes towards the control of food within the family. The intervention was perceived to be successful in terms of improving nutritional knowledge, cooking skills and increasing confidence to make healthy and tasty homemade meals. The study demonstrates the importance of parental involvement in school-based interventions if improvements in healthy eating are to be evidenced at the family level and maintained. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Current issues in the understanding of consumer food choice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grunert, Klaus G.

2002-01-01

Consumer food choice is framed in terms of the formation of quality expectations before and quality experience after the purchase. For the formation of quality expectations, lack of consumer ability to form expectations that will be predictive of later experience is mentioned as a problem......-called credence qualities - qualities which are invisible to the consumer both before and after the purchase. Such qualities provide a challenge for communication about the product, not only to induce consumers to buy the product, but also to reinforce their choice after the purchase. Concerning experienced...... quality after the purchase, the role of home production - turning products into meals - is mentioned as important, but underresearced topic. Finally, differences in consumer behaviour between normal situations and situations of food crises are addressed. Udgivelsesdato: AUG...

Does Ethnicity Matter For Food Choices? An Empirical Analysis of Asian Immigrant Time Use

OpenAIRE

Yang, Tongyang; Berning, Joshua; Colson, Greg; Smith, Travis A.

2015-01-01

As immigrants settle and extend their stay in the U.S., they may be exposed to a food culture and lifestyle that impacts their food choice decisions and health outcomes. This paper focuses on the behavioral changes and acculturation level of different generations of Asian immigrants on food choice decisions employing the 2013 American Time Use Survey. Heckman two-step regression results indicate that the 1st generation immigrants participate or spend more time on eating and drinking, food pre...

Food choice motives, attitude towards and intention to adopt personalised nutrition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rankin, Audrey; Bunting, Brendan P.; Poínhos, Rui; Lans, van der Ivo A.; Fischer, Arnout R.H.; Kuznesof, Sharron; Almeida, M.D.V.; Markovina, Jerko; Frewer, Lynn J.; Stewart-Knox, Barbara J.

2018-01-01

Objective: The present study explored associations between food choice motives, attitudes towards and intention to adopt personalised nutrition, to inform communication strategies based on consumer priorities and concerns. Design/Setting: A survey was administered online which included the Food

Radioactivity and food choice: risk factors and perception

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Binnerts, W T; Hermsen, S; Kamp, M van der; Loyens, L; Ruven, H J.T.

1986-12-01

A preceding study revealed much difference among a selected number of radioisotopes in the passing of the food chains. The present study confirms the possibility to reduce radioactivity intake by a careful food choice. The physiology of metabolism of /sup 131/I, /sup 90/Sr and /sup 137/Cs, and other radionuclides is shortly recapitulated. Discrimination and speciation are seen to be main factors in reduction or enrichment in animal food products. Several calculations are given relating intake of radioactivity and food sources. Risk factors are mentioned, as well as the psychology around them. Although it is not urgent, it seems possible to reduce the intake of radioactivity by individuals, mainly by preference for animal products (except milk during the first weeks of a nuclear incident), and by consumption of refined food instead of 'health products'. For mankind as a whole, the popular conceptions about risk and health food need to be studied first and to be redressed, eventually. 13 refs.; 1 figure; 3 tabs.

Radioactivity and food choice: risk factors and perception

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Binnerts, W.T.; Hermsen, S.; Kamp, M. van der; Loyens, L.; Ruven, H.J.T.

1986-01-01

A preceding study revealed much difference among a selected number of radioisotopes in the passing of the food chains. The present study confirms the possibility to reduce radioactivity intake by a careful food choice. The physiology of metabolism of 131 I, 90 Sr and 137 Cs, and other radionuclides is shortly recapitulated. Discrimination and speciation are seen to be main factors in reduction or enrichment in animal food products. Several calculations are given relating intake of radioactivity and food sources. Risk factors are mentioned, as well as the psychology around them. Although it is not urgent, it seems possible to reduce the intake of radioactivity by individuals, mainly by preference for animal products (except milk during the first weeks of a nuclear incident), and by consumption of refined food instead of 'health products'. For mankind as a whole, the popular conceptions about risk and health food need to be studied first and to be redressed, eventually. 13 refs.; 1 figure; 3 tabs

Family conflicts and conflict resolution regarding food choices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørgaard, Maria; Brunsø, Karen

2011-01-01

with food‐related conflicts, conflict resolutions or specific influence techniques with a focus on parents and tweens in family decision‐making. This article focuses on parents and tweens’ joint decision processes in evaluation and choice of food, specifically conflicts and conflict resolution. Assumptions......Previous studies on family decision‐making show that not only parents but also children participate actively in and achieve influence on the decision process, for instance during food buying. When decision‐making includes several active participants, conflicts may occur, but not much research deals...

Iranian Political Strategy: Ideology or Pragmatism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saada, Julien

2008-01-01

Iranian political strategy wants to be presented as a political break, with a Pan-Islamic vocation. Brought about by Ayatollah Khomeyni, this political philosophy has produced the intended effects, as seen with the return of more moderate policies. Khomeyni's death confronted the Islamic Republic with a choice: Hachemi Rasfandjani put Iran back into the international scene by conciliating pragmatism with ideological values. In 2005, M. Ahmadinejad came to power. His declarations concerning the Hebrew State and his position on nuclear weapons pose the question as to whether or not Iran is reverting to an export policy of revolution. It is important to place these elements in the historical context of the Islamic Republic so as to see if Iranian foreign policy is again taking an ideological turn or if it is continuing down the lane of pragmatism

Gender and race are significant determinants of students' food choices on a college campus.

Science.gov (United States)

Boek, Stacey; Bianco-Simeral, Stephanie; Chan, Kenny; Goto, Keiko

2012-01-01

To examine the roles of gender and race in students' determinants of food choices on a college campus. A total of 405 college students participated in a survey entitled "Campus Food: You Tell Us!" Chi-square and logistic regression were used to examine associations between demographics and food choice determinants. Gender and race appeared to play a significant role in determinants of students' food dislikes. Males were significantly more likely to choose cost, taste, and poor quality over poor nutrition as determinants. White students were significantly less likely to choose cost, inconvenience, and taste over poor nutrition than students of other races. Gender was also a significant factor associated with student preferences for campus dining location and determinants of unhealthful food. Future marketing may be more effective if tailored to gender and race. Nutrition educators should consider addressing taste and convenience when attempting to influence students' food choices. Copyright © 2012 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Factors influencing food choice of athletes at international competition events.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelly, Fiona E; Burkhart, Sarah J; Dunn, Peter

2018-02-01

Although the nutrient requirements and dietary intake of athletes have been thoroughly investigated, little is known about the influences on their food choice, particularly prior to and during competition. This study sought to investigate factors that influence food selection of athletes at two similar international competition events: the Melbourne 2006 and Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games. A secondary aim was to explore differences in these factors between at each event given the culturally diverse locations. A survey developed for this study was distributed to athletes in the village dining hall at both events. Athletes scored a selection of factors influencing food choice on a scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (very important). A total of 769 individuals completed the questionnaire in total, with 351 (46%) from Delhi and 418 (54%) from Melbourne. Overall, athletes rated nutrient composition (M = 4.22), stage of competition (M = 4.09), time of day (M = 4.02) and familiarity of the food (M = 4.07) higher than sensory properties (smell M = 3.88; visual appearance M = 3.22) when making a food selection. Visual appearance (p = 0.01), stage of competition (p food (p motives for food section of athletes from a range of sports and cultures is warranted. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-Conscious Effect of Food Odors on Children’s Food Choices Varies by Weight Status

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucile Marty

2017-05-01

Full Text Available ObjectiveFood cues are omnipresent in the daily environment and may influence eating behavior even non-consciously. An increased reactivity to food cues, such as food odors, has been shown to be correlated with obesity in children. The objective of this study is to investigate whether the non-conscious influence of food odors on children’s food choices varies by their weight status.MethodsSeventy-four children, of whom 29 were obese, took part in this study. The children performed a food choice intention task presented as a computer game in which 30 pairs of food images (a fatty-sweet food picture vs. a fruit picture successively appeared on the screen. The children had to choose the item “they most wanted to eat at the present moment” for each pair. While performing this task, the children wore a headset in which the microphone foam was odorized with a fruity odor, a fatty-sweet odor or no odor. They performed the intention task three times, one time for each olfactory condition. The odors were non-attentively perceived, i.e., none of the children were aware of the odorization of the microphone foams. The modeled probability is the probability to choose a fruit.ResultsIn children with obesity, the fruity odor increased the likelihood of a fruit to be chosen compared to the no-odor condition [OR (95% CL = 1.42 (1.13–1.78, P = 0.0028], while the fatty-sweet odor had no effect on food choice [OR (95% CL = 1.07 (0.85–1.36, P = 0.55]. In children without obesity, both the fruity and the fatty-sweet odors decreased the likelihood to choose a fruit compared to the no-odor condition [OR (95% CL = 0.76 (0.64–0.90, P = 0.0015, for the fruity odor and OR (95% CL = 0.79 (0.66–0.93, P = 0.0062, for the fatty-sweet odor].ConclusionThe different patterns of results obtained in both groups of children suggest differences in the mental representations activated by non-attentively perceived olfactory cues based on

A Common Mechanism Underlying Food Choice and Social Decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Krajbich, Ian; Hare, Todd; Bartling, Björn; Morishima, Yosuke; Fehr, Ernst

2015-01-01

People make numerous decisions every day including perceptual decisions such as walking through a crowd, decisions over primary rewards such as what to eat, and social decisions that require balancing own and others’ benefits. The unifying principles behind choices in various domains are, however, still not well understood. Mathematical models that describe choice behavior in specific contexts have provided important insights into the computations that may underlie decision making in the brain. However, a critical and largely unanswered question is whether these models generalize from one choice context to another. Here we show that a model adapted from the perceptual decision-making domain and estimated on choices over food rewards accurately predicts choices and reaction times in four independent sets of subjects making social decisions. The robustness of the model across domains provides behavioral evidence for a common decision-making process in perceptual, primary reward, and social decision making. PMID:26460812

A Common Mechanism Underlying Food Choice and Social Decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Krajbich, Ian; Hare, Todd; Bartling, Björn; Morishima, Yosuke; Fehr, Ernst

2015-10-01

People make numerous decisions every day including perceptual decisions such as walking through a crowd, decisions over primary rewards such as what to eat, and social decisions that require balancing own and others' benefits. The unifying principles behind choices in various domains are, however, still not well understood. Mathematical models that describe choice behavior in specific contexts have provided important insights into the computations that may underlie decision making in the brain. However, a critical and largely unanswered question is whether these models generalize from one choice context to another. Here we show that a model adapted from the perceptual decision-making domain and estimated on choices over food rewards accurately predicts choices and reaction times in four independent sets of subjects making social decisions. The robustness of the model across domains provides behavioral evidence for a common decision-making process in perceptual, primary reward, and social decision making.

Acute stress and food-related reward activation in the brain during food choice during eating in the absence of hunger.

Science.gov (United States)

Born, J M; Lemmens, S G T; Rutters, F; Nieuwenhuizen, A G; Formisano, E; Goebel, R; Westerterp-Plantenga, M S

2010-01-01

Stress results in eating in the absence of hunger, possibly related to food reward perception. Stress decreases food reward perception. Determine the effect of acute stress on food choice and food choice reward-related brain activity. Nine females (BMI = 21.5 + or - 2.2 kg/m(2), age = 24.3 + or - 3.5 years). Fasted subjects came twice to randomly complete either a rest or stress condition. Per session, two functional MRI scans were made, wherein the subjects chose the subsequent meal (food images). The rewarding value of the food was measured as liking and wanting. Food characteristics (for example, crispiness, fullness of taste and so on), energy intake, amount of each macronutrient chosen, plasma cortisol and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) hunger and satiety were measured. Fasted state was confirmed by high hunger (80 + or - 5 mm VAS). Breakfast energy intake (3 + or - 1 MJ) and liking were similar in all conditions. Wanting was lower postprandially (Delta = -0.3 items/category, Phunger (-42 mm VAS, Pchoice for crispiness and fullness of taste (Pfood choice for more crispiness and fullness of taste. The changes in putamen activation may reflect specifically decreased reward prediction sensitivity.

Impact of corporate social responsibility claims on consumer food choice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mueller Loose, Simone; Remaud, Hervé

2013-01-01

Purpose - The study assesses the impact of two different corporate social responsibility (CSR) claims, relating to social and environmental dimensions, on consumers’ wine choice across international markets. It is analysed how point of purchase CSR claims compete with other food claims and their ......Purpose - The study assesses the impact of two different corporate social responsibility (CSR) claims, relating to social and environmental dimensions, on consumers’ wine choice across international markets. It is analysed how point of purchase CSR claims compete with other food claims...... Eastcoast, the US Midwest, Anglophone and Francophone Canada. Findings - CSR claims relating to social and environmental responsibility have a similar awareness, penetration and consumer trust, but differ in their impact on consumer choice, where environmental corporate responsibility claims benefit from...... a higher marginal willingness to pay. Consumer valuation of CSR claims significantly differs across international markets, but is consistently lower than for organic claims. Research limitations/implications - The study was limited to wine and future research is required to generalise findings to other...

Food choice questionnaire revisited in four countries. Does it still measure the same?

Science.gov (United States)

Januszewska, Renata; Pieniak, Zuzanna; Verbeke, Wim

2011-08-01

This study focuses on the implementation of the food choice questionnaire (FCQ) across four countries. The first objective is to examine the degree to which the factor structure of the FCQ is invariant across different populations. The second objective is to analyse the motives for food choice in different countries. The cross-sectional sample of 1420 consumers consisted of Belgians (N=458), Hungarians (N=401), Romanians (N=229) and Filipinos (N=332). Data analyses included estimation of five multi-group confirmatory factor analysis models; calculation of mean importance ratings for each food choice factor across countries; ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests; and a rank order test of most to least important factors within each country. The results confirm that the factorial structure of the FCQ is invariant with respect to factor configuration, factor loadings and item intercept. Sensory appeal is the most important factor among all European consumers, while health, convenience and price were all among the five most important factors shaping food choice in Belgium, Hungary and Romania. For Filipinos, the most important were health, price and mood. Sensory appeal ranked on the fourth place. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Food choice motives including sustainability during purchasing are associated with a healthy dietary pattern in French adults

OpenAIRE

All?s, B.; P?neau, S.; Kesse-Guyot, E.; Baudry, J.; Hercberg, S.; M?jean, C.

2017-01-01

Background Sustainability has become a greater concern among consumers that may influence their dietary intake. Only a few studies investigated the relationship between sustainable food choice motives and diet and they focused on specific food groups. Objective This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the associations between food choice motives during purchasing, with a focus on sustainability, and dietary patterns in a large sample of French adults. Design Food choice motives were collect...

Offering variety: a subtle manipulation to promote healthy food choice throughout the day.

Science.gov (United States)

Burns, Rachel J; Rothman, Alexander J

2015-05-01

Providing a variety of food generally increases consumption and enjoyment. This effect is typically associated with unhealthy behavior (e.g., overindulgence at a buffet) and studied during a single meal. Two studies tested whether this effect can be leveraged in a subtle, simple manipulation to promote healthy food choices over the course of a day. In Studies 1 and 2, 188 and 187 participants, respectively, chose between a sweet and a piece of fruit in the afternoon. The fruit was either the same as or different from fruit that was selected in the morning; choice was not given in the morning. Study 1 tested this effect in the domain of expressed preferences and Study 2 examined actual choice. In both studies, a second piece of fruit was more likely to be selected in the afternoon if it was different from fruit that was selected in the morning. These results illustrate how a robust effect that is typically associated with unhealthy outcomes can be harnessed to promote healthy food choices and underscore the importance of conceptualizing eating as a series of interrelated behavioral decisions. This work has implications for applied settings, such as cafeterias, and is distinguished from other simple structural manipulations by its focus on sustaining healthy food choice over the course of the day. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

[Translation and cultural adaptation of the questionnaire on the reason for food choices (Food Choice Questionnaire - FCQ) into Portuguese].

Science.gov (United States)

Heitor, Sara Franco Diniz; Estima, Camilla Chermont Prochnik; das Neves, Fabricia Junqueira; de Aguiar, Aline Silva; Castro, Sybelle de Souza; Ferreira, Julia Elba de Souza

2015-08-01

The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) assesses the importance that subjects attribute to nine factors related to food choices: health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity and ethical concern. This study sought to assess the applicability of the FCQ in Brazil; it describes the translation and cultural adaptation from English into Portuguese of the FCQ via the following steps: independent translations, consensus, back-translation, evaluation by a committee of experts, semantic validation and pre-test. The pre-test was run with a randomly sampled group of 86 male and female college students from different courses with a median age of 19. Slight differences between the versions were observed and adjustments were made. After minor changes in the translation process, the committee of experts considered that the Brazilian Portuguese version was semantically and conceptually equivalent to the English original. Semantic validation showed that the questionnaire is easily understood. The instrument presented a high degree of internal consistency. The study is the first stage in the process of validating an instrument, which consists of face and content validity. Further stages, already underway, are needed before other researchers can use it.

Food acceptability in field studies with US army men and women: relationship with food intake and food choice after repeated exposures.

Science.gov (United States)

de Graaf, Cees; Kramer, F Matthew; Meiselman, Herbert L; Lesher, Larry L; Baker-Fulco, Carol; Hirsch, Edward S; Warber, John

2005-02-01

Laboratory data with single exposures showed that palatability has a positive relationship with food intake. The question addressed in this study is whether this relationship also holds over repeated exposures in non-laboratory contexts in more natural environments. The data were collected in four field studies, lasting 4-11 days with 307 US Army men and 119 Army women, and comprised 5791 main meals and 8831 snacks in total. Acceptability was rated on the nine point hedonic scale, and intake was registered in units of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or 1 or more times of the provided portion size. Correlation coefficients between individual acceptability ratings and intakes varied from 0.22 to 0.62 for the main meals (n=193-2267), and between 0.13 and 0.56 for the snacks (n=304-2967). The likelihood of choosing a meal for the second time was positively related to the acceptability rating of the meal when it was consumed for the first time. The results reinforce the importance of liking in food choice and food intake/choice behavior. However, the magnitude of the correlation coefficients between acceptability ratings and food intake suggest that environmental factors also have an important role in determining intake and choice.

The effect of a recessionary economy on food choice: implications for nutrition education.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Carla K; Branscum, Paul

2012-01-01

To determine the effect of an economic recession on food choice behaviors. A qualitative study using semistructured, in-depth interviews followed by completion of a nutrition knowledge questionnaire and the Food Choice Questionnaire was conducted. A convenience sample from a metropolitan city in the Midwest. Women with children younger than 18 years in the household who had experienced unemployment, underemployment, or loss of a house because of foreclosure in the previous year participated (n = 25). Reported behaviors for food choices when grocery shopping and dining out and educational resources requested to inform nutrition education programs. Interviews were coded with a matrix derived from participant statements. Common behaviors were grouped and broad themes were identified. Numerous shopping strategies were recently used to save money (eg, buying only sale items, using coupons). Participants believed a healthful diet included a variety of foods with less sugar, salt, and fat. Recipes and menus that required little cost or preparation time and resources to track food expenditures were desired. Nutrition education should include money-saving shopping strategies, facilitate menu planning and cooking skills, and address food resource management to enable participants to acquire sufficient, acceptable, and nutritionally adequate food. Copyright © 2012 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigating the impact of a health game on implicit attitudes towards food and food choice behaviour of young adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Alblas, Eva; Folkvord, Frans; Anschütz, Doeschka J; van 't Riet, Jonathan; Granic, Isabela; Ketelaar, Paul; Buijzen, Moniek

2018-05-25

Improving diets by stimulating fruit and vegetable consumption might be beneficial, in particular when they substitute energy-dense products. The aim of present study was to investigate whether a health game can be used to positively affect healthy implicit attitudes (IAs) towards food and subsequent food choice behaviour of young adults. A 2 (Time: baseline vs. post-test) x 2 (Condition: health game vs. control game) x 2 (Baseline IAs: healthy IAs vs. less healthy IAs) mixed-subjects design was used with 125 participants (age: M = 20.17, SD = 1.88). IAs towards food were assessed at baseline and post-test using an Implicit Association Test (IAT). Additionally, food choice behaviour was assessed after game play. At baseline, the majority of participants had healthy IAs (i.e., favouring fruit over chocolate snacks). At post-test, significantly less healthy IAs were observed in the control condition, while this reduction was not significant in the health game condition. Regarding food choice behaviour, participants with healthy baseline IAs were more likely to select fruit in the health game condition than participants with healthy baseline IAs in the control game condition. However, participants with less healthy baseline IAs were less likely to select fruit in the health game condition than in the control condition. We found tentative support that health games can be used to influence IAs towards food and positively affect food choice behaviour. However, this influence was only observed for those with healthy baseline IAs. The current version of the health game would primarily benefit those already healthy and could negatively affect those that need the intervention most, so modifications are recommendable. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Food Choice Motives among the Students of a Dental Institution in Mysore City, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Sushma, R; Vanamala, N; Nagabhushana, D; Maurya, M; Sunitha, S; Reddy, Cvk

2014-09-01

In pursuit of a more "holistic" dentistry and an increasing focus on promoting oral health, dental students are increasingly being trained to take a more active part in health promotion and education. In particular, this incorporates an emphasis on diet and educating people to eat in more healthy ways. This paper works from the premise that if dental students are to engage in oral health promotion, they will do so more effectively if they have first explored their own food choice motivations. A descriptive, cross-sectional questionnaire study. The food choice questionnaire (FCQ) was distributed to a comparative group of 1(st) and 5(th) year dental students in timetabled lecture slots. The FCQ is a previously validated measure designed to assess ten main factors relevant to peoples" food choices. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 18.0 (Chicago, IL, USA) using descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test. Nearly 77% (122/159) students responded. Findings were analyzed using independent sample t-test. Results indicated statistically significant differences in terms of food choice motivations between male and female students of 1(st) and 5(th) year. Awareness and an understanding of the differences in motivational factors affecting food choice between dental students is important as they are increasingly taught to play an active role in oral health promotion.

Association between parental motives for food choice and eating patterns of 12- to 13-year-old Norwegian children.

Science.gov (United States)

Oellingrath, Inger M; Hersleth, Margrethe; Svendsen, Martin V

2013-11-01

To determine (i) the importance of parents’ motives for everyday family food choices; and (ii) the relationship between parental food choice motives and eating patterns of 12- to 13-year-old children. Cross-sectional study. A modified version of the Food Choice Questionnaire was used to determine parental motives for food choices. The children’s food and drink intake was reported by their parents using a retrospective FFQ. Eating patterns were derived using principal component analysis. The association between food choice motives and eating patterns was examined using multiple linear regression analysis. Primary schools, Telemark County, Norway. In total, 1095 children aged 12–13 years and their parents. The parental motive ‘sensory appeal’ was the most important for food choice, followed by ‘health’, ‘convenience’, ‘natural content’ and ‘weight control’. The food choice motives were associated with the eating patterns of the children, independent of background variables. The motive ‘health’ was most strongly associated with a ‘varied Norwegian’ eating pattern, representing a diverse diet and regular meals, while the motive ‘convenience’ appeared to be the most important barrier to this eating pattern. ‘Weight control’ was not associated with the ‘varied Norwegian’ eating pattern. To encourage parents to make healthy food choices for their children, health promotion activities should focus on the health benefits of a diverse diet and regular meals, rather than weight control. Recommended food products should be made more convenient and easily available for families with children.

The Environment Makes a Difference: The Impact of Explicit and Implicit Attitudes as Precursors in Different Food Choice Tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

König, Laura M; Giese, Helge; Schupp, Harald T; Renner, Britta

2016-01-01

Studies show that implicit and explicit attitudes influence food choice. However, precursors of food choice often are investigated using tasks offering a very limited number of options despite the comparably complex environment surrounding real life food choice. In the present study, we investigated how the assortment impacts the relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes and food choice (confectionery and fruit), assuming that a more complex choice architecture is more taxing on cognitive resources. Specifically, a binary and a multiple option choice task based on the same stimulus set (fake food items) were presented to ninety-seven participants. Path modeling revealed that both explicit and implicit attitudes were associated with relative food choice (confectionery vs. fruit) in both tasks. In the binary option choice task, both explicit and implicit attitudes were significant precursors of food choice, with explicit attitudes having a greater impact. Conversely, in the multiple option choice task, the additive impact of explicit and implicit attitudes was qualified by an interaction indicating that, even if explicit and implicit attitudes toward confectionery were inconsistent, more confectionery was chosen than fruit if either was positive. This compensatory 'one is sufficient'-effect indicates that the structure of the choice environment modulates the relationship between attitudes and choice. The study highlights that environmental constraints, such as the number of choice options, are an important boundary condition that need to be included when investigating the relationship between psychological precursors and behavior.

High-sodium food choices by southern, urban African Americans with heart failure.

Science.gov (United States)

Kollipara, Usha K; Mo, Vivian; Toto, Kathleen H; Nelson, Lauren L; Schneider, Ruth A; Neily, Jennifer B; Drazner, Mark H

2006-03-01

Sodium restriction is important in the management of heart failure (HF). Although many low-sodium educational resources are available, few are directed specifically at urban African Americans. A registered dietitian prospectively interviewed 50 African-American and 25 white patients in an urban public hospital (derivation cohort) in Dallas, TX, using a food-frequency instrument that listed 146 food choices. Foods >300 mg sodium/serving consumed at least weekly by 50% of an ethnic group were classified as being a high-sodium core food for that group. Classification of foods (core or not core) was validated in a second African-American cohort (n = 144). Five high-sodium food choices were classified as core food in both the derivation and validation African-American cohorts (salt in cooking, canned vegetables, cheese, processed meats, and cold cereal) and another 3 when the derivation and validation cohorts were combined (fast food, fried chicken, and corn bread). Four of these 8 foods were not classified as core foods in whites. Eight high-sodium foods were frequently consumed by southern, urban African Americans with heart failure. Several of these foods were not commonly consumed by whites, emphasizing the need to be sensitive to ethnic differences in dietary habits when educating patients about sodium intake.

Influencing food choices by training: evidence for modulation of frontoparietal control signals.

Science.gov (United States)

Schonberg, Tom; Bakkour, Akram; Hover, Ashleigh M; Mumford, Jeanette A; Poldrack, Russell A

2014-02-01

To overcome unhealthy behaviors, one must be able to make better choices. Changing food preferences is an important strategy in addressing the obesity epidemic and its accompanying public health risks. However, little is known about how food preferences can be effectively affected and what neural systems support such changes. In this study, we investigated a novel extensive training paradigm where participants chose from specific pairs of palatable junk food items and were rewarded for choosing the items with lower subjective value over higher value ones. In a later probe phase, when choices were made for real consumption, participants chose the lower-valued item more often in the trained pairs compared with untrained pairs. We replicated the behavioral results in an independent sample of participants while they were scanned with fMRI. We found that, as training progressed, there was decreased recruitment of regions that have been previously associated with cognitive control, specifically the left dorsolateral pFC and bilateral parietal cortices. Furthermore, we found that connectivity of the left dorsolateral pFC was greater with primary motor regions by the end of training for choices of lower-valued items that required exertion of self-control, suggesting a formation of a stronger stimulus-response association. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to influence food choices through training and that this training is associated with a decreasing need for top-down frontoparietal control. The results suggest that training paradigms may be promising as the basis for interventions to influence real-world food preferences.

Motherhood: From rights to choices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renata Salecl

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Motherhood has been perceived as choice in the developed world after the liberalisation of abortion. However, this choice can be extremely anxiety provoking for women, especially in times when the ideology of choice dominates our lives in all possible ways. The paper shows how psychotherapy and psychoanalysis look at this anxiety, it reflects on how family relations are often the traumatic kernel behind this choice, and how the changes that women experience in today's times contribute to the increase of anxiety related to reproduction.

Understanding consumer acceptance of intervention strategies for healthy food choices: a qualitative study.

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Bos, Colin; Van der Lans, Ivo A; Van Rijnsoever, Frank J; Van Trijp, Hans C M

2013-11-13

The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity poses a major threat to public health. Intervention strategies for healthy food choices potentially reduce obesity rates. Reviews of the effectiveness of interventions, however, show mixed results. To maximise effectiveness, interventions need to be accepted by consumers. The aim of the present study is to explore consumer acceptance of intervention strategies for low-calorie food choices. Beliefs that are associated with consumer acceptance are identified. Data was collected in the Netherlands in 8 semi-structured interviews and 4 focus group discussions (N = 39). Nine archetypical strategies representing educational, marketing and legal interventions served as reference points. Verbatim transcriptions were coded both inductively and deductively with the framework approach. We found that three beliefs are related to consumer acceptance: 1) general beliefs regarding obesity, such as who is responsible for food choice; 2) the perceived effectiveness of interventions; and 3) the perceived fairness of interventions. Furthermore, the different aspects underlying these general and intervention-specific beliefs were identified. General and intervention-specific beliefs are associated with consumer acceptance of interventions for low-calorie food choices. Policymakers in the food domain can use the findings to negotiate the development of interventions and to assess the feasibility of interventions. With respect to future research, we recommend that segments of consumers based on perceptions of intervention strategies are identified.

Understanding consumer acceptance of intervention strategies for healthy food choices: a qualitative study

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity poses a major threat to public health. Intervention strategies for healthy food choices potentially reduce obesity rates. Reviews of the effectiveness of interventions, however, show mixed results. To maximise effectiveness, interventions need to be accepted by consumers. The aim of the present study is to explore consumer acceptance of intervention strategies for low-calorie food choices. Beliefs that are associated with consumer acceptance are identified. Methods Data was collected in the Netherlands in 8 semi-structured interviews and 4 focus group discussions (N = 39). Nine archetypical strategies representing educational, marketing and legal interventions served as reference points. Verbatim transcriptions were coded both inductively and deductively with the framework approach. Results We found that three beliefs are related to consumer acceptance: 1) general beliefs regarding obesity, such as who is responsible for food choice; 2) the perceived effectiveness of interventions; and 3) the perceived fairness of interventions. Furthermore, the different aspects underlying these general and intervention-specific beliefs were identified. Conclusions General and intervention-specific beliefs are associated with consumer acceptance of interventions for low-calorie food choices. Policymakers in the food domain can use the findings to negotiate the development of interventions and to assess the feasibility of interventions. With respect to future research, we recommend that segments of consumers based on perceptions of intervention strategies are identified. PMID:24225034

A Common Mechanism Underlying Food Choice and Social Decisions.

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Ian Krajbich

2015-10-01

Full Text Available People make numerous decisions every day including perceptual decisions such as walking through a crowd, decisions over primary rewards such as what to eat, and social decisions that require balancing own and others' benefits. The unifying principles behind choices in various domains are, however, still not well understood. Mathematical models that describe choice behavior in specific contexts have provided important insights into the computations that may underlie decision making in the brain. However, a critical and largely unanswered question is whether these models generalize from one choice context to another. Here we show that a model adapted from the perceptual decision-making domain and estimated on choices over food rewards accurately predicts choices and reaction times in four independent sets of subjects making social decisions. The robustness of the model across domains provides behavioral evidence for a common decision-making process in perceptual, primary reward, and social decision making.

Ideology as instrument.

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Glassman, Michael; Karno, Donna

2007-12-01

Comments on the article by J. T. Jost, which argued that the end-of-ideology claims that emerged in the aftermath of World War II were both incorrect and detrimental to the field of political psychology. M. Glassman and D. Karno make three critical points. First, Jost objectified ideology as a grand strategy implemented at the individual level, rather than as an instrument used for a specific purpose in activity. In doing so, he set ideology up as an "object" that guides human behavior rather than as a rational part of human experience. Second, they take issue with the idea that, because somebody acts in a manner that can be categorized as ideological, there actually is such a thing as ideology separate from that event and/or political experience and that psychologists ought to understand the meaning of ideology in order to understand future human activities as outside observers. Third, Jost seems to see this objective ideology as a unidirectional, causal mechanism for activity, a mechanism that assumes individuals act according to ideology, which eclipses the possibility that immediate ideological positions are the residue of purposeful activity. Glassman and Karno suggest that it may be better to take a pluralistic view of ideology in human action. Where ideology does exist, it is as a purposeful instrument--part of a logically based action to meet some ends-in-view--a mixture of immediate goals tied to secondary belief systems (which have been integrated to serve the material purposes of the purveyors of these ideologies). So if we are to understand ideology, we can only understand it through its use in human activity. (Copyright) 2007 APA.

[Food choice and place of eating for Quebec children].

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Marquis, Marie; Wright, Jessica

2007-01-01

The relationships are explored between food choices of school-aged children and eating in the bedroom, while watching television, or in front of the computer. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire that 534 subjects completed in class. Participants were ten- to 12-year-old children from Québec. Significant positive correlations were found between the act of eating in the bedroom and eating in front of the television or the computer (peating in the bedroom, or eating in front of the television or the computer, and the consumption of low-density food, foods high in sugar and fat, and foods low in fibre (phabits for boys than for girls (pgender differences.

Diet quality index for healthy food choices

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Simone Caivano

2013-12-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To present a Diet Quality Index proper for dietary intake studies of Brazilian adults. METHODS: A diet quality index to analyze the incorporation of healthy food choices was associated with a digital food guide. This index includes moderation components, destined to indicate foods that may represent a risk when in excess, and adequacy components that include sources of nutrients and bioactive compounds in order to help individuals meet their nutritional requirements. The diet quality index-digital food guide performance was measured by determining its psychometric properties, namely content and construct validity, as well as internal consistency. RESULTS: The moderation and adequacy components correlated weakly with dietary energy (-0.16 to 0.09. The strongest correlation (0.52 occurred between the component 'sugars and sweets' and the total score. The Cronbach's coefficient alpha for reliability was 0.36. CONCLUSION: Given that diet quality is a complex and multidimensional construct, the Diet Quality Index-Digital Food Guide, whose validity is comparable to those of other indices, is a useful resource for Brazilian dietary studies. However, new studies can provide additional information to improve its reliability.

Communicating food safety, authenticity and consumer choice. Field experiences.

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Syntesa, Heiner Lehr

2013-04-01

The paper reviews patented and non-patented technologies, methods and solutions in the area of food traceability. It pays special attention to the communication of food safety, authenticity and consumer choice. Twenty eight recent patents are reviewed in the areas of (secure) identification, product freshness indicators, meat traceability, (secure) transport of information along the supply chain, country/region/place of origin, automated authentication, supply chain management systems, consumer interaction systems. In addition, solutions and pilot projects are described in the areas of Halal traceability, traceability of bird's nests, cold chain management, general food traceability and other areas.

Consumer choice: Linking consumer intentions to actual purchase of GM labeled food products.

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Sleenhoff, Susanne; Osseweijer, Patricia

2013-01-01

With a mandatory labeling scheme for GM food in Europe since 2004 measuring actual consumer choice in practice has become possible. Anticipating Europeans negative attitude toward GM food, the labeling was enforced to allow consumers to make an informed choice. We studied consumers actual purchase behavior of GM food products and compared this with their attitude and behavioral intention for buying GM food. We found that despite a majority of consumers voicing a negative attitude toward GM food over 50% of our European respondents stated that they did not actively avoid the purchase of GM food and 6% actually purchased one of the few available GM labeled food products in the period between September 2006 and October 2007. Our results imply that a voiced negative attitude of consumers in responses to questionnaires about their intentions is not a reliable guide for what they actually do in supermarkets. We conclude that the assumption of a negative attitude with regard to GM food is at least in part construed.

The choice of food consumption rates for radiation dose assessments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simmonds, J.R.; Webb, G.A.M.

1981-01-01

The practical problem in estimating radiation doses due to radioactive contamination of food is the choice of the appropriate food intakes. To ensure compliance or to compare with dose equivalent limits, higher than average intake rates appropriate to critical groups should be used. However for realistic estimates of health detriment in the whole exposed population, average intake rates are more appropriate. (U.K.)

Food pantry selection solutions: a randomized controlled trial in client-choice food pantries to nudge clients to targeted foods.

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Wilson, Norbert L W; Just, David R; Swigert, Jeffery; Wansink, Brian

2017-06-01

Food pantries and food banks are interested in cost-effective methods to encourage the selection of targeted foods without restricting choices. Thus, this study evaluates the effectiveness of nudges toward targeted foods. In October/November 2014, we manipulated the display of a targeted product in a New York State food pantry. We evaluated the binary choice of the targeted good when we placed it in the front or the back of the category line (placement order) and when we presented the product in its original box or unboxed (packaging). The average uptake proportion for the back treatment was 0.231, 95% CI = 0.179, 0.29, n = 205, and for the front treatment, the proportion was 0.337, 95% CI = 0.272, 0.406, n = 238 with an odds ratio of 1.688, 95% CI = 1.088, 2.523. The average uptake for the unboxed treatment was 0.224, 95% CI = 0.174, 0.280, n = 255, and for the boxed intervention, the proportion was 0.356, 95% CI = 0.288, 0.429, n = 188 with an odds ratio of 1.923, 95% CI = 1.237, 2.991. Nudges increased uptake of the targeted food. The findings also hold when we control for a potential confounder. Low cost and unobtrusive nudges can be effective tools for food pantry organizers to encourage the selection of targeted foods. NCT02403882. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Food choices and peer relationships: Examining ‘a taste for necessity’ in a network context

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Pachucki, Mark C.

2016-01-01

The knowledge of how our taste preferences in food are shaped by our social lives has largely developed without attention to the roles played by relationships with other people. While the well-known sociological work of Pierre Bourdieu highlights the relationship of economic, cultural, and social capital with food consumption, very little scholarship concerned with food has given explicit empirical attention to social network connectivity as a form of social capital. To bridge this gap, this investigation utilizes data from a prospective cohort study of health in which both the food choices of several thousand individuals and their social ties with peers are examined. Comparing the relative social connectedness of individuals and their common food choices provides a new perspective on taste formation and maintenance and provides new evidence of how interpersonal mechanisms play a role in food choice and taste preferences. PMID:27226654

Beyond labelling: what strategies do nut allergic individuals employ to make food choices? A qualitative study.

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Julie Barnett

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: Food labelling is an important tool that assists people with peanut and tree nut allergies to avoid allergens. Nonetheless, other strategies are also developed and used in food choice decision making. In this paper, we examined the strategies that nut allergic individuals deploy to make safe food choices in addition to a reliance on food labelling. METHODS: THREE QUALITATIVE METHODS: an accompanied shop, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and the product choice reasoning task - were used with 32 patients that had a clinical history of reactions to peanuts and/or tree nuts consistent with IgE-mediated food allergy. Thematic analysis was applied to the transcribed data. RESULTS: Three main strategies were identified that informed the risk assessments and food choice practices of nut allergic individuals. These pertained to: (1 qualities of product such as the product category or the country of origin, (2 past experience of consuming a food product, and (3 sensory appreciation of risk. Risk reasoning and risk management behaviours were often contingent on the context and other physiological and socio-psychological needs which often competed with risk considerations. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding and taking into account the complexity of strategies and the influences of contextual factors will allow healthcare practitioners, allergy nutritionists, and caregivers to advise and educate patients more effectively in choosing foods safely. Governmental bodies and policy makers could also benefit from an understanding of these food choice strategies when risk management policies are designed and developed.

A 2-phase labeling and choice architecture intervention to improve healthy food and beverage choices.

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Thorndike, Anne N; Sonnenberg, Lillian; Riis, Jason; Barraclough, Susan; Levy, Douglas E

2012-03-01

We assessed whether a 2-phase labeling and choice architecture intervention would increase sales of healthy food and beverages in a large hospital cafeteria. Phase 1 was a 3-month color-coded labeling intervention (red = unhealthy, yellow = less healthy, green = healthy). Phase 2 added a 3-month choice architecture intervention that increased the visibility and convenience of some green items. We compared relative changes in 3-month sales from baseline to phase 1 and from phase 1 to phase 2. At baseline (977,793 items, including 199,513 beverages), 24.9% of sales were red and 42.2% were green. Sales of red items decreased in both phases (P labeling intervention improved sales of healthy items and was enhanced by a choice architecture intervention.

Measurements of consumer attitudes and their influence on food choice and acceptability (AIR-CAT).

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Risvik, E; Issanchou, S; Shepherd, R; Tuorila, H

2001-08-01

A changing European food market demands insight into consumer attitudes and their influence on food choice and acceptability. This multidisciplinary area needs to bring together scientists from all regions of Europe and with very different scientific backgrounds. The primary objectives of this concerted action have been: to establish a base with state of the art methods for measurements of consumer attitudes; to review and test existing methods in practical applications in collaboration with European food industries; to perform comparative studies between laboratories on food products, where attitudes play different roles for consumer behaviour in the community countries, such as transgenic foods, irradiated foods, foods with different additives, declarations and process technologies, foods with different origin declarations, ecological foods and foods with strong health connotations (such as high-fat foods). The members of the action have published more than 130 publications related to aspects of how consumer attitudes can be measured and how food choice behaviour is related to acceptability, during the last four years. Studies have been conducted in relation to methodological aspects as well as particular studies related to specific food items and regions for food production. The paper will give a brief selection of relevant results from experiments reported through the action. During 2001 a textbook called "Food, People and Society, in a European Perspective", will be published. The book was initiated during the action and is later supported with additional authors. Altogether 29 chapters will cover the whole spectrum of topics from consumer food choice and acceptability to market perspectives and risk analysis.

Beyond-brand effect of television (TV) food advertisements/commercials on caloric intake and food choice of 5-7-year-old children.

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Halford, Jason C G; Boyland, Emma J; Hughes, Georgina; Oliveira, Lorraine P; Dovey, Terence M

2007-07-01

Food advert exposure has been shown to influence calorie intake and food choice in 9-11 year olds. However, little is known about the effect of food advertisements on feeding behaviour in younger children. Therefore, we conducted a study with 93 children aged 5-7 years, 28 of whom were over weight or obese. The children were exposed to 10 non-food adverts and 10 food adverts in a repeated measures design. Their consumption of sweet and savoury, high and low fat snack foods, and fruit were measured following both sessions. Food advert exposure produced a significant increase in total food intake in young children. The collection of recognition data was incomplete. These data replicate previous findings in that exposure to food adverts increases food intake in all children, but recognition of food adverts is related to body mass index (BMI). Beyond their effects on brand choice, exposure to food advertisements (commercials) promotes over-consumption in younger children.

Back-of-pack information in substitutive food choices: A process-tracking study in participants intending to eat healthy.

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van Buul, Vincent J; Bolman, Catherine A W; Brouns, Fred J P H; Lechner, Lilian

2017-09-01

People are increasingly aware of the positive effects of a healthy diet. Concurrently, daily food consumption decisions - choices about both the quality and quantity of food that is ingested - are steered more by what consumers consider healthy. Despite the increased aim to eat healthier, however, consumers often do not read or incorrectly interpret on-pack nutrition information, resulting in suboptimal food choices in terms of health. This study aims to unravel the determinants of such inadvertent food choices from these consumers. In an online process-tracking study, we measured the actual usage of available back-of-pack nutrition information during substitutive food choices made by 240 participants who had the intention to eat healthy. Using mouse-tracking software in a computerized task in which participants had to make dichotomous food choices (e.g., coconut oil or olive oil for baking), we measured the frequency and time of nutritional information considered. Combined with demographic and psychosocial data, including information on the level of intention, action planning, self-efficacy, and nutrition literacy, we were able to model the determinants of inadvertent unhealthy substitutive food choices in a sequential multiple regression (R 2  = 0.40). In these consumers who intended to eat healthy, the quantity of obtained nutrition information significantly contributed as an associative factor of the percentage of healthy food choices made. Moreover, the level of correct answers in a nutrition literacy test, as well as taste preferences, significantly predicted the percentage of healthier choices. We discuss that common psychosocial determinants of healthy behavior, such as intention, action planning, and self-efficacy, need to be augmented with a person's actual reading and understanding of nutrition information to better explain the variance in healthy food choice behavior. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adolescents' perspectives and food choice behaviors in terms of the environmental impacts of food production practices: application of a psychosocial model.

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Bissonnette, M M; Contento, I R

2001-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate adolescents' perspectives about the environmental impacts of food production practices and whether these perspectives are related to their food choice. Food choice was operationalized as consumption and purchase of organic foods and locally grown foods. A survey questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of adolescents and analyzed for descriptive information and relationships among variables. Subjects were 651 ethnically diverse, urban and suburban high school senior students in a major metropolitan area. Variables of an Expanded Theory of Planned Behavior were measured including beliefs, attitudes, perceived social influences, motivation to comply, perceived behavioral control, self-identity, perceived responsibility, behavioral intention, and behavior. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression analyses were used. Surveyed adolescents did not have strong or consistent beliefs or attitudes about the environmental impact of food production practices. Cognitive-motivational processes were at work, however, since their perspectives were significantly correlated with behavioral intentions and food choice behaviors. Behavioral intention was best accounted for by attitudes and perceived social influences (and perceived responsibility for organic food), and behavior was best accounted for by behavioral intentions, beliefs, and perceived social influences (and self-identity for local food). There is a need to make salient to adolescents the environmental impact of food production practices through both cognitive and experiential approaches.

Toward a quantitative theory of food consumption choices and body weight.

Science.gov (United States)

Buttet, Sebastien; Dolar, Veronika

2015-04-01

We propose a calibrated dynamic model of food consumption choices and body weight to study changes in daily caloric intake, weight, and the away-from-home share of calories consumed by adult men and women in the U.S. during the period between 1971 and 2006. Calibration reveals substantial preference heterogeneity between men and women. For example, utility losses stemming from weight gains are ten times greater for women compared to men. Counterfactual experiments show that changes in food prices and household income account for half of the increase in weight of adult men, but only a small fraction of women's weight. We argue that quantitative models of food consumption choices and body weight have a unique role to play in future research in the economics of obesity. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

TUNDE KELENI'S IDEOLOGIC L UTHORSHIP IN FOCUS. Charles ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tracie1

Auteur is the French word for author. ... Francois Truffaut titled, A certain Tendency of French Cinema published in ... suppose that since film is a product of culture, it is ideological ..... eat. On his birthday, Kashi demanded for a plate of food with ...

Food-choice motives of adolescents in Jakarta, Indonesia: the roles of gender and family income.

Science.gov (United States)

Maulida, Rizka; Nanishi, Keiko; Green, Joseph; Shibanuma, Akira; Jimba, Masamine

2016-10-01

The aims of the present study were to assess the reliability and validity of the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) and to determine the factors associated with food-choice motives in public junior-high-school students in Jakarta, Indonesia. Cross-sectional study with self-administered questionnaires. Trained research assistants measured height and weight of the participants on the day of the data collection. Settings Fourteen randomly selected public junior-high schools in East Jakarta, Indonesia. Public junior-high-school students (n 681) in grades 7 and 8, aged 13-14 years (377 girls and 304 boys). Three food-choice motives (subscales) were obtained from factor analysis and reliability testing: (i) comfort; (ii) convenience and price; and (iii) health. The subscale with the greatest mean value was health. Family affluence was inversely associated with the convenience and price subscale (β=-0·05, P=0·01) and with the health subscale (β=-0·04; P=0·02). Females were less likely than males to consider health when choosing foods (β=-0·16; P=0·03). While its factor structure differed from those found in previous studies of adults, the FCQ can provide reliable measures of food-choice motives among these adolescents. Students from less affluent families placed more importance on food's convenience and price, but more affluent students did not necessarily make healthier choices. Compared with females, males were more likely to choose healthy foods. Future interventions should be tailored based on the socio-economic status of the target group.

In their own words: A qualitative study exploring influences on the food choices of university students.

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Lambert, Michelle; Chivers, Paola; Farringdon, Fiona

2018-06-11

University students generally make independent decisions regarding food choices. Current research about knowledge of Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG), sources of nutrition information and influences on food choices for this group is scarce. Qualitative data was collected from gender separated focus groups comprising four female (n=31) and four male (n=18) to identify: knowledge of ADG, sources of nutrition information; factors that influence food choices; perceived relevant nutrition messages and how best to deliver them. Gaps in knowledge were identified particularly regarding number of serves and serving size for food groups. Social media was the most commonly reported source of knowledge. Social media was also a major influence on food choice due to its impact on body ideals. Current health promotion nutrition messages were perceived irrelevant given the focus on long-term health risks. Health and adhering to the ADG were not identified as important. The desire to look a particular way was the major influence on food choices. SO WHAT?: While there is an awareness of ADG, our participants made a deliberate decision not to follow them. This provides a challenge for developing relevant preventive health messages for this target audience. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Magazine adverts for healthy and less healthy foods: effects on recall but not hunger or food choice by pre-adolescent children.

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King, Lorraine; Hill, Andrew J

2008-07-01

The marketing of foods to children has been criticised by parents and academics alike and the control of such advertising is being considered by politicians. Much of the current research focuses on TV advertising. This study aimed to investigate the effects of exposure to printed advertisements for healthy, less healthy and non-food products on children's mood, hunger, food choice and product recall. Accordingly, 309 children (mean age 9.7 years) received booklets in a quasi-random order. Each booklet contained one of the three types of adverts, ratings of current self-perception and a food choice measure. The booklets were presented as a school-based media literacy exercise. Body weight, height and body satisfaction were assessed 1 week later. The three groups did not differ in the effect on current state or end of session food choice. However, children recalled more of the less healthy food products, even when accounting for recent exposure. Greater product recall of less healthy foods is relevant to future consumption but has a number of possible interpretations. The further exploration of non-TV food marketing is warranted at a time when marketing through these channels is increasing, not least as a result of greater TV advertising regulations.

Consumer acceptance of intervention strategies for healthy food choices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bos, Colin

2016-01-01

The need for more effective interventions to combat the obesity problem has been expressed by many public health experts. While consumer support is important for intervention effectiveness, little is known about why consumers accept or do not accept food choice interventions. The present thesis

Relation between breakfast food choices and knowledge of dietary fat and fiber among Swedish schoolchildren.

Science.gov (United States)

Berg, M Christina; Jonsson, Inger; Conner, Mark T; Lissner, Lauren

2002-08-01

To investigate dietary knowledge and beliefs of schoolchildren, in relationship to breakfast choices, with specific attention to fat and fiber content. Food choice and perceptions were studied by interviews using the "stacking box methodology". Youth (n = 181) aged 11-15 years were instructed to select food items among photographs of breakfast foods. In addition to choosing their own typical breakfasts, they were asked to exchange foods in hypothetical breakfasts to create meals with less fat and more fiber. The interview also dealt with recent changes in breakfast habits, and perceptions of healthy breakfasts, dietary fat, and foods rich in fiber. Data were analyzed by logistic regression. Knowledge concerning sources and health attributes of dietary fiber was associated with usual consumption of bread and breakfast cereals rich in fiber. In a similar way, a positive attitude toward limited fat intake predicted consumption of reduced-fat milk products. However, no association was observed between food choices and knowledge of a food-packaging symbol indicating low-fat and fiber-enriched foods. Lack of awareness of, and knowledge about, healthy eating may be important barriers to the development of health promoting food habits by schoolchildren.

Consumer agency and food retailer choice in an American urban neighborhood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian Thomas

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract This study examines the issue of consumer agency within the food system as manifested by food secure and food insecure households in an urban neighborhood in the United States. Using a self-administered mail survey this study examines food retailer perception and shopping behaviour of food secure and insecure households in Lansing, Michigan. Food security represents a useful lens through which to examine the issue of agency since food, while a necessary part of life, is nonetheless something that is difficult to access for a large sector of the population. By examining both food secure and food insecure households, light is shed on some of the factors that lead to the relative ability of each group to successfully and reliably obtain food. In particular, this study focuses on the perception and behaviour of consumers in relation to the decision to shop, or not to shop, at various food retailers. Some theories of consumer behaviour tend to focus either on class related cultural elements which determine taste preferences while other theories focus on structural elements of the food system which force a limited selection onto various social groups. While certainly class culture influences taste preference to some extent, results from this study suggest that structural elements of the food system and economic differences between food secure and food insecure households have a larger influence on store choice than cultural preferences. In fact, both food secure and insecure households indicated similar sets of criteria used in determining store choices. However, in examination of actual shopping behaviours, this study found that food insecure households are more likely to shop at deep discounters and more likely to travel farther to obtain food. These results suggest that structural elements such as food retailer locations limit the range of shopping options of food insecure households when compared to food secure households. Keywords: food

How Growing Complexity of Consumer Choices and Drivers of Consumption Behaviour Affect Demand for Animal Source Foods.

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Perry, B D; Grace, D C

2015-12-01

Many societies are spoiled for choice when they purchase meat and other livestock products, and around the globe food choice has grown dramatically in the last two decades. What is more, besides the cost and obvious health concerns influencing commodity section, an increasing proportion of choices is made to contribute to the achievement of certain ideals, such as natural resource management, climate change mitigation, animal welfare concerns and personal lifestyle. At the same time, human health considerations are becoming more important for consumption choices as richer societies, and increasingly the urban poor in low- and middle-income countries, face an unprecedented epidemic of over-consumption and associated diet-related non-communicable diseases. Animal source foods are considered significant contributors to this trend. This paper reviews this complicated arena, and explores the range of considerations that influence consumers' preferences for meat and other animal source foods. This paper also argues that deeper drivers of consumption behaviour of many foods may act in opposition to the articulated preferences for choices around animal source food consumption. We review how the returns to different causes are being valued, how emerging metrics are helping to manage and influence consumption behaviours, and draw conclusions regarding options which influence food choice.

(Not) Eating for the environment: The impact of restaurant menu design on vegetarian food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Bacon, Linda; Krpan, Dario

2018-06-01

Previous research has shown that restaurant menu design can influence food choices. However, it remains unknown whether such contextual effects on food selection are dependent on people's past behavior. In the present study, we focused on vegetarian food choices, given their important implications for the environment, and investigated whether the influence of different restaurant menus on the likelihood of selecting a vegetarian dish is moderated by the number of days on which people reported eating only vegetarian food during the previous week. In an online scenario, participants were randomly assigned to four different restaurant menu conditions-control (all dishes presented in the same manner), recommendation (vegetarian dish presented as chef's recommendation), descriptive (more appealing description of vegetarian dish), and vegetarian (vegetarian dishes placed in a separate section)-and ordered a dish for dinner. The results showed that the recommendation and descriptive menus increased the likelihood of vegetarian dish choices for infrequent eaters of vegetarian foods, whereas these effects tended to reverse for those who ate vegetarian meals more often. The vegetarian menu had no impact on the infrequent vegetarian eaters' choice but backfired for the frequent vegetarian eaters and made them less likely to order a vegetarian dish. These findings indicate that people's past behavior is an important determinant of the impact of nudging on food choices, and that achieving sustainable eating may require more personalized interventions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Healthy Eating Identity is Associated with Healthier Food Choice Behaviors Among U.S. Army Soldiers.

Science.gov (United States)

Jayne, Julianna M; Frongillo, Edward A; Torres-McGehee, Toni M; Emerson, Dawn M; Glover, Saundra H; Blake, Christine E

2018-04-04

Promoting healthy eating among Soldiers is a priority to the Army due to the link between nutrition and performance. The Army typically uses nutrition education to encourage Soldiers to make healthier food choices with low emphasis on other psychosocial determinants of food choice behaviors. Drill Sergeant Candidates (n = 575) completed surveys assessing nutrition knowledge, eating identity type, and food choice behaviors including fruit and vegetable intake, skipping meals, and eating out frequency. In multiple linear regression models using full-information maximum likelihood estimation while controlling for race/ethnicity, education, and marital status, we examined relationships between nutrition knowledge, a healthy eating identity, and Soldiers' food choice behaviors. The study was approved by the Department of Defense and University of South Carolina's Institutional Review Boards. A healthy eating identity was positively associated with greater fruit and vegetable consumption (p eating out frequency (p healthy eating identity may be more effective for promoting healthy food choice behaviors than nutrition education alone. Determining if various points in a Soldier's career could be leveraged to influence a healthy eating identity and behaviors could be an important strategy to improve compliance with health promotion programs.

Food venue choice, consumer food environment, but not food venue availability within daily travel patterns are associated with dietary intake among adults, Lexington Kentucky 2011.

Science.gov (United States)

Gustafson, Alison; Christian, Jay W; Lewis, Sarah; Moore, Kate; Jilcott, Stephanie

2013-01-29

The retail food environment may be one important determinant of dietary intake. However, limited research focuses on individuals' food shopping behavior and activity within the retail food environment. This study's aims were to determine the association between six various dietary indicators and 1) food venue availability; 2) food venue choice and frequency; and 3) availability of healthy food within food venue. In Fall, 2011, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults (n=121) age 18 years and over in Lexington, Kentucky. Participants wore a global position system (GPS) data logger for 3-days (2 weekdays and 1 weekend day) to track their daily activity space, which was used to assess food activity space. They completed a survey to assess demographics, food shopping behaviors, and dietary outcomes. Food store audits were conducted using the Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey-Store Rudd (NEMS-S) in stores where respondents reported purchasing food (n=22). Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine associations between six dietary variables with food venue availability within activity space; food venue choice; frequency of shopping; and availability of food within food venue. 1) Food venue availability within activity space - no significant associations. 2) Food Venue Choice - Shopping at farmers' markets or specialty grocery stores reported higher odds of consuming fruits and vegetables (OR 1.60 95% CI [1.21, 2.79]). Frequency of shopping - Shopping at a farmers' markets and specialty stores at least once a week reported higher odds of consumption of fruits and vegetables (OR 1.55 95% CI [1.08, 2.23]). Yet, shopping frequently at a super market had higher odds of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (OR 1.39 95% CI [1.03, 1.86]). 3) Availability of food within store - those who shop in supermarkets with high availability of healthy food has lower odds of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (OR 0.65 95% CI [0.14, 0.83]). Interventions aimed at

Food Choices of 4 to 6-Year-Old Overweight and Nonoverweight Children While Role-Playing as Adults

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Snoek, H.M.; Sessink, N.Y.; Engels, R.C.M.E.

2010-01-01

The following study compared the food choices made by overweight and non-overweight preschoolers while role-playing a mother who bought food for a family, and examined the influence of maternal restriction on food choice. After screening 619 children for height and weight, 56 overweight children

Food choices of 4 to 6-year-old overweight and nonoverweight children while role-playing as adults

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Snoek, H.M.; Sessink, N.Y.; Engels, R.C.M.E.

2010-01-01

The following study compared the food choices made by overweight and non-overweight preschoolers while role-playing a mother who bought food for a family, and examined the influence of maternal restriction on food choice. After screening 619 children for height and weight, 56 overweight children

The role of involvement in the choice of foods with nutrition and health claims

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aschemann-Witzel, Jessica

Claims are gaining in importance as a tool of communication in the growing sector of health-related foods. In order to target the right consumers, it is crucial to determine their key characteristics. A realistically designed choice experiment aims at analysing the role of various determinants...... of choice for foods with claims. Logistic regression reveals that while product-involvement plays only a minor role, health-related food-involvement appears to be a better explanatory factor than e.g. sociodemographic variables. It is concluded that items measuring the latter type of involvement might...... be helpful for practical market research in the area of health-related foods....

Factors Influencing Lunchtime Food Choices among Working Americans

Science.gov (United States)

Blanck, Heidi M.; Yaroch, Amy L.; Atienza, Audie A.; Yi, Sarah L.; Zhang, Jian; Masse, Louise C.

2009-01-01

There is growing interest in the usefulness of the workplace as a site for promotion of healthful food choices. The authors therefore analyzed data of U.S. adults (N = 1,918) who reported working outside the home and eating lunch. The majority (84.0%) of workers had a break room. About one half (54.0%) purchased lunch [greater than or equal] 2…

Teens, Food Choice, and Health: How Can a Multi-Method Research Methodology Enhance the Study of Teen Food Choice and Health Messaging?

OpenAIRE

Wiseman, Kelleen

2011-01-01

This research report compares alternative approaches to analyzing the complex factors that influence teenagers' food choice. Specifically, a multi-method approach-which involves the integration of the qualitative and quantitative research methodoligies, data and analysis-is compared to a single methodological approach, which involves use of either a quantitative or qualitative methodology.

A comparative study of American and Chinese college students' motives for food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearcey, Sharon M; Zhan, Ginny Q

2018-04-01

Previous cross-cultural research has examined college students' food choice decisions in different countries. The current study aimed to add to the literature by examining similarities and differences in motives for food choice between American (N = 328) and Chinese (N = 333) college students. The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) was used to measure the participants' motives for food choice. Students' perceptions on the importance of diet and on their body satisfaction were also obtained. Results show that, while there are many similarities between the two cultural groups on the FCQ items, there are also significant differences. Specifically, the two groups view sensory appeal, weight, health, mood, and familiarity in a similar way, but the American participants score higher on price and convenience whereas the Chinese score higher on natural content and ethical concerns. We believe contextual cultural factors of each country may be related to these results. Women view sensory appeal and weight as significantly more important than men. Interactions between culture and gender are also found. For example, American women score significantly higher than American men on mood whereas there is no gender difference in the Chinese group; on the other hand, Chinese men score significantly higher on price than Chinese women whereas there is no gender difference in the American group. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The influence of political ideology and trust on willingness to vaccinate.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bert Baumgaertner

Full Text Available In light of the increasing refusal of some parents to vaccinate children, public health strategies have focused on increasing knowledge and awareness based on a "knowledge-deficit" approach. However, decisions about vaccination are based on more than mere knowledge of risks, costs, and benefits. Individual decision making about vaccinating involves many other factors including those related to emotion, culture, religion, and socio-political context. In this paper, we use a nationally representative internet survey in the U.S. to investigate socio-political characteristics to assess attitudes about vaccination. In particular, we consider how political ideology and trust affect opinions about vaccinations for flu, pertussis, and measles. Our findings demonstrate that ideology has a direct effect on vaccine attitudes. In particular, conservative respondents are less likely to express pro-vaccination beliefs than other individuals. Furthermore, ideology also has an indirect effect on immunization propensity. The ideology variable predicts an indicator capturing trust in government medical experts, which in turn helps to explain individual-level variation with regards to attitudes about vaccine choice.

The influence of political ideology and trust on willingness to vaccinate.

Science.gov (United States)

Baumgaertner, Bert; Carlisle, Juliet E; Justwan, Florian

2018-01-01

In light of the increasing refusal of some parents to vaccinate children, public health strategies have focused on increasing knowledge and awareness based on a "knowledge-deficit" approach. However, decisions about vaccination are based on more than mere knowledge of risks, costs, and benefits. Individual decision making about vaccinating involves many other factors including those related to emotion, culture, religion, and socio-political context. In this paper, we use a nationally representative internet survey in the U.S. to investigate socio-political characteristics to assess attitudes about vaccination. In particular, we consider how political ideology and trust affect opinions about vaccinations for flu, pertussis, and measles. Our findings demonstrate that ideology has a direct effect on vaccine attitudes. In particular, conservative respondents are less likely to express pro-vaccination beliefs than other individuals. Furthermore, ideology also has an indirect effect on immunization propensity. The ideology variable predicts an indicator capturing trust in government medical experts, which in turn helps to explain individual-level variation with regards to attitudes about vaccine choice.

The development of a single-item Food Choice Questionnaire

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Onwezen, M.C.; Reinders, M.J.; Verain, M.C.D.; Snoek, H.M.

2019-01-01

Based on the multi-item Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) originally developed by Steptoe and colleagues (1995), the current study developed a single-item FCQ that provides an acceptable balance between practical needs and psychometric concerns. Studies 1 (N = 1851) and 2 (2a (N = 3290), 2b (N =

Subtypes of trait impulsivity differentially correlate with neural responses to food choices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Laan, Laura N.; Barendse, Marjolein E. A.; Viergever, Max A.; Smeets, Paul A. M.

2016-01-01

Impulsivity is a personality trait that is linked to unhealthy eating and overweight. A few studies assessed how impulsivity relates to neural responses to anticipating and tasting food, but it is unknown how impulsivity relates to neural responses during food choice. Although impulsivity is a

Apples or candy? Internal and external influences on children's food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Bruce, Amanda S; Lim, Seung-Lark; Smith, Timothy Ryan; Cherry, J Bradley C; Black, William R; Davis, Ann M; Bruce, Jared M

2015-10-01

The goal of this concise narrative review is to examine the current literature regarding endogenous and exogenous influences on youth food choices. Specifically, we discuss internal factors such as interoception (self-awareness) of pain and hunger, and neural mechanisms (neurofunctional aspects) of food motivation. We also explore external factors such as early life feeding experiences (including parenting), social influences (peers), and food marketing (advertising). We conclude with a discussion of the overlap of these realms and future directions for the field of pediatric food decision science. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Association between traditional food consumption and motives for food choice in six European countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Pieniak, Zuzanna; Verbeke, Wim; Vanhonacker, Filiep; Guerrero, Luis; Hersleth, Margrethe

2009-08-01

This study investigates the association between traditional food consumption and motives for food choice in six European countries. Cross-sectional data were collected through the TRUEFOOD pan-European consumer survey (n = 4828) with samples representative for age, gender and region in Belgium, France, Italy, Norway, Poland and Spain. Importance attached to familiarity with a product is found to be strongly and positively associated with general attitude toward traditional food as well as traditional food consumption. The importance attached to convenience was negatively related to both general attitude toward traditional food and traditional food consumption, while the importance of weight control negatively influenced the general attitude. Natural content of food was positively associated with the attitude toward traditional food and traditional food consumption. The importance of price when purchasing food failed to be significantly related with general attitude and traditional food consumption both for the pooled sample as well as within each country except in Spain. The proposed model contributes to a better understanding of factors shaping the image and influencing the consumption of traditional foods in Europe. General attitude toward traditional foods, familiarity, and importance of food naturalness emerged as drivers for traditional food consumption. Importance attached to convenience and health acted as direct barriers to traditional food consumption, whereas importance of weight control emerged as an indirect barrier through lowering general attitude toward traditional foods.

Motives underlying healthy eating: using the Food Choice Questionnaire to explain variation in dietary intake.

Science.gov (United States)

Pollard, T M; Steptoe, A; Wardle, J

1998-04-01

The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ), which measures the reported importance to a given individual of nine factors underlying food choice, and a food frequency questionnaire, were administered to 241 participants, who were also required to classify their diet as either 'standard', 'low in red meat' or 'vegetarian'. Respondents describing their diet as low in red meat attributed greater importance to health, natural content, weight control and ethical concern in their food choice than did those who described their diets as standard, whereas vegetarians differed significantly from those with a standard diet only on the score for ethical concern. Differences between men and women and between students and non-students in the frequency of consumption of a number of foods were shown to be mediated by differences in the importance attached to FCQ factors. Thus the generally healthier diets of women compared to men appeared to be accounted for by the greater importance attributed by women to weight control, natural content and ethical concerns.

Maintenance on naltrexone+amphetamine decreases cocaine-vs.-food choice in male rhesus monkeys.

Science.gov (United States)

Moerke, Megan J; Banks, Matthew L; Cheng, Kejun; Rice, Kenner C; Negus, S Stevens

2017-12-01

Cocaine use disorder remains a significant public health issue for which there are no FDA-approved pharmacotherapies. Amphetamine maintenance reduces cocaine use in preclinical and clinical studies, but the mechanism of this effect is unknown. Previous studies indicate a role for endogenous opioid release and subsequent opioid receptor activation in some amphetamine effects; therefore, the current study examined the role of mu-opioid receptor activation in d-amphetamine treatment effects in an assay of cocaine-vs-food choice. Adult male rhesus monkeys with double-lumen intravenous catheters responded for concurrently available food pellets and cocaine injections (0-0.1mg/kg/injection) during daily sessions. Cocaine choice and overall reinforcement rates were evaluated during 7-day treatments with saline or test drugs. During saline treatment, cocaine maintained a dose-dependent increase in cocaine-vs.-food choice. The mu-opioid receptor agonist morphine (0.032-0.32mg/kg/h) dose-dependently increased cocaine choice and decreased rates of reinforcement. A dose of the mu-selective opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone (0.0032mg/kg/h) that completely blocked morphine effects had no effect on cocaine choice when it was administered alone, but it enhanced the effectiveness of a threshold dose of 0.032mg/kg/h amphetamine to decrease cocaine choice without also enhancing nonselective behavioral disruption by this dose of amphetamine. Conversely, the kappa-selective opioid antagonist norbinalorphimine did not enhance amphetamine effects on cocaine choice. These results suggest that amphetamine maintenance produces mu opioid-receptor mediated effects that oppose its anti-cocaine effects. Co-administration of naltrexone may selectively enhance amphetamine potency to decrease cocaine choice without increasing amphetamine potency to produce general behavioral disruption. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Involving children in cooking activities: A potential strategy for directing food choices toward novel foods containing vegetables.

Science.gov (United States)

Allirot, Xavier; da Quinta, Noelia; Chokupermal, Krithika; Urdaneta, Elena

2016-08-01

Involving children in cooking has been suggested as a strategy to improve dietary habits in childhood. Interventions in schools including cooking, gardening and tasting activities have showed promising results. Several cross-sectional surveys demonstrated associations between frequency of involvement in food preparation and better diet quality. However, experimental studies confirming the beneficial effect of cooking on food choices in children are missing from the literature. The objective of the present study was to assess the effect of involving children in cooking on their willingness to taste novel foods, food intake, liking and hunger. A between-subject experiment was conducted with 137 children between 7 and 11 years old. 69 children (COOK group) participated in the preparation of three unfamiliar foods containing vegetables: apple/beetroot juice, zucchini tortilla sandwich and spinach cookies. 68 children (CONTROL group) participated, instead, in a creative workshop. Afterwards, the children were invited to choose, for an afternoon snack, between three familiar vs. unfamiliar foods: orange vs. apple/beetroot juice, potato vs. zucchini tortilla sandwich and chocolate vs. spinach cookie. The mean number of unfamiliar foods chosen per child was higher in the COOK vs. CONTROL group (P = 0.037). The overall willingness to taste the unfamiliar foods was also higher in the COOK group (P = 0.011). The liking for the whole afternoon snack (P = 0.034), for 2 of 3 unfamiliar foods and for 1 of 3 familiar foods was higher in the COOK group (P food intake and hunger/satiety scores. This study demonstrated that involving children in cooking can increase their willingness to taste novel foods and direct food choices towards foods containing vegetables. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Role of expendable income and price in food choice by low income families.

Science.gov (United States)

Burns, Cate; Cook, Kay; Mavoa, Helen

2013-12-01

The public health literature suggests that the cheapness of energy-dense foods is driving the obesity epidemic. We examined food purchases in low-income families and its relationship to the price of food and availability of funds. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 parents with children less than 15 years of age whose major source of income was a government pension. A photo taxonomy, where participants sorted 50 photos of commonly purchased foods, was used to explore food choice. The most common food groupings used by the participants were: basic, emergency, treat and comfort. The process of food purchase was described by participants as weighing up the attributes of a food in relation to price and money available. Shoppers nominated the basic unit of measurement as quantity per unit price and the heuristic for food choice when shopping as determining "value for money" in a process of triage relating to food purchase decisions. Participants stated satiation of hunger to be the most common "value" relative to price. Given that the foods nominated as filling tended to be carbohydrate-rich staples, we suggest that public health initiatives need to acknowledge this triage process and shape interventions to promote nutrition over satiation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Food choices, physical activity levels and other factors associated ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The aim of the study was to evaluate educators' health behaviours regarding dietary intake and physical activity (PA). A survey was undertaken in 517 educators at 83 primary schools in the Western Cape. Food choices (healthy vs. unhealthy), PA levels, and health knowledge were measured by questionnaire. The six most ...

Nutrition Knowledge and Food Choices of Elementary School Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Kandiah, Jay; Jones, Charlotte

2002-01-01

Investigated the effect of a 3-week school-based nutrition education program on nutrition knowledge and healthy food choices of fifth graders randomly assigned to experimental or control group. Found that the experimental group exhibited a significant increase in nutrition knowledge from pretest to posttest and significant change in compliance in…

Limits to preference and the sensitivity of choice to rate and amount of food.

Science.gov (United States)

Aparicio, Carlos F; Baum, William M; Hughes, Christine E; Pitts, Raymond C

2016-03-01

Studies of choice holding food-amount ratio constant while varying food-rate ratio within sessions showed that local changes in preference depend on relative amount of food. The present study investigated whether sensitivity of choice to food-rate ratio and sensitivity to food-amount ratio are independent of one another when food-rate ratios are varied across sessions and food-amount ratios are varied within sessions. Food deliveries for rats' presses on the left and right levers were scheduled according to three different food-rate ratios of 1:1, 9:1, and 1:9; each food-rate ratio lasted for 106 sessions and was arranged independently of seven food-amount ratios (7:1, 6:2, 5:3, 4:4, 3:5, 2:6, and 1:7 food pellets) occurring within sessions in random sequence. Each amount ratio lasted for 10 food deliveries and was separated from another by a 60-s blackout. Sensitivity to rate ratio was high (1.0) across food deliveries. Sensitivity to amount ratio was low when food rates were equal across alternatives, but was high when rate ratio and amount ratio opposed one another. When rate ratio and amount ratio went in the same direction, choice ratio reached an elevenfold limit which reduced sensitivity to approximately zero. We conclude that three factors affect sensitivity to amount: (1) the limit to preference, (2) the equal effect on preference of amounts greater than four pellets, and (3) the absence of differential effects of switches in amount in the equal-rates (1:1) condition. Taken together, these findings indicate that rate and amount only sometimes combine independently as additive variables to determine preference when amount ratios vary frequently within sessions. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Aberrant Food Choices after Satiation in Human Orexin-Deficient Narcolepsy Type 1.

Science.gov (United States)

van Holst, Ruth Janke; van der Cruijsen, Lisa; van Mierlo, Petra; Lammers, Gert Jan; Cools, Roshan; Overeem, Sebastiaan; Aarts, Esther

2016-11-01

Besides influencing vigilance, orexin neurotransmission serves a variety of functions, including reward, motivation, and appetite regulation. As obesity is an important symptom in orexin-deficient narcolepsy, we explored the effects of satiety on food-related choices and spontaneous snack intake in patients with narcolepsy type 1 (n = 24) compared with healthy matched controls (n = 19). In additional analyses, we also included patients with idiopathic hypersomnia (n = 14) to assess sleepiness-related influences. Participants were first trained on a choice task to earn salty and sweet snacks. Next, one of the snack outcomes was devalued by having participants consume it until satiation (i.e., sensory-specific satiety). We then measured the selective reduction in choices for the devalued snack outcome. Finally, we assessed the number of calories that participants consumed spontaneously from ad libitum available snacks afterwards. After satiety, all participants reported reduced hunger and less wanting for the devalued snack. However, while controls and idiopathic hypersomnia patients chose the devalued snack less often in the choice task, patients with narcolepsy still chose the devalued snack as often as before satiety. Subsequently, narcolepsy patients spontaneously consumed almost 4 times more calories during ad libitum snack intake. We show that the manipulation of food-specific satiety has reduced effects on food choices and caloric intake in narcolepsy type 1 patients. These mechanisms may contribute to their obesity, and suggest an important functional role for orexin in human eating behavior. Study registered at Netherlands Trial Register. URL: www.trialregister.nl. Trial ID: NTR4508. © 2016 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Comparison of motives underlying food choice and barriers to healthy eating among low medium income consumers in Uruguay

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gastón Ares

Full Text Available Abstract: Interventions aimed at changing dietary patterns should be designed based on the main motives underlying the food choices of specific target populations. The aim of the present study was to identify motives underlying food choice and barriers to healthy eating among consumers in two socioeconomic levels in Uruguay. Eleven focus groups were carried out with a total of 76 participants. Six of the groups involved low income participants and the others were conducted with middle income participants. Discussions were held around frequently consumed products, motives underlying food choices and barriers to healthy eating. Results confirmed the strong influence of income level on motives underlying food choice and barriers to the adoption of healthy eating. Low income participants described their choices as mainly driven by economic factors and satiety, whereas convenience was the main determinant of food selection for middle income participants. Implications for the design of public policies targeted at each group are discussed.

Comparison of motives underlying food choice and barriers to healthy eating among low medium income consumers in Uruguay.

Science.gov (United States)

Ares, Gastón; Machín, Leandro; Girona, Alejandra; Curutchet, María Rosa; Giménez, Ana

2017-05-18

Interventions aimed at changing dietary patterns should be designed based on the main motives underlying the food choices of specific target populations. The aim of the present study was to identify motives underlying food choice and barriers to healthy eating among consumers in two socioeconomic levels in Uruguay. Eleven focus groups were carried out with a total of 76 participants. Six of the groups involved low income participants and the others were conducted with middle income participants. Discussions were held around frequently consumed products, motives underlying food choices and barriers to healthy eating. Results confirmed the strong influence of income level on motives underlying food choice and barriers to the adoption of healthy eating. Low income participants described their choices as mainly driven by economic factors and satiety, whereas convenience was the main determinant of food selection for middle income participants. Implications for the design of public policies targeted at each group are discussed.

Passion for a cause, passion for a creed: on ideological passion, identity threat, and extremism.

Science.gov (United States)

Rip, Blanka; Vallerand, Robert J; Lafrenière, Marc-André K

2012-06-01

Passion energizes and directs both peaceful and violent ideologically inspired movements. The type of ideological passion that underlies people's political or religious commitment was proposed to moderate the effect of social identity-threatening circumstances on their choice of activist tactics. Ideological passion was defined as a strong inclination toward a loved, valued, and self-defining cause, ideology, or group in which people invest considerable time and energy. Harmonious ideological passion was expected to promote peaceful activism and nonviolence partly because it is anchored in a strong and secure sense of identity-one that facilitates nondefensiveness in identity-threatening circumstances. Obsessive ideological passion, in contrast, was expected to engender hatred and aggressive extremism in identity-threatening circumstances partly because it is anchored in a strong, but insecure, sense of identity. Results from 2 studies, conducted with nationalist activists (N = 114) and devout Muslims (N = 111), supported these hypotheses. Implications for the motivation/passion and intergroup literatures are discussed. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Personality © 2011, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Communicating healthier food choice : food composition data, front-of-pack nutrition labelling and health claims.

OpenAIRE

Hodgkins, Charo E.

2016-01-01

Background: Food composition data, front-of-pack nutrition labelling and nutrition and health claims have an important role to play in the development of appropriate policy, regulation and public health interventions ultimately aimed at reducing the burden of diet-related chronic disease. The overarching aim of this thesis is to explore whether the communication of healthier food choice through front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling and health claims can be enhanced by the development of con...

Poverty and the Ideological Imperative: A Call to Unhook from Deficit and Grit Ideology and to Strive for Structural Ideology in Teacher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Gorski, Paul C.

2016-01-01

In this article I explore the educational equity implications of three popular ideological positions that drive teachers' and teacher educators' understandings of, and responses to, poverty and economic injustice in schools: deficit ideology, grit ideology, and structural ideology. The educator's ideological position, I illustrate, determines…

Food venue choice, consumer food environment, but not food venue availability within daily travel patterns are associated with dietary intake among adults, Lexington Kentucky 2011

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Objective The retail food environment may be one important determinant of dietary intake. However, limited research focuses on individuals’ food shopping behavior and activity within the retail food environment. This study’s aims were to determine the association between six various dietary indicators and 1) food venue availability; 2) food venue choice and frequency; and 3) availability of healthy food within food venue. Methods In Fall, 2011, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults (n=121) age 18 years and over in Lexington, Kentucky. Participants wore a global position system (GPS) data logger for 3-days (2 weekdays and 1 weekend day) to track their daily activity space, which was used to assess food activity space. They completed a survey to assess demographics, food shopping behaviors, and dietary outcomes. Food store audits were conducted using the Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey-Store Rudd (NEMS-S) in stores where respondents reported purchasing food (n=22). Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine associations between six dietary variables with food venue availability within activity space; food venue choice; frequency of shopping; and availability of food within food venue. Results 1) Food venue availability within activity space – no significant associations. 2) Food Venue Choice – Shopping at farmers’ markets or specialty grocery stores reported higher odds of consuming fruits and vegetables (OR 1.60 95% CI [1.21, 2.79]). Frequency of shopping - Shopping at a farmers’ markets and specialty stores at least once a week reported higher odds of consumption of fruits and vegetables (OR 1.55 95% CI [1.08, 2.23]). Yet, shopping frequently at a super market had higher odds of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (OR 1.39 95% CI [1.03, 1.86]). 3) Availability of food within store – those who shop in supermarkets with high availability of healthy food has lower odds of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (OR 0.65 95

Shaping children's healthy eating habits with food placements? Food placements of high and low nutritional value in cartoons, Children's BMI, food-related parental mediation strategies, and food choice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Naderer, B.; Matthes, J.; Binder, A.; Marquart, F.; Mayrhofer, M.; Obereder, A.; Spielvogel, I.

Research on media induced food choices of children has not sufficiently investigated whether food placements of snacks high in nutritional value can strengthen children's healthy eating behavior. Furthermore, we lack knowledge about the moderating role of children's individual characteristics such

What would Batman eat?: priming children to make healthier fast food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Wansink, B; Shimizu, M; Camps, G

2012-04-01

Fast food patronage is a frequent reality for many children and their parents. Although there are increasingly healthier alternatives for popular menu items (apple slices instead of French fries), they are infrequently selected. We investigated whether either of two priming tactics - the priming of a role model's food choices or the priming of healthy foods - could influence children to make healthier fast food choices. In the priming model condition, 22 children (ranging in age from 6 to 12 years) were presented with 12 photos of 6 admirable and 6 less admirable models and asked, 'Would this person order apple fries or French fries?' In the health prime condition, the same children were shown 12 photos of 6 healthy foods and 6 less healthy foods and asked to indicate if each food was healthy or unhealthy. When children were asked what various admirable people - such as Batman or Spiderman - would eat, 45% chose apple slices over French fries, which was higher than the health prime (P < 0.001) or the control condition (P < 0.001). Advising a parent to ask their child 'What would Batman (or another admired character or person) eat?' might be an easy step to take in what could be a healthier fast food world. © 2012 The Authors. Pediatric Obesity © 2012 International Association for the Study of Obesity.

Food choices and diet costs: an economic analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Drewnowski, Adam; Darmon, Nicole

2005-04-01

Obesity in the United States is a socioeconomic issue. It is related to limited social and economic resources and may be linked to disparities in access to healthy foods. Added sugars and added fats are far more affordable than are the recommended "healthful" diets based on lean meats, whole grains, and fresh vegetables and fruit. There is an inverse relationship between energy density of foods (kJ/g) and energy cost ($/MJ), such that energy-dense grains, fats, and sweets represent the lowest-cost dietary options to the consumer. Good taste, high convenience, and the low cost of energy-dense foods, in conjunction with large portions and low satiating power, may be the principal reasons for overeating and weight gain. Financial disparities in access to healthier diets may help explain why the highest rates of obesity and diabetes are found among minorities and the working poor. If so, then encouraging low-income households to consume more costly foods is not an effective strategy for public health. What is needed is a comprehensive policy approach that takes behavioral nutrition and the economics of food choice into account.

Effects of Environmental Manipulations and Treatment with Bupropion and Risperidone on Choice between Methamphetamine and Food in Rhesus Monkeys.

Science.gov (United States)

Banks, Matthew L; Blough, Bruce E

2015-08-01

Preclinical and human laboratory choice procedures have been invaluable in improving our knowledge of the neurobiological mechanisms of drug reinforcement and in the drug development process for candidate medications to treat drug addiction. However, little is known about the neuropharmacological mechanisms of methamphetamine vs food choice. The aims of this study were to develop a methamphetamine vs food choice procedure and determine treatment effects with two clinically relevant compounds: the monoamine uptake inhibitor bupropion and the dopamine antagonist risperidone. Rhesus monkeys (n=6) responded under a concurrent schedule of food delivery (1-g pellets, fixed-ratio (FR) 100 schedule) and intravenous methamphetamine injections (0-0.32 mg/kg/injection, FR10 schedule) during 7-day bupropion (0.32-1.8 mg/kg/h) and risperidone (0.001-0.0056 mg/kg/h) treatment periods. For comparison, effects of removing food pellets or methamphetamine injections and FR response requirement manipulations were also examined. Under saline treatment conditions, food was preferred over no methamphetamine or small unit methamphetamine doses (0.01-0.032 mg/kg/injection). Larger methamphetamine doses resulted in greater methamphetamine preference and 0.32 mg/kg/injection methamphetamine maintained near exclusive preference. Removing food availability increased methamphetamine choice, whereas removing methamphetamine availability decreased methamphetamine choice. Methamphetamine choice was not significantly altered when the FR response requirements for food and drug were the same (FR100:FR100 or FR10:FR10). Risperidone treatment increased methamphetamine choice, whereas bupropion treatment did not alter methamphetamine choice up to doses that decreased rates of operant behavior. Overall, these negative results with bupropion and risperidone are concordant with previous human laboratory and clinical trials and support the potential validity of this preclinical methamphetamine vs food

Diversity in the determinants of food choice: A psychological perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Köster, E.P.

2009-01-01

Eating, drinking and food choices are among the most frequent human behaviours. Although seemingly simple, they are complex behaviours that are determined by many factors and their interactions. The complexity of the research field stresses the necessity to attack problems in an interdisciplinary

Testing a bioenergetics-based habitat choice model: bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) responses to food availability and temperature

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Using an automated shuttlebox system, we conducted patch choice experiments with 32, 8–12 g bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) to test a behavioral energetics hypothesis of habitat choice. When patch temperature and food levels were held constant within patches but different between patches, we expected bluegill to choose patches that maximized growth based on the bioenergetic integration of food and temperature as predicted by a bioenergetics model. Alternative hypotheses were that bluegill may choose patches based only on food (optimal foraging) or temperature (behavioral thermoregulation). The behavioral energetics hypothesis was not a good predictor of short-term (from minutes to weeks) patch choice by bluegill; the behavioral thermoregulation hypothesis was the best predictor. In the short-term, food and temperature appeared to affect patch choice hierarchically; temperature was more important, although food can alter temperature preference during feeding periods. Over a 19-d experiment, mean temperatures occupied by fish offered low rations did decline as predicted by the behavioral energetics hypothesis, but the decline was less than 1.0 °C as opposed to a possible 5 °C decline. A short-term, bioenergetic response to food and temperature may be precluded by physiological costs of acclimation not considered explicitly in the behavioral energetics hypothesis.

Consumer Choice between Food Safety and Food Quality: The Case of Farm-Raised Atlantic Salmon

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Haghiri, Morteza

2016-01-01

Since the food incidence of polychlorinated biphenyls in farm-raised Atlantic salmon, its market demand has drastically changed as a result of consumers mistrust in both the quality and safety of the product. Policymakers have been trying to find ways to ensure consumers that farm-raised Atlantic salmon is safe. One of the suggested policies is the implementation of integrated traceability methods and quality control systems. This article examines consumer choice between food safety and food quality to purchase certified farm-raised Atlantic salmon, defined as a product that has passed through various stages of traceability systems in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. PMID:28231118

Demand for carbon-neutral food – evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment for milk and apple juice

OpenAIRE

Breustedt, Gunnar

2014-01-01

To internalize climate-related external costs from agricultural production and food consumption Pigou taxes and carbon credits increase private costs for food. Voluntary consumer choices for carbon-neutral food can be advantageous over such policy measures since they avoid higher food prices for the poor. We empirically analyze consumers’ willingness-to-pay for hypothetical carbon-reduced as well as carbon-neutral milk and apple juice. Data are collected in Discrete Choice Experiments in a Ge...

Influences on the food choices and physical activity behaviours of overweight and obese pregnant women: A qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Orna A; Lindsay, Karen L; McCarthy, Mary; McGloin, Aileen F; Kennelly, Maria; Scully, Helena A; McAuliffe, Fionnuala M

2017-04-01

to qualitatively explore influences identified by overweight/obese pregnant women on food choices and physical activity (PA) behaviours; to determine the impact of pregnancy on these factors; and to inform development of future lifestyle interventions during pregnancy. cross-sectional interview study. maternity hospital, Ireland. pregnant women (n=22), early pregnancy Body Mass Index > 25kg/m 2 MEASURES: barriers to and facilitators of healthy eating and PA in overweight/obese pregnancy. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. overweight/obese women perceived the following factors to influence their food choices and PA behaviours: personal (e.g. age, enjoyment, health, aesthetic appearance, and response to fatigue); social (e.g. social support, food modelling, social facilitation and weight bias) and environmental (e.g. food salience and the obesogenic environment). These factors affected PA and food choice trajectories differently according to socio-economic and socio-cultural context. personal, social and environmental factors affect food choices and PA behaviours. Pregnancy is a powerful stimulus for positive changes in food choices particularly. This change is driven by desire for healthy pregnancy outcome, and is not intrinsically motivated. Healthy lifestyle interventions should aim to sustain positive changes beyond pregnancy through: empowerment, intrinsic motivation, family-centred approach, and behavioural goals. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Effect of Motives for Food Choice on Oral Health among Primary School Children in Mangalore: An Analytical Survey.

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Mehta, Viral Vijay; Rajesh, Gururaghavendran; Rao, Ashwini; Shenoy, Ramya; Pai, Mithun; Nayak, Vijayendranath

2017-05-01

Parents influence children's eating behaviours by making some foods available than others and by acting as models of eating behaviour. Food selected by parents influence general and oral health of their children. Aim of this study was to assess oral health parameters among primary school children and motives for food choice among their parents in Mangalore. A total of 759 primary school children aged 5-10 years, and their parents participated in this study. Motives for food choice among parents of children were evaluated by using Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ). Oral health status of students was assessed by using World Health Organisation (WHO) Basic Oral Health Assessment Form. Data pertaining to dietary habits and demographics was also collected. Descriptive and inferential statistics along with Pearson's correlation and Binary logistic regression were executed for the present study and level of significance was fixed at pfood choice motives positively influenced dietary patterns and caries experience of their children. Caries experience was less in children whose parents reported higher scores on FCQ. Understanding the barriers, identification of risk factors for poor food choices and targeting interventions might formulate ways by which the desired behaviour can be achieved.

The theory of planned behaviour and discrete food choices: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

McDermott, Máirtín S; Oliver, Madalyn; Svenson, Alexander; Simnadis, Thomas; Beck, Eleanor J; Coltman, Tim; Iverson, Don; Caputi, Peter; Sharma, Rajeev

2015-12-30

The combination of economic and social costs associated with non-communicable diseases provide a compelling argument for developing strategies that can influence modifiable risk factors, such as discrete food choices. Models of behaviour, such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) provide conceptual order that allows program designers and policy makers to identify the substantive elements that drive behaviour and design effective interventions. The primary aim of the current review was to examine the association between TPB variables and discrete food choice behaviours. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify relevant studies. Calculation of the pooled mean effect size (r(+)) was conducted using inverse-variance weighted, random effects meta-analysis. Heterogeneity across studies was assessed using the Q- and I(2)-statistics. Meta-regression was used to test the impact of moderator variables: type of food choice behaviour; participants' age and gender. A total of 42 journal articles and four unpublished dissertations met the inclusion criteria. TPB variables were found to have medium to large associations with both intention and behaviour. Attitudes had the strongest association with intention (r(+)  = 0.54) followed by perceived behavioural control (PBC, r(+)  = 0.42) and subjective norm (SN, r(+)  = 0.37). The association between intention and behaviour was r(+)  = 0.45 and between PBC and behaviour was r(+)  = 0.27. Moderator analyses revealed the complex nature of dietary behaviour and the factors that underpin individual food choices. Significantly higher PBC-behaviour associations were found for choosing health compromising compared to health promoting foods. Significantly higher intention-behaviour and PBC-behaviour associations were found for choosing health promoting foods compared to avoiding health compromising foods. Participant characteristics were also found to moderate associations within the model. Higher

Food craving, food choice and consumption: The role of impulsivity and sham-controlled tDCS stimulation of the right dlPFC.

Science.gov (United States)

Georgii, Claudio; Goldhofer, Philipp; Meule, Adrian; Richard, Anna; Blechert, Jens

2017-08-01

Impulsivity has been found to be associated with overeating and obesity. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may enhance inhibitory control while reducing food craving and intake. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether tDCS stimulation modifies food choice, craving and consumption as a function of trait impulsivity. Forty-two predominantly healthy-weight women received active tDCS stimulation to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and sham stimulation in a within participant design. Trait impulsivity was measured with a short form of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Participants completed a computerized food-choice task, during which their mouse movements were traced. Current food craving was measured by a modified version of the Food Cravings Questionnaire-State as well as by desire to eat ratings for food pictures. Food intake was measured in a taste test. There were no tDCS effects on any of the dependent variables. Trait impulsivity (and non-planning impulsivity in particular) was positively associated with higher calorie intake in the taste test, irrespective of tDCS stimulation. The current findings question the efficacy of single-session tDCS stimulation of the right dLPFC to reduce food craving, high caloric food choice and calorie intake in non-selected, predominantly healthy weight women. However, they do support the idea that trait impulsivity is related to overeating and, therefore, may be a risk factor for obesity. Future research needs to specify which appetitive behaviors can be modulated by brain stimulation and which populations might profit from it the most. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effect of mobile phone short messaging system on healthy food choices among Iranian postmenopausal women.

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Vakili, Mahdis; Abedi, Parvin; Afshari, Poorandokht; Kaboli, Nayereh Esmael

2015-01-01

Central adiposity and metabolic syndrome are quite common among postmenopausal women. Dietary diversity and healthy food choices have essential role in health and also in prevention of obesity. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of mobile phone short messaging system on healthy food choices among Iranian postmenopausal women. This was a randomized controlled trial in which 100 postmenopausal women aged 40-60 years were recruited and assigned to two groups (50 each in the intervention and control groups). Food frequency consumption was measured using a questionnaire. A total of 16 text messages including information about modification of food selection (healthy choices, benefits, methods, etc.,) were sent to participants in the intervention group during 4 months follow-up (1/week). The Chi-square and independent t-test used for data analysis. Ninety-two women completed the study. The consumption of Vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control group (P mobile phone short messaging system can improve the healthy food choices regarding Vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables and fish among postmenopausal women.

Actual use of a front-of-pack nutrition logo in the supermarket: consumers' motives in food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Vyth, Ellis L; Steenhuis, Ingrid H M; Vlot, Jessica A; Wulp, Anouk; Hogenes, Meefa G; Looije, Danielle H; Brug, Johannes; Seidell, Jacob C

2010-11-01

A front-of-pack nutrition logo on products with relatively favourable product compositions might help consumers to make more healthful choices. Studies investigating actual nutrition label use in point-of-purchase settings are scarce. The present study investigates the use of the 'Choices' nutrition logo in Dutch supermarkets. Adults were asked to complete a validated questionnaire about motivation for food choice and their purchased products were scored for the Choices logo after they had done their shopping. Nine supermarkets in The Netherlands. A total of 404 respondents participated. Of the respondents, 62 % reported familiarity with the logo. The motivations for food choice that were positively associated with actually purchasing products with the logo were attention to 'weight control' and 'product information'. The food choice motive 'hedonism' was negatively associated with purchasing products with the logo. This is the first study to investigate actual use of the Choices logo. In order to stimulate consumers to purchase more products with a favourable product composition, extra attention should be paid to hedonistic aspects such as the tastefulness and the image of healthy products.

Food choice motives and the importance of family meals among immigrant mothers.

Science.gov (United States)

Marquis, Marie; Shatenstein, Bryna

2005-01-01

To determine the health and social benefits of the family mealtime, we examined the contribution of immigrant mothers' food motives to the importance placed on family meals, and cultural differences in mothers' food motives and the importance ascribed to family meals. Data were taken from a study on food choice factors among ten- to 12-year-old children from three cultural communities in Montreal. A 24-item, self-administered questionnaire was used to explore food choice motives. Each mother was also asked how important it was for her family to take the time to eat together, and if the child enjoyed sharing meals with his or her family. In all, 209 of the 653 questionnaires distributed were valid; 68 were from Haitian, 75 from Portuguese, and 66 from Vietnamese mothers. Five factors emerging from factor analyses explained 61.67% of the variance. Analysis of variance indicated significant differences between mothers' countries of origin for the importance placed on health, pleasure, familiarity, and ingredient properties (pmotivations emerged as the only significant predictor of the importance given to family meals, whereas for Vietnamese mothers, both health and eating familiar foods were predictors (p<0.05).

Participating in a Food-Assisted Maternal and Child Nutrition and Health Program in Rural Guatemala Alters Household Dietary Choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Melissa L; Frongillo, Edward A; Leroy, Jef L; Blake, Christine E

2016-08-01

Food assistance programs may alter food choices, but factors determining households' decisions regarding food acquisition, preparation, and consumption in the context of food aid are not well understood. This study aimed to understand how the Programa Comunitario Materno Infantil de Diversificación Alimentaria (Mother-Child Community Food Diversification Program; PROCOMIDA), a food-assisted maternal and child health and nutrition program in rural Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, altered household food choices. We conducted semistructured interviews and focus groups with 63 households in 3 participating (n = 32 households) and 3 control (n = 31) villages. A last-day food recall (without estimating quantities) and food-frequency questionnaire that used food cards assessed dietary choices. Qualitative analysis used thematic a priori and emergent coding; food group consumption frequencies were analyzed by using 2-level, logistic, mixed modeling, and chi-square testing while accounting for community clustering. Compared with control households, PROCOMIDA changed household food choices through a combination of providing food resources (with monthly food rations) and new knowledge and skills related to health and food (in the program's behavior change communication component) while reinforcing existing knowledge and beliefs. PROCOMIDA families consumed rice, red beans, and oil more frequently than did control families (differences of 2.20 (P foods were in the rations. PROCOMIDA families also ate chicken, local plants, and some vegetables more frequently. The importance of these foods was emphasized in the behavioral change communication component; these foods may have been more accessible because provision of food rations freed resources. Our findings suggest that if a program provides food free of cost to rural indigenous families in the context of a maternal and child nutrition and health program, it may be important to include a well-designed behavioral change communication

Food advertising, children's food choices and obesity: interplay of cognitive defences and product evaluation: an experimental study.

Science.gov (United States)

Tarabashkina, L; Quester, P; Crouch, R

2016-04-01

To investigate the role of product evaluations, nutritional and persuasion knowledge on children's food choices conducted because of limited evidence about the role of product evaluations on consumer choices in conjunction with cognitive defences. A randomised controlled 2 × 2 factorial experiment with an exposure to a food and a control (toy) advertisement conducted in a non-laboratory setting at an annual event traditionally visited by families. Children aged 7-13 years with biometric/weight data representative of the general Australian population. Height and weight (converted into body mass index z-scores) measured in addition to children's nutritional and persuasion knowledge, product evaluations, age and gender. The factors that undermine children's cognitive defences relate to taste, social appeal of foods and low nutritional and persuasion knowledge. An interplay between the above-mentioned factors was also observed, identifying four groups among young consumers, alluding to a complex and at times impulsive nature of children's decisions: (1) knowledgeable children with less positive product evaluations choosing a healthy snack; (2) knowledgeable but hedonism-oriented children seeking peer conformity choosing an advertised product; (3) knowledgeable children who chose a snack belonging to the same product category; and (4) less knowledgeable children with positive product evaluations and low nutritional knowledge choosing snacks from the advertised product category. Obese children were more likely to belong to a cluster of less knowledgeable and hedonism-oriented children. The problem of consumption of less healthy foods is complex and multiple factors need to be considered by health practitioners, social marketers and parents to address the issue of childhood obesity. Nutritional knowledge alone is not sufficient to ensure children make healthier food choices and emphasis should also be placed on persuasion knowledge education, targeting of peer norms

Hunger induced changes in food choice. When beggars cannot be choosers even if they are allowed to choose.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoefling, Atilla; Strack, Fritz

2010-06-01

The present work was to examine the influence of food deprivation on food choice. For this purpose hungry versus satiated subjects were presented with a series of choices between two snacks in a complete block design of pairwise comparisons. Snacks systematically varied with respect to subjects' idiosyncratic taste preferences (preferred versus un-preferred snack), portion size (large portion versus very small portion), and availability in terms of time (immediately available versus available only after a substantial time delay). Food choices were analyzed with a conjoint analysis which corroborated the assumption that food deprivation decreases the relative importance of taste preference and increases the importance of immediate availability of food. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Health and Pleasure in Consumers' Dietary Food Choices: Individual Differences in the Brain's Value System

Science.gov (United States)

Petit, Olivia; Merunka, Dwight; Anton, Jean-Luc; Nazarian, Bruno; Spence, Charles; Cheok, Adrian David; Raccah, Denis; Oullier, Olivier

2016-01-01

Taking into account how people value the healthiness and tastiness of food at both the behavioral and brain levels may help to better understand and address overweight and obesity-related issues. Here, we investigate whether brain activity in those areas involved in self-control may increase significantly when individuals with a high body-mass index (BMI) focus their attention on the taste rather than on the health benefits related to healthy food choices. Under such conditions, BMI is positively correlated with both the neural responses to healthy food choices in those brain areas associated with gustation (insula), reward value (orbitofrontal cortex), and self-control (inferior frontal gyrus), and with the percent of healthy food choices. By contrast, when attention is directed towards health benefits, BMI is negatively correlated with neural activity in gustatory and reward-related brain areas (insula, inferior frontal operculum). Taken together, these findings suggest that those individuals with a high BMI do not necessarily have reduced capacities for self-control but that they may be facilitated by external cues that direct their attention toward the tastiness of healthy food. Thus, promoting the taste of healthy food in communication campaigns and/or food packaging may lead to more successful self-control and healthy food behaviors for consumers with a higher BMI, an issue which needs to be further researched. PMID:27428267

Does Journaling Encourage Healthier Choices? Analyzing Healthy Eating Behaviors of Food Journalers

OpenAIRE

Achananuparp, Palakorn; Lim, Ee-Peng; Abhishek, Vibhanshu

2018-01-01

Past research has shown the benefits of food journaling in promoting mindful eating and healthier food choices. However, the links between journaling and healthy eating have not been thoroughly examined. Beyond caloric restriction, do journalers consistently and sufficiently consume healthful diets? How different are their eating habits compared to those of average consumers who tend to be less conscious about health? In this study, we analyze the healthy eating behaviors of active food journ...

A lack of appetite for information and computation. Simple heuristics in food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulte-Mecklenbeck, Michael; Sohn, Matthias; de Bellis, Emanuel; Martin, Nathalie; Hertwig, Ralph

2013-12-01

The predominant, but largely untested, assumption in research on food choice is that people obey the classic commandments of rational behavior: they carefully look up every piece of relevant information, weight each piece according to subjective importance, and then combine them into a judgment or choice. In real world situations, however, the available time, motivation, and computational resources may simply not suffice to keep these commandments. Indeed, there is a large body of research suggesting that human choice is often better accommodated by heuristics-simple rules that enable decision making on the basis of a few, but important, pieces of information. We investigated the prevalence of such heuristics in a computerized experiment that engaged participants in a series of choices between two lunch dishes. Employing MouselabWeb, a process-tracing technique, we found that simple heuristics described an overwhelmingly large proportion of choices, whereas strategies traditionally deemed rational were barely apparent in our data. Replicating previous findings, we also observed that visual stimulus segments received a much larger proportion of attention than any nutritional values did. Our results suggest that, consistent with human behavior in other domains, people make their food choices on the basis of simple and informationally frugal heuristics. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nudging healthy food choices: a field experiment at the train station.

Science.gov (United States)

Kroese, Floor M; Marchiori, David R; de Ridder, Denise T D

2016-06-01

Recognizing the mindless nature of many food decisions, it has been suggested that attempts to increase healthy eating should not focus on convincing people what is 'right' but rather aim to adjust the environment such that people are automatically directed toward healthy choices. This study investigated a nudge aiming to promote healthy food choices in train station snack shops. The nudge involved a repositioning of food products: healthy foods were placed at the cash register desk, while keeping unhealthy products available elsewhere in the shop. Three snack shops were included: a control condition; a nudge condition repositioning healthy products and a nudge + disclosure condition employing the same nudge together with an explanatory sign. Next to examining its effectiveness during 1 week, the study assessed customers' acceptance of the nudge. Controlling for a baseline week, more healthy (but not fewer unhealthy) products were sold in both nudge conditions, with no difference between the nudge and the nudge + disclosure condition. A majority of customers reported positive attitudes toward the nudge. Repositioning healthy foods is a simple, effective and well-accepted nudge to increase healthy purchases. Moreover, disclosing its purpose does not impact on effectiveness. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Choice between delayed food and immediate opioids in rats: treatment effects and individual differences.

Science.gov (United States)

Panlilio, Leigh V; Secci, Maria E; Schindler, Charles W; Bradberry, Charles W

2017-11-01

Addiction involves maladaptive choice behavior in which immediate drug effects are valued more than delayed nondrug rewards. To model this behavior and extend our earlier work with the prescription opioid oxycodone, we allowed rats to choose between immediate intravenous delivery of the short-acting opioid remifentanil and delayed delivery of highly palatable food pellets. Treatment drugs were tested on a baseline where remifentanil was preferred over food. Treatment with a high dose of the opioid antagonist naltrexone decreased but did not reverse the preference for remifentanil. Treatment with the serotonin 5-HT 2C agonist lorcaserin decreased remifentanil and food self-administration nonselectively. Across conditions in which the alternative to delayed food was either a moderate dose of oxycodone, a moderate or high dose of remifentanil, a smaller more immediate delivery of food, or timeout with no primary reinforcement, choice was determined by both the length of the delay and the nature of the alternative option. Delayed food was discounted most steeply when the alternative was a high dose of remifentanil, which was preferred over food when food was delayed by 30 s or more. Within-subject comparisons showed no evidence for trait-like impulsivity or sensitivity to delay across these conditions. Choice was determined more by the current contingencies of reinforcement than by innate individual differences. This finding suggests that people might develop steep delay-discounting functions because of the contingencies in their environment, and it supports the use of contingency management to enhance the relative value of delayed nondrug reinforcers.

Importance of the habitat choice behavior assumed when modeling the effects of food and temperature on fish populations

Science.gov (United States)

Wildhaber, Mark L.; Lamberson, Peter J.

2004-01-01

Various mechanisms of habitat choice in fishes based on food and/or temperature have been proposed: optimal foraging for food alone; behavioral thermoregulation for temperature alone; and behavioral energetics and discounted matching for food and temperature combined. Along with development of habitat choice mechanisms, there has been a major push to develop and apply to fish populations individual-based models that incorporate various forms of these mechanisms. However, it is not known how the wide variation in observed and hypothesized mechanisms of fish habitat choice could alter fish population predictions (e.g. growth, size distributions, etc.). We used spatially explicit, individual-based modeling to compare predicted fish populations using different submodels of patch choice behavior under various food and temperature distributions. We compared predicted growth, temperature experience, food consumption, and final spatial distribution using the different models. Our results demonstrated that the habitat choice mechanism assumed in fish population modeling simulations was critical to predictions of fish distribution and growth rates. Hence, resource managers who use modeling results to predict fish population trends should be very aware of and understand the underlying patch choice mechanisms used in their models to assure that those mechanisms correctly represent the fish populations being modeled.

What should primary health care practitioners know about factors influencing young people’s food choices?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Louise Holmberg

2010-04-01

Full Text Available BackgroundTo identify factors that determine the nature and extent ofyoung consumers trust in food; sources of information whichinfluence young consumer food choices; and how trustimpacts on young people’s food choices.MethodIn-depth qualitative research interviews were conducted withyoung women and men, who are the primary food purchasersin their household (n=8ResultsFood choices of young adults were generally determined bycost and convenience. The overall perception was thatAustralian food regulation was effective and therefore, foodsafety need not be questioned. Health including long termhealth, although considered, was not central in food choicebehaviour. Trustworthy nutrition information sourcesincluded family and friends. While food labels were used theywere considered scientific and complex. The media and thefood industry were deemed to be untrustworthy informationsources.ConclusionCost and convenience were major determinants of foodchoice in this group of young people who generally lacked areflexive capacity with regards to food safety and health. Afailure to prioritise health raises questions regarding theengagement of young people in public health initiatives, andshould be of interest to primary health care practitioners.These data suggest that general practitioners should beaware that cost and convenience may take priority overhealth issues for young people. Further research isrequired to confirm the findings of this small study, withfuture studies aiming to include young people fromvarying socio-demographic backgrounds in order to gain amore comprehensive view of young people’s trust infood.

Guilty pleasures: The effect of perceived overeating on food addiction attributions and snack choice.

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Ruddock, Helen K; Hardman, Charlotte A

2018-02-01

Despite being widely debated throughout the scientific community, the concept of food addiction remains a popular explanation for overeating and obesity amongst the lay public. Overeating is often accompanied by feelings of guilt and dietary concern, and this may lead people to attribute their eating to an addiction in order to minimise personal responsibility. Research also indicates that food addiction attributions and dietary concern may lead people to limit their exposure to tempting foods. To test these ideas, we examined the effect of perceived overeating on food addiction attributions and snack choice. Subjective ratings of guilt and dietary concern were indirectly manipulated by leading female participants (N=90) to believe they had eaten more than (overeating condition), less than (undereating condition), or roughly the same (control condition) amount of palatable foods in relation to their own estimated consumption and to previous participants. Participants then rated the relative importance of a list of explanations for their eating (including "the foods were really addictive") and selected a snack to take home with them. Ratings of guilt and dietary concern were highest in the overeating condition, and lowest in the undereating condition, indicating that the manipulation had been successful. However, findings revealed no effect of condition on food addiction attributions. As predicted, participants in the overeating condition selected less tempting snacks than in the undereating condition. However, this effect was not mediated by guilt/dietary concern. There was also no association between food-addiction attributions and snack choice. These findings suggest that perceived overeating affects snack choice but not food addiction attributions. Future research should investigate whether food addiction attributions may be driven by feelings of guilt and dietary concern following longer-term disinhibited eating patterns. Copyright © 2017 The Authors

THE IMPACT OF FOOD PACKAGE INFORMATION IN GUDING CONSUMER CHOICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria GRIGORAS

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The modern consumer has become more attentive when taking the decision to purchase food due to the controversies in the food industry, the impact of social media and more intense relationship between consumed products and health. The nutritional information on the label has become an important element guiding the successful choice of food products. Thus, the consumer tries to process this information based on his intellectual and financial resources. This research aims to determine the degree of comprehensibility of the information displayed on food labels, to evaluate its nutritional profile and to highlight a possible antithesis of the perceived favourable image and the nutritional value “de facto” of those goods. In order to implement this approach there were conducted exploratory marketing researches, using the questionnaire and the method SAIN-LIM.

Food choice, eating behavior, and food liking differs between lean/normal and overweight/obese, low-income women.

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Dressler, Heidi; Smith, Chery

2013-06-01

The higher rate of obesity among low-income women has widely been attributed to environmental barriers; however, many low-income women are still able to maintain a healthy weight despite obesogenic environments. To better understand personal and behavioral attributes related to food choice and weight, overweight/obese women and lean/normal weight women living in similar low-income environments, participated in focus groups, and taste testing sessions to investigate food liking (n=83). During focus groups, lean/normal weight participants reported that health was influential in food choice, while overweight/obese participants expressed cost as being more of a factor. Both BMI (kg/m(2)) groups reported that taste was of greatest importance. Personal factors, like emotional eating, and overeating were also discussed with differences noted between BMI (kg/m(2)) groups. Quantitative data also showed cost to be more important for overweight/obese women. Taste testing results revealed that overweight/obese participants had a higher overall liking for both healthy and less healthy foods, as well as other food categories. Additionally, these women had a higher liking of fat in the context of spreadable fats. Our results show that a variety of complex factors interact to influence eating behavior and present weight status of women living in similarly impoverished environments. However, findings from this exploratory study should be confirmed through further research. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The contribution of three components of nutrition knowledge to socio-economic differences in food purchasing choices.

Science.gov (United States)

McKinnon, Loretta; Giskes, Katrina; Turrell, Gavin

2014-08-01

To assess socio-economic differences in three components of nutrition knowledge, i.e. knowledge of (i) the relationship between diet and disease, (ii) the nutrient content of foods and (iii) dietary guideline recommendations; furthermore, to determine if socio-economic differences in nutrition knowledge contribute to inequalities in food purchasing choices. The cross-sectional study considered household food purchasing, nutrition knowledge, socio-economic and demographic information. Household food purchasing choices were summarised by three indices, based on self-reported purchasing of sixteen groceries, nineteen fruits and twenty-one vegetables. Socio-economic position (SEP) was measured by household income and education. Associations between SEP, nutrition knowledge and food purchasing were examined using general linear models adjusted for age, gender, household type and household size. Brisbane, Australia in 2000. Main household food shoppers (n 1003, response rate 66·4 %), located in fifty small areas (Census Collectors Districts). Shoppers in households of low SEP made food purchasing choices that were less consistent with dietary guideline recommendations: they were more likely to purchase grocery foods comparatively higher in salt, sugar and fat, and lower in fibre, and they purchased a narrower range of fruits and vegetables. Those of higher SEP had greater nutrition knowledge and this factor attenuated most associations between SEP and food purchasing choices. Among nutrition knowledge factors, knowledge of the relationship between diet and disease made the greatest and most consistent contribution to explaining socio-economic differences in food purchasing. Addressing inequalities in nutrition knowledge is likely to reduce socio-economic differences in compliance with dietary guidelines. Improving knowledge of the relationship between diet and disease appears to be a particularly relevant focus for health promotion aimed to reduce socio

Association of maternal food choices with caries status and sugar consumption among preschool children in Vikarabad town

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Md Shakeel Anjum

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Children choose sweet, energy dense foods in preference to more nutritious options. Despite being aware about healthy food, mothers regularly purchase, prepare and allow their children to eat unhealthy food. Aims: To explore the association between the knowledge of mothers of preschool children about making food choices and oral health of their children and to assess the association with their children′s sugar consumption and caries status. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 358 mother and child pairs from preschools and Anganwadi centers in the Vikarabad town of Ranga Reddy district in Telangana using simple random sampling. Data were collected using a questionnaire filled by their mothers who gathered their views on choices about food; a 3-day diet chart and clinical assessment of the children′s caries status. Chi-square, t-test and ANOVA were used. Results: Majority of mothers were motivated by their child′s preferences (51%, availability and accessibility of food products (19% and affordability (15% when making food choices for their children. Though, mothers had a favorable knowledge regarding food choices for their children and about oral health, it was not found to be associated with caries status of their children. However, the association between the sweet scores of the children and their caries status was significant. Conclusion:Though the mothers had favorable knowledge about providing healthy foods to their children, it did not reflect in their behavior when choosing foods. Higher sugar consumption of the children was associated with more dental caries.

The effect of a fictitious peer on young children's choice of familiar v. unfamiliar low- and high-energy-dense foods.

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Bevelander, Kirsten E; Anschütz, Doeschka J; Engels, Rutger C M E

2012-09-28

The present experimental study was the first to investigate the impact of a remote (non-existent) peer on children's food choice of familiar v. unfamiliar low- and high-energy-dense food products. In a computer task, children (n 316; 50·3 % boys; mean age 7·13 (SD 0·75) years) were asked to choose between pictures of familiar and unfamiliar foods in four different choice blocks using the following pairs: (1) familiar v. unfamiliar low-energy-dense foods (fruits and vegetables), (2) familiar v. unfamiliar high-energy-dense foods (high sugar, salt and/or fat content), (3) familiar low-energy-dense v. unfamiliar high-energy-dense foods and (4) unfamiliar low-energy-dense v. familiar high-energy-dense foods. Participants who were not in the control group were exposed to the food choices (either always the familiar or always the unfamiliar food product) of a same-sex and same-age fictitious peer who was supposedly completing the same task at another school. The present study provided insights into children's choices between (un)familiar low- and high-energy-dense foods in an everyday situation. The findings revealed that the use of fictitious peers increased children's willingness to try unfamiliar foods, although children tended to choose high-energy-dense foods over low-energy-dense foods. Intervention programmes that use peer influence to focus on improving children's choice of healthy foods should take into account children's strong aversion to unfamiliar low-energy-dense foods as well as their general preference for familiar and unfamiliar high-energy-dense foods.

Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice.

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Sellitto, Manuela; di Pellegrino, Giuseppe

2016-06-05

Nowadays, the increasing incidence of eating disorders due to poor self-control has given rise to increased obesity and other chronic weight problems, and ultimately, to reduced life expectancy. The capacity to refrain from automatic responses is usually high in situations in which making errors is highly likely. The protocol described here aims at reducing imprudent preference in women during hypothetical intertemporal choices about appetitive food by associating it with errors. First, participants undergo an error task where two different edible stimuli are associated with two different error likelihoods (high and low). Second, they make intertemporal choices about the two edible stimuli, separately. As a result, this method decreases the discount rate for future amounts of the edible reward that cued higher error likelihood, selectively. This effect is under the influence of the self-reported hunger level. The present protocol demonstrates that errors, well known as motivationally salient events, can induce the recruitment of cognitive control, thus being ultimately useful in reducing impatient choices for edible commodities.