Modeling eating behaviors: The role of environment and positive food association learning via a Ratatouille effect.

Anarina L Murillo,Carlos Castillo-Chavez,Devina Wadhera,Elizabeth D Capaldi Phillips,Muntaser Safan

doi:10.3934/mbe.2016020

Abstract

Eating behaviors among a large population of children are studied as a dynamic process driven by nonlinear interactions in the sociocultural school environment. The impact of food association learning on diet dynamics, inspired by a pilot study conducted among Arizona children in Pre-Kindergarten to 8th grades, is used to build simple population-level learning models. Qualitatively, mathematical studies are used to highlight the possible ramifications of instruction, learning in nutrition, and health at the community level. Model results suggest that nutrition education programs at the population-level have minimal impact on improving eating behaviors, findings that agree with prior field studies. Hence, the incorporation of food association learning may be a better strategy for creating resilient communities of healthy and non-healthy eaters. A Ratatouille effect can be observed when food association learners become food preference learners, a potential sustainable behavioral change, which in turn, may impact the overall distribution of healthy eaters. In short, this work evaluates the effectiveness of population-level intervention strategies and the importance of institutionalizing nutrition programs that factor in economical, social, cultural, and environmental elements that mesh well with the norms and values in the community.

Highlights

The prevalence of childhood obesity has doubled among 2-to-5-year-olds (5-7% to 10.4%) and tripled for both 6-to-11-year-olds (6.5% to 19.6%) and 12-to-19-year-olds (5% to 18.1%) from 1971 − 1974 to 2007 − 2008 [37]
We develop two models to shed some light on how the interactions among individual factors, the sociocultural environment, and nutrition programs impact the dynamics of eating behaviors and distribution of eaters in school settings
Since food association learning has been identified as a more effective approach, we study its potential impact through use of mathematical models

Summary

Introduction

The prevalence of childhood obesity has doubled among 2-to-5-year-olds (5-7% to 10.4%) and tripled for both 6-to-11-year-olds (6.5% to 19.6%) and 12-to-19-year-olds (5% to 18.1%) from 1971 − 1974 to 2007 − 2008 [37]. Childhood obesity can increase risk of cardiovascular disease [3, 10, 36] and cancer [3, 9, 32], two leading causes of premature mortality and physical morbidity in adulthood [43] Many national efforts, such as the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) implementation of the “My Plate” guidelines [49] in schools, aim to alter the eating dynamics of young individuals [3]. These state-mandated guidelines impact the diets of those who eat lunch (60%) and breakfast (37%) at their schools [48], or 99% and 78% of public schools who participate in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, respectively [23, 29]. Well-studied in experimental settings, its impact is not well-understood at the population-level, and we investigate this phenomenon on the diet dynamics of young individuals in this work

Eating Behaviors in School Settings

The Mathematical Modeling Framework

Ratatouille Effect

A P β γ1 γ2 pαφrμ

Findings

Discussion