Food Preferences In Relation Research Articles

Local Cuisine Attraction in the Rice Terraces of the Cordilleras: A World Heritage Site of the Philippines

Food is not only vital to the physical body; it is likewise linked to the whole tourism experience. This study determined the local cuisines offered to tourists and the major driving forces of tourists’ local food preferences and consumption through data drawn from tourists of the Rice Terraces of the Cordilleras which one of the World Heritage Sites in the Philippines. This study further determined the relationship of the tourists’ food preferences in relation to demographics and the tourists’ personality traits. This study employed quantitative survey conducted through fieldwork in the identified Philippine World Heritage Site. A survey questionnaire was administered with follow-up interview to 300 respondents who were chosen through purposive sampling. The data results indicated that tourists who were relatively young were much willing to consume local food despite little awareness about the local cuisine. The data results further revealed that Food-Related Personality Traits have a bearing on the tourists’ willingness to consume local exotic and common food in the region. Furthermore, food neophobia and food neophilia were found to have significant effect on the decision of the tourists to consume local food products.

Ovipositional Preference of lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica Fabr. (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) in certain wheat, Triticum vulgere (Linn.) varieties

Rhyzopertha dominica Fabr. (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) is a highly polyphagousserious insect-pest of stored cereals particularly wheat under tropical conditions and causes extensive damage both in terms of quantity and quality to stored wheat grains.. Study on ovipositional preference in wheat varieties was conducted at Department of Zoology, D.B.S.College, Kanpur, India during 2004 to 2005 Six wheat, Triticum aestvum Linn varieties viz., TL 174, K 65, HI 774, UPT 72294, Kalyan Sona and HD1982 were tested under laboratory condition in protected and unprotected condition. In the present investigations six varieties of wheat, Triticum aestvum (Linn.) were tested under laboratory trials for their relative food preference to Rhizopertha Dominica Fabr. The data revealed significant differences among various wheat varieties for oviposition of R. dominica. Fecundity was highest (121.33 eggs) on TL 174 and lowest on K 65 (30.33 eggs) and HI 774 (27.33 eggs) respectively. The second in order to preference for oviposition having 73.33 eggs was HI 774 followed by UPT 72294 and HD1982 in which 67.33 and 54.00 eggs have been laid respectively. K 65 and HI 774 having 30.33 and 27.33 eggs are comparatively less preferred for egg laying. Among the food preference the most preferred variety for the larvae was UPT 72294, and least preferred varieties was HI 7747.

Monitoring food preference in Drosophila by oligonucleotide tagging

Drosophila melanogaster is a powerful model organism for dissecting the neurogenetic basis of appetitive and aversive behaviors. However, some methods used to assay food preference require or cause starvation. This can be problematic for fly ethanol research because it can be difficult to dissociate caloric preference for ethanol from pharmacological preference for the drug. We designed BARCODE, a starvation-independent assay that uses trace levels of oligonucleotide tags to differentially mark food types. In BARCODE, flies feed ad libitum, and relative food preference is monitored by qPCR of the oligonucleotides. Persistence of the ingested oligomers within the fly records the feeding history of the fly over several days. Using BARCODE, we identified a sexually dimorphic preference for ethanol. Females are attracted to ethanol-laden foods, whereas males avoid consuming it. Furthermore, genetically feminizing male mushroom body lobes induces preference for ethanol. In addition, we demonstrate that BARCODE can be used for multiplex diet measurements when animals are presented with more than two food choices.

A Novel Food Preference in the Greater Short-Nosed Fruit Bat,Cynopterus sphinx: Mother-Pup Interaction a Strategy for Learning

The greater short-nosed fruit bat Cynopterus sphinx relies on the diverse food resources available in its habitat, with individuals identifying and discriminating between food sources using their sense of smell, in relation to volatile compounds released from fruit, flowers and leaves. The work detailed in this article tested whether pups learn about novel food from interactions with their mothers during foraging and develop preferences. Mother-pup pairs or pups alone were trained during postnatal days (PND) 46–50 using Mangifera indica as a novel fruit. They were then tested during PND 61–65 for food preferences in relation to a known fruit (Achras sapota) and the novel fruit (M. indica). When the trained pups and untrained pups were tested for food preferences independently, those trained with the mother were found to exhibit significantly more marked preferences for the novel fruit as compared with either the pups trained without their mothers or the untrained pups. They made a greater number of feeding attempts and bouts in respect of the novel fruit. However, pups trained without their mothers and untrained pups also both showed a response to the novel fruit during the later period of testing. The results suggest that mother-pup interactions during the early foraging period may provide an opportunity for C. sphinx pups to learn about novel food sources thanks to their mother. Later they may learn independently on the basis of experience from mother's milk and/or social interaction with conspecifics.

Behaviour directed towards inaccessible food predicts consumption—A novel way of assessing food preference

When determining an animal’s food preference based on comparative consumption, a major problem is the potential for individuals to over-eat, rendering subjects unavailable for subsequent tests as well as exposing them to potentially adverse health implications. Here, we explored alternative, simple and quick ways of assessing food preference that involved only minimal training and avoided satiation. In Study 1, we investigated whether behaviour directed towards inaccessible food predicted consummatory choice. Following a prime with small quantities of two types of food of putatively different quality, 18 pet dogs were concurrently presented with the same two food types in a manner that they could see and smell, but not physically access. Time spent investigating the two inaccessible food types was measured. Subsequently, the dogs were given the opportunity to consume the same two food types but this time in a restricted-intake consummatory test: two puzzle feeders were presented simultaneously, each containing 18 pieces of one of the two food types. The proportion of food types making up the first 18 pieces consumed was recorded. Subjects showed a highly significant preference for the food type predicted to be of higher value in both the non-consummatory and the consummatory test. Moreover the proportion of time spent investigating the two food types in the non-consummatory test was very similar to the proportion of the two food types consumed from the puzzle feeders, demonstrating validity of both test methods. There are, however, some limitations to the consummatory test, in particular that it can only be valid if the two food types to be compared are of similar ease to extract from the boards. To assess the generalizability of the non-consummatory food preference test, in Study 2 we investigated test-retest reliability in 20 dogs, as well as consistency of preferences across populations by comparing 20 owned pet dogs and 25 dogs housed in rescue shelters. Findings were consistent across repetitions of the test as well as across the two test populations. Thus, relative food preference could be confidently and reliably inferred from behaviour during a non-consummatory exposure. The ease and speed of use, the lack of training required and the avoidance of satiation make this an ideal test for determining food preference.

Contrasting approaches to ‘doing’ family meals: a qualitative study of how parents frame children’s food preferences

Family meals, as acts of domestic food provisioning, are shaped by the competing influences of household resources, food preferences and broader cultural norms around dietary practices. The place of children’s food tastes in family meal practices is particularly complex. Food tastes stand in a reciprocal relationship with family food practices: being both an influence on and a product of them. This paper explores how parents think about and respond to their children’s food preferences in relation to family meal practices. A qualitative study was conducted with residents of Sandwell, UK. The results presented here are based on the responses of nine key participants and their families. Photo elicitation methods generated participant food photo diaries that were used to inform subsequent interviews. A thematic analysis revealed two contrasting ways of incorporating children’s tastes into family meal routines: (1) ‘what we fancy’ and (2) ‘regulated’. The former entails repeatedly consulting and negotiating with children over what to cook for each meal. It is supported by the practical strategies of multiple and individually modified meals. The latter relies upon parents developing a repertoire of meals that ‘work’ for the family. This repertoire is performed as a series of ‘set meals’ in which any requests for variation are strongly resisted. Our findings add to the small body of literature on household food provisioning and suggest that achieving the idealised ritual of the family meal is underpinned by a range of values and strategies, some of which may run counter to health messages about nutrition.

Children's and adolescents' snacking: interplay between the individual and the school class.

Objective: In schools, perceived norms of classmates facilitate but can also inhibit unhealthy food intake in children and adolescents. However, the role of actual class behaviors and attitudes is less established. Thus, the present study examined classmates' actual eating behavior and food preferences in relation to actual food intake. In addition, it tested whether these normative effects are facilitated by corresponding individual and class food preferences or a positive social self-concept.Methods: The food preferences, social self-concept, and unhealthy snacking frequency of 734 Finnish, 829 German, and 555 Romanian children and adolescents (aged 8–19) from 127 school-classes were assessed.Results: Multilevel analysis at individual and class level showed that classmates shared similar snacking habits (14.7% variance). Moreover, the unhealthy food preference of a school-class was associated with its collective snacking [, p < 0.001, PRV = 0.32). This effect was facilitated by individual, unhealthy food preferences [, p < 0.001, PRV = 0.57] and a positive social self-concept [, p = 0.015, PRV = 0.12].Conclusions: Actual class norms are related to children's and adolescents' eating, but their impact depends on individual differences in preferences and social self-concept.

Autonomic nervous system responses on and facial expressions to the sight, smell, and taste of liked and disliked foods

Traditional sensory and consumer tests predict long term consumer acceptance of new products rather poorly, as evidenced by the high failure rates of new market introductions. These tests typical reflect conscious processes whereas consumer acceptance may also be based on unconscious processes, which may be measured by implicit physiological and behavioral measures.This study with 16 children (aged 8–10years) and 15 young adults (mean age 22years) explored the use of selected physiological and behavioral measures of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in the study of foods. Three liked and three disliked foods were selected for each participant and their responses were measured during the first sight of each food and when they received the instruction to either visually inspect, smell or taste the foods.The first sight of disliked foods compared to liked foods resulted in increased skin conductance responses (p=0.05) and increased facial expressions of sadness, disgust, and angriness (p=0.05).Skin conductance responses (SCRs) varied significantly with the type of instruction (p<0.001), with relatively small SCRs when participants were instructed to visually inspect the foods and larger SCRs when they are instructed to taste or smell the foods.When instructed to taste the foods, children showed increased SCRs for disliked foods while young adults showed decreased SCRs (p=0.02).Heart rate varied with instruction and age group (p=0.03). Children showed increased heart rate when instructed to visual inspect or taste the foods and reduced heart rate they were instructed to smell them. In contrast, young adults showed reduced heart rate when instructed to visual inspect and increased heart rate with instructed to taste or smell.Finger temperature was higher for liked foods than for disliked foods, irrespective of instruction and age group (p<0.01).It is concluded that implicit ANS and behavioral responses provide detailed information on food preferences in relation to specific food properties and phases of food sampling that may not be provided by other more explicit tests.

Relative food preference and hedonic judgments in schizophrenia

There is a well-documented disruption of the neural network associated with reward evaluation in schizophrenia. This same system is involved in coding the incentive value of food in healthy individuals, but few studies to date have examined anhedonia and its relation to food hedonicity and preference in schizophrenia. Relative preference and hedonic food ratings were examined in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. In the relative preference task, subjects viewed photographs of food items and selected the one that they most preferred. Hedonic ratings were obtained by asking subjects how much they liked the food stimulus on a scale of 1–5. There were no overall response time differences between the two groups in the relative preference task, but schizophrenia patients showed subtle differences in their hedonic ratings of foods compared with control subjects. Schizophrenia patients gave more positive hedonic ratings for food than did controls, and the use of fewer positive ratings was associated with increased anhedonia, particularly with loss of sexual interest. These results suggest that while making relative preference judgments may be intact, hedonic values attached to food may be altered in schizophrenia, and they may be related to dysfunction in more basic vegetative systems.

Gender Differences in Food Preferences of School‐Aged Children and Adolescents

Schools have the opportunity, through the National School Lunch Program and Local School Wellness Policies, to have a significant impact on healthy eating behaviors. An understanding of children's and adolescents' food preferences in relation to gender and age will facilitate the successful creation of both healthy and financially viable school menus. The purpose of this study was to identify food preferences with respect to gender of school-age children and adolescents in an Ohio school district. A survey was administered to 1818 3rd- to 12th-grade students in 1 rural northeast Ohio school district. Students filled out an anonymous questionnaire about their preferences for 80 different foods using a 5-point rating scale. The student data were grouped according to school level attended: elementary (3rd-6th), middle (7th-8th), and high school (9th-12th). An exploratory factor analysis identified entrée and side dish factors. Cronbach's alpha was used to measure each factor's internal reliability. Differences in mean scores by gender and grade for each of the entrée and side dish factors by gender and grade were identified using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Boys preferred the meat, fish, and poultry foods over girls; girls preferred fruits and vegetables over boys (p < .05). Furthermore, gender differences in preferences were also demonstrated with respect to school level. Food preferences differed between genders and these gender differences varied among elementary, middle, and high school students. Gender differences should be considered when providing food choices to boys and girls at all ages.

Food choice in people with Prader-Willi syndrome: quantity and relative preference.

Two experiments were conducted to examine differences between people with Prader-Willi syndrome and an obese comparison group in choosing a larger quantity of food delivered after a delay (15, 30, or 60 seconds) or a small quantity of food delivered immediately. Individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome selected the larger food quantity. Choices by the obese comparison group tended to be equally divided between both options. Relative food preference influenced choosing the larger, delayed option in both groups. This effect appeared to be larger in the non-Prader-Willi syndrome group, but was not statistically significant. These results suggest perceived differences in food quantity may be an important determinant of food choice of people with Prader-Willi syndrome.

Seasonal Variation in the Dietary Preferences of the Montane Vole, Microtus Montanus

Seasonal variation in food selection has been documented in several species on voles (Rothstein and Tamarin 1977, Cole and Batzli 1979 Goldberg et al. 1980) with considerable implications for winter survival and population dynamics. In Microtus Montanus a similar link may exist between growth, maturation, longevity, and population dynamics on the one hand and dietary composition on the other (e.g., Pinter and Negus 1965, Berger et al. 1981, Pinter 1988, Berger et al. 1992, Negus, Berger and Pinter 1992). Consequently, we undertook a study to investigate, in detail, the utilization of plant resources by the montane vole, Microtus montanus. The objectives of this project are twofold: (1) to identify the plant species that constitute the diet in natural populations of M. montanus and (2) to determine seasonal food preferences in relation to the availability of plant species and to the age, sex and cohorts of the montane vole.

Seasonal Variation in the Dietary Preferences of the Montane Vole, Microtus montanus

Seasonal variation in food selection has been documented in several species on voles (Rothstien and Tamarin 1977, Cole and Batzli 1979, Goldberg et al. 1980) with considerable implications for winter survival and population dynamics. In Aficrotus montanus a similar link may exist between growth, maturation, longevity, and population dynamics on the one hand and dietary composition on the other (e.g., Pinter and Negus 1965, Berger et aL 1981, Pinter 1988, Berger et al. 1992, Negus, Berger and Pinter 1992). Consequently, we undertook a study to investigate, in detail, the utilization of plant resources by the montane vole, Microtus montanus. The objectives of this project are twofold: (1) to identify the plant species that constitute the diet in natural populations of M. montanus and (2) to determine seasonal food preferences in relation to the availability of plant species and to the age, sex and cohorts of the montane vole.

Seasonal Variation in the Dietary Preferences of the Montane Vole, Microtus Montanus

Seasonal variation in food selection has been documented in several species on voles (Rothestein and Tamarin 1977, Cole and Batzli 1979, Goldberg et al. 1980) with considerable implications for winter survival and population dynamics. In Microtus montanus a similar link may exist between growth, maturation, longevity, and population dynamics on the one hand and dietary composition on the other (e.g., Pinter and Negus 1965, Berger et al. 1981, Pinter 1988, Berger et al. 1992, Negus et al. 1992). Consequently, we undertook a study to investigate in detail the utilization of plant resources by the montane vole, Microtus montanus. The objectives of this project are twofold: (1) to identify the plant species that constitute the diet in natural populations of M. montanus and (2) to determine seasonal food preferences in relation to the availability of plant species and to the age, sex and cohorts of the montane vole.

Seasonal Variation in the Dietary Preferences of the Montane Vole, Microtus montanus

From 1987 through 1989 we undertook a study in Grand Teton National Park and on the upper Green River, Sublette County, Wyoming, to measure growth rates of cohorts of montane voles, (Microtus montanus) born in May, June, July, and August. We documented dramatic differences in growth rate among cohorts, in a given year and between years (Negus, Berger and Pinter, 1992). We hypothesized that these are flexible responses to several environmental cues. Is this, however, a phenotypic response to an array of environmental cues, or is it actually a reflection of differential utilization of plant species that may exhibit different nutritional levels? This question cannot be answered at the present since virtually nothing is known about dietary preferences of Microtus montanus. However, seasonal variation in food selection has been documented in several other species on voles (Rothestein and Tamarin, 1977, Cole and Batzli, 1979, Goldberg et al. 1980) with considerable implications for winter survival and population dynamics. In Microtus montanus a similar link may exist between growth, maturation, longevity, and population dynamics on the one hand and dietary composition on the other (e.g., Pinter and Negus 1965, Berger et al. 1981, Pinter 1988, Berger et al. 1992, Negus, Berger and Pinter 1992). Consequently, we undertook a study to investigate in detail the utilization of plant resources by the montane vole, Microtus montanus. The objectives of this project are twofold: (i) to identify the plant species that constitute the diet in natural populations of M. montanus and (2) to determine seasonal food preferences in relation to the availability of plant species and to the age, sex and cohorts of the montane vole.

Noradrenergic receptor mechanisms in neophobia

We have previously demonstrated that depletion of forebrain norepinephrine (NE) led to an attenuation of neophobia in a novel environment, as defined by a greater preference for novel food over familiar food. To study further the role of forebrain NE in neophobia we chronically infused noradrenergic receptor ligands or forskolin into the lateral ventricles of sham and 6-hydroxydopamine dorsal bundle lesioned rats. Chronic NE infusions into lesioned animals reversed the lesion-induced shift in relative food preference. The beta receptor agonist isoproterenol had moderate effects similar to those of NE in lesioned and sham animals. Phenylephrine, an alpha-1 agonist, was without effect. Forskolin, an adenylate cyclase activator, mimicked the effects of NE infusions. These data suggest a role for noradrenergic stimulation of adenylate cyclase in neophobia.

Food preferences in relation to dietary intake and adequacy in a nursing home population.

Food preferences in relation to dietary intake and adequacy in a nursing home population.

Relative Food Preference of Dysdercus koenigii (Hemiptera: Pyrrhocoridae)1

Although Dethier (1953), Thorsteinson (1960), Beck (1965), Jermy (1966), and others have studied the mechanism involved in host plant selection and feeding behavior of phytophagous insects, the literature on phytophagous hemipteran pests, many of which infest important crops, is scanty, except for the work of Curtis (1964) and Auclair (1965). Dysdercus koenigii (F.) is a serious pest of malvaceous plants and no detailed work on the relative food preference of this insect has been done except that of Saxena (1965). He made some observations on the control of orientation and feeding behavior of this insect with chemical constituents of plants such as cotton and okra. The present paper deals with the relative food preference of this insect on some other malvaceous plants, namely Althea rosea (hollyhock), Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (gurhal), and Gossypium hirsutum (cotton).