Fun Food Research Articles

PATTERNS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CONSUMPTION AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN PREVENTING HYPERTENSION IN ADOLESCENTS SURABAYA: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Background: Hypertension is a health problem in the world because it is the main cause of cardiovascular disease and the number one cause of death in the world every year. Research shows hypertension can occur in the adolescent age group and its prevalence continues to increase which is the cause of hypertension in adults and the elderly. The high prevalence of hypertension in adolescents is not only caused by genetic but also behavioral factors, including lack of consumption of fruits, vegetables and physical activity. This condition shows that there is still low consumption of vegetables and fruits as well as physical activity in adolescents so that they are at risk of suffering from hypertension in adulthood. Objectives: To explore the consumption patterns of fruits, vegetables, and physical activity to prevent hypertension in students majoring in nursing at the Sutomo Surabaya campus. Methods: Qualitative research method with phenomenological approach Data collection was carried out directly using in-depth interview method. Data analysis using content analysis and thematic analysis techniques. Results: The results showed that students only consume certain types of fruits and processed vegetable forms, not all students consume vegetables and fruits every day and think that vegetables and fruits are useful for digestion, prevent various diseases including hypertension, maintain stamina and are fun foods. Most students like easy and light physical activity, although they rarely do it because of the busy work of college. Students think that physical activity is beneficial for preventing hypertension and obesity, forming a good physique and heart health, for fitness, skin health and the immune system. Conclusion: Students majoring in nursing at the Sutomo campus have not maximally applied the pattern of consumption of vegetables and fruits, physical activity even though they already know the benefits in preventing hypertension.

Brix level on dragon fruit and moringa oleifera soft candy to prevent children dental caries

Candy is more commonly referred to as “fun food,” in addition to known as confectionary food. Excessive consumption of candy has a negative impact, in which it can causes obesity and dental caries. This study aimed to identify the brix levels in soft candies made from dragon fruit and moringa oleifera using different sugars. In this case, a complete randomized design was applied into 3 treatments; T (cane sugar candy), Tl (cassava sugar candy), and E (erythritol sugar candy). Each treatment consisted of 3 levels of Brix (P1: 5, P2: 10, P3: 20 grams), mixed with 100 ml of aquades. Brix levels were further analyzed using a refractometer, and further using one-way ANOVA. The results obtained showed that the smallest brix of the first, second, and third levels were; T of 3 brix + 0.00 SD, Tl of 5.05 brix + 0.07 SD, and Tl of 10.3 brix + 0.28 SD. Furthermore, the one-way ANOVA test showed there were differences in the brix levels of cane, cassava, and erythritol sugar candy (p: 0.000). Hence, it is concluded that cassava sugar can be a choice of the basic ingredients for making low-sugar candy, but erythritol sugar is more recommended as a basic ingredient to prevent dental caries.

Banana Ice Cream as An Eco-friendly Social Enterprise Product for Helping Cancer Patients During Treatment

Purpose: Banana ice cream is a fun food to eat and has both functions. The use of banana as main component of ice cream is expected to be a sustainable food, which is supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The business of banana ice cream can be run for social purposes that make a profit, which will circle back for the needs of cancer patients.
 Design/methodology/approach: Break even point analysis used to determine economic feasibility of the business plan. Break even point would be reached when the total unit of selling banana ice cream as much as 3.024 scoops with sales value was 15.120.000 Indonesian Rupiah. The minimum time for recovering the initial investment was 151 days or 5 months. Banana ice cream business is feasible to be run.
 Findings: Cancer treatments often cause adverse effects at different levels. The adverse effect can greatly affect the patient's daily activities that may impair quality of life. New food products shall be developed to improve patient nutrition and reduce side effects from therapies.
 Originality/value: This paper is original
 Paper type: Research paper

Exploring the Contributory Factors Toward Childhood Obesity and Being Overweight in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

Introduction: Saudi schoolchildren are 15.5% and 6% overweight and obese, respectively. Social dynamics contributing to being overweight or obese are not well explored. Purpose: Exploration of social interaction between parents, children, and society, which may influence feeding activities. Methodology: Grounded theory with embedded quantitative measures used a sample of 20 mothers of overweight or obese children in well-child clinics. Mothers discussed eating practices and completed an inventory providing food intake data, consumption patterns, and child height and weight. Results: Core category: against the tide. Main emerging categories: fun food, the way we do things, my voice, knowing how, emotional pegs, and family first. Quantitative data highlighted possible sources of excessive calories and consumption patterns. Discussion: Normative change, alteration of patterns of social interaction, and empowerment of the mother's role to promote prevention of child overweight and obesity may assist in addressing overweight and obesity among children in this group.

(Invited) 3D Printing of Gels for Soft-matter 3D Innovation

3D printing technology has been becoming more common and diverse for various researches and developments. Here we focus on 3D printing of soft-matter, especially introducing the latest progress of our 3D gel printing. We are developing various 3D gel printers, including bath-tub type, dispenser type and brick-building type. These printers can 3d-print finger tips for robotics, medical models for surgery, and fun foods for playing and nursing. The minimum and maximum dimensions of 3D printed objects depend on both the type and the materials used in printing. We will discuss what we need to study for leading Soft-matter 3D Innovation.

The Fun Food Barbeque as a Product Innovation of the Food and Beverage Department, the Neo+ Awana Hotel, Yogyakarta

The growth of the hotel business in Yogyakarta is currently increasing up. Based on data from the Association of Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants, the total of new hotels to be built in Yogyakarta reaches 110 hotels. With reference to these growth figures, hospitality management is currently not only focused on providing accommodation, but also going further to selling other hotel products, such as food and beverages. This research took a case study about the product innovation of Neo + Awana Hotel Yogyakarta, with a developing event called "Fun Food Barbeque". The method used is descriptive qualitative with primary data collection using participant observation and interviews. The results shows that the first implementation of the Barbeque Fun Food event is not optimal, because guests are not interested in western food and also the menu has many things to offer. With the changing innovation of barbecue products into fusion food with a menu that is a blend of Indonesian food with western food, the Fun Food Barbeque event becomes more interesting.

What’s for Dinner? Almost Anything You Can Imagine!

What’s for Dinner? Almost Anything You Can Imagine!

Unpacking fun food and children’s leisure: mothers’ perspectives on preparing lunchboxes

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between lunchboxes, fun food and leisure. Looking beyond concerns focusing solely on health and nutrition, this article unpacks how mothers seek to provide lunchtime food that is also a source of leisure and pleasure.Design/methodology/approach– Photo-elicitation interviews and a focus group were conducted with 11 mothers who regularly prepare lunchboxes for their children aged between 9 and 11 years.Findings– Mothers intend the food they provide to act as a leisure experience and a break from the pressures of school. Mothers understand that lunchboxes must fit with children’s other activities taking place in their lunch-hour. Lunchboxes should support children’s future leisure opportunities by providing nutrition and variety to support their growth and development. The discussion of lunchboxes also shows that fun food is not simply understood in opposition to healthy food. Mothers have a wider understanding of the transgressive nature of fun through food, which goes beyond the market offer and understanding of fun.Research limitations/implications– As the study is based on a small sample of relatively affluent families in the UK, caution is needed in generalising the findings to wider groups. However, the study offers qualitative insights and highlights the connections between leisure, fun food and lunchboxes that can be explored in further research.Originality/value– This is the first paper to explore the interconnections between lunchboxes, fun food and leisure. It provides valuable insight into mothers’ views about food prepared at home for consumption at school.

Parents' views of supermarket fun foods and the question of responsible marketing

PurposeDespite their responsibility for mitigating the influence of commercial culture on children, parents' views of fun food marketing aimed at children remain largely unexplored. This article aims to probe parents' views of supermarket fun foods and the packaging used to promote them to children.Design/methodology/approachIn total 60 in‐depth interviews were conducted with parents from different educational backgrounds, living in three different Canadian cities. Interview responses were analyzed and coded thematically using an iterative process in keeping with grounded theory.FindingsParents generally discussed the promotion of supermarket fun foods to children as either an issue of the nutritional quality of foods promoted to children and/or in light of the communication quality of marketing aimed at children. Parents were also divided along education lines: parents with higher educational backgrounds were more likely to oppose fun foods and praise more pastoral ideals food production and consumption, while those with less education more often praised fun foods.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings cannot be generalized to other parents or parents in other countries. The findings, however, suggest that a more nuanced consideration of differences within and across parents' views is warranted in debates about responsible marketing to children.Originality/valueThis article provides a qualitatively rich snapshot of the views of 60 Canadian parents regarding child‐targeted food marketing, and raises important questions about how to incorporate parents' views into discussions about responsible marketing, rather than presuming they are all of one mindset.

Snacks in the Stacks: Teaching Youth Nutrition in a Public Library

Teens in limited-resource communities face challenges to healthy eating. Many youths lack food preparation skills and have limited access to ingredients needed to prepare healthy foods at home. University of Maryland Extension offered healthy food preparation lessons to teen participants of a popular weekly electronic gaming program in a Baltimore County public library. Teens reported asking their caregivers to purchase the ingredients and have prepared the Fun Food Fest recipes at home. The recipes do not use an oven or stove top and can be readily used by Extension professionals in a variety of nontraditional educational settings.

Emerald dragon bites vs veggie beans: Fun food names increase children's consumption of novel healthy foods.

Caregivers often struggle with food neophobia on the part of young children. This study examined whether labeling novel healthy foods with fun names would increase children's willingness to try those foods and encourage them to eat more of those foods in a child care setting. Thirty-nine toddler and preschool age children (mean age = 3.9 years) were served each of three foods twice, once labeled with a fun name and once with a healthy name. Percentage of the food consumed by each child was recorded. Overall, children ate a greater percentage of the target foods when they were labeled with fun names. Also, a larger percentage of the children tasted the foods when they were labeled with fun names. This simple strategy could be effective for increasing consumption of healthy foods among young children.

Eatertainment and the (Re)classification of Children's Foods

Ideas of fun and play have emerged as dominant characteristics in children's packaged food marketing. This article examines both the expression and implications of “eatertainment” in children's packaged food products, contrasting it with the theme of engagement that typifies the marketing of many adult foodstuffs. I detail how child-oriented packaged food both embodies and communicates (historical, culturally specific) ideas about childhood, and explore how the reclassification of children's food into “fun food” brings with it a series of unintended consequences, which include commodification, the reinforcement of webs of consumption, and the encouragement of overeating.

Teens Teaching Tweens: Food, Fitness and Fun

O6 Teens Teaching Tweens: Food, Fitness and Fun Teri Kemmer, MSA, PhD, RD, teresa.kemmer@sdstate.edu, Box 2275A, SNF 445, Nutrition, Food Science, & Hospitality Department, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007; Becky Jensen, MS, RD, LN, becky. jensen@sdstate.edu, South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension Service, South 3 Field Education Unit 1000, South Egan Avenue, Madison, SD 57042; Karen Beranek, MS, karen.beranek@sdstate.edu, South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension Service, McCook County Extension Office, PO Box 130, Salem, SD 57058; Jessica Graumann, jrcooper6607@jacks.sdstate. edu, South Dakota State University, 5008West Equestrian Place, Apartment 303, Sioux Falls, SD 57106; Nayef Bumaryoum, MS, nbu-maryoum@jacks.sdstate.edu, SouthDakota State University, 1422 7th Street, Brookings, SD 57006

Child consumption of fun food: between deviating practice and re‐appropriating food‐use

PurposeThis study seeks to show that children are not passive consumers, rather that they have a reflexive attitude towards their eating practice and the ability to override food‐use rules invented by the manufacturers.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on an ethnographic survey conducted among families with children aged from six to 12, the paper will seek to show, from the child's point of view, why fun products, which at first sight are so beguiling, are not in fact much fun when used. From the observations made of the children's eating practices with regard to specific fun foods, and from interviews with the children on these, it emerges that these foods give the child little scope for deciding how to eat them.FindingsOver the years, there has appeared on the market a range of fun food products for which clear instructions are given on how children should eat and play with them. Despite copy, produced with the young consumer in mind, and carefully defined product affordance, consumer practice is far removed from what the product designers expect. For children, however, deviating from prescribed use and re‐appropriating products with their own “art of doing” or food‐use techniques are key elements of their eating practice.Originality/valueMost of the studies on that topic are centred on fun food manufacturers and industry. The most original aspect of this study is to focus on the children's representations, discourses and practices. Thus it provides a new aspect on fun food consumption.

The construction of fun in food advertisements targeting children

Purpose – This paper aims to explore how the discursive strategies used in advertising contribute to bringing food products into the children's world, to transforming them into children's food – fun food in particular.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis focuses on a sample of advertisements on food products that appeared from 1950 to 2005 in Le Journal de Mickey (France), Micky Maus (Germany) and Topolino (Italy). The paper aims to study the social implications of food advertisement targeting children through the analysis of their graphic composition, verbal language, visual language, and narrative structure.Findings – This research shows that, since the 1950s in France, Germany and Italy, advertising discourse targeting children has tended to emphasize the pleasure dimension of consuming foods, linking the products with fun and play and making the break with the tastes, norms and expectations of adults.Originality/value – While extensive research has been conducted on television food commercials, ...

From fun foods to fun stores

PurposeThis paper seeks to investigate how fun food products are marketed in a French chain of supermarkets. It aims to deal with the difficulty in marketing a fun food product in an environment that is not children‐friendly.Design/methodology/approachThe research rests on a case study, conducted through interviews, observations, and photographs.FindingsThe paper shows that, despite the lack of consideration for children in supermarket settings, the private brand of the chain, given its control on the entire distribution system, manages to invent a kind of fun merchandising.Research limitations/implicationsThis is an exploratory case study that would need further research in other chains and/or other countries.Practical implicationsThe paper shows the importance of merchandising, beyond the mere design of products. This neglected dimension could be of interest for regulators as well as professionals.Originality/valueResearch on child consumption focuses more on the products, packaging or advertising than on their immediate market environment. This paper helps to bring a better balance between these different dimensions, as well as an understanding of the importance of their articulation.

Healthy Food Looks Serious: How Children Interpret Packaged Food Products

Fun food is an overlooked, but increasingly significant, category of food targeted to children in the supermarket. These supermarket products emphasize foods’ play factor, interactivity, artificiality, and general distance from “regular” foods: food is positioned as “fun” and eating as “entertainment.” Using a series of focus groups, this study examined how children (segmented by age and gender) interpret these packaged appeals and how the thematic of fun connects with their understanding of health and nutrition. The study revealed that children are highly attuned to fun foods and its packaging, offering savvy, if flawed, interpretations of how to determine the healthfulness of a packaged good. I argue that the symbolic positioning of children’s food as fun and fake creates several roadblocks in the quest to promote wholesome food habits in children, and that the thematic of fun has unintended consequences that require careful consideration.

Marketing Fun Foods: A Profile and Analysis of Supermarket Food Messages Targeted at Children

Childhood obesity is a significant problem that requires innovative solutions. This article suggests that researchers and policy-makers move beyond a scrutiny of junk food and televised advertisements to children to focus on the messages targeted to children in the supermarket. Following a content analysis of fun foods marketed to children, the article (a) outlines why the recoding of “regular” food into “fun food” contributes to the childhood obesity crisis, and (b) suggests how the meaning-making practices of food can be acknowledged in the policy-making process.

Assessing ‘fun foods’: nutritional content and analysis of supermarket foods targeted at children

This article provides a nutritional profile of foods targeted specifically at children in the Canadian supermarket. Excluding confectionery, soft drinks and bakery items, 367 products were assessed for their nutritional composition. The article examines the relationship between 'fun food' images/messages, product claims and actual product nutrition. Among other findings, it concludes that approximately 89% of the products analysed could be classified as of poor nutritional quality owing to high levels of sugar, fat and/or sodium. Policy considerations need to be made in light of the fact that 'fun food' is a unique category that poses special challenges; as such, recommendations regarding food labelling and packaging are presented.

Marketing nutrition through a corporate intranet*

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of pop‐up messages promoting the consumption of fruits and vegetables in a corporate setting. Fun food facts and nutritional information about fruits and vegetables were marketed through electronic pop‐up messages attached to a corporate intranet menu. A Pearson's correlation, between total fruit sales and website hits during the test period, showed a moderately positive correlation. This, however, was weaker than the correlation found during the baseline period. No significant differences were found concerning total fruit sales between the pretest, baseline and test periods. Daily menu website at the beginning of the workweek had significantly lower hits than the previous year. The mean cafeteria menu website hits at the end of the workweek were higher during the intranet intervention. Results indicate that an intranet intervention implemented at the end of the workweek could effectively market healthful cafeteria food options to corporate employees.