Meal Practices Research Articles

Clustering of lifestyle factors in Spanish university students: the relationship between smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity and diet quality.

To ascertain the prevalence of and association between main lifestyle factors (diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking) in students from the Balearic Islands University. A cross-sectional, descriptive study. A questionnaire including questions on lifestyle, dietary habits and physical activity habits was administered to the students. Four different diet quality scores were calculated (Diet Diversity Score, Mediterranean Diet Score, Dietary Guidelines Score and Global Dietary Guidelines Score). A sample of students from the Balearic Islands University. Nine hundred and eighty-seven students (45·5 % males; mean age 21·5 (sd 3·3) years). The dietary pattern of the student population was characterized by a low consumption of cereals and tubers, fruits, vegetables, olive oil, legumes and nuts, and a high consumption of processed meat, sweets, snacks, soft drinks and pastries. Linear, positive and statistically significant correlations were found between the number of meals consumed daily and all of the diet quality scores determined. Determinants of diet quality, both in the univariate and multivariate analyses, were physical activity practice, sex, age and number of meals consumed daily. Risk factors such as smoking, diet and physical inactivity had a tendency of clustering among Spanish university students. Overall diet quality was low, due to important departures from dietary recommendations and loss of the traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern. Nutritional education campaigns that include promotion of physical activity practice are needed to improve the overall health status of this population.

Eating with Honor: The Corinthian Lord's Supper in Light of Voluntary Association Meal Practices

There has been increasing recognition by scholars studying the Greco-Roman world of the first century that larger database of meal practices is desirable for understanding the social banqueting practices behind Paul's words concerning the Corinthian banquet of 1 Cor 11:17-33. Scholars such as Gerd Theissen, Wayne A. Meeks, Matthias Klinghardt, and Dennis E. Smith have mined the elite commensality literature of the ancients and have established that standard form of the Greco-Roman banquet underlies practices of the time.1 Rituals varied, however, and Andrew McGowan reminds us that various groups seem to have had different explicit understandings and purposes in mind and to have used eating and drinking together in variety of ritual forms.2 Gerard Rouwhorst points out, citing Mary Douglas's work, that when group constructs ritual tradition, it is constructing social identity: Every meal-especially when taken together by more than one person-encodes significant messages about social and hierarchical patterns. 3 A study of banqueting traditions of Greco-Roman voluntary associations helps to clarify the role that the Mediterranean code of honor and shame played in establishing their social identity. As Jewish and Christian groups both saw themselves and were seen by others as voluntary associations, I suggest that similar social and hierarchical patterns based on the code of honor and shame of the Mediterranean world are evidenced in the banqueting traditions of the Corinthian community.4 These social patterns, rather than the economic patterns of wealth and poverty, explain the divisions in the Corinthian community. Because the honor/ shame code is changeable value system rather than fixed economic situation, I suggest that Paul is therefore able to propose radical changes to the Corinthian meal ritual in order to establish new social and behavioral patterns that reflect the values of humility, mutual upbuilding, and love that Jesus taught. In effect, Paul uses the meal ritual to create new Christian social identity. Gerd Theissen first analyzed the social problems of the Corinthian community, demonstrating that there was marked internal stratification within the community, attributing the factions to economic divisions. The verb ... in 1 Cor 11:21 is understood to describe the few wealthy Corinthians who begin their private meal before the communal meal and receive larger portions owing to their rank.5 Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, drawing on the archaeological evidence of remains around Corinth of several wealthy villas with triclinium (dining room) and an atrium, further speculates that the villa at Anaploga represents the type of home owned by wealthy Corinthian patron of the Jesus community.6 He reasons that the host (perhaps Gaius) entertained the eight wealthiest members of the community in the triclinium of his villa (which seats nine) relegating the rest of the Corinthian group to inferior dining in his villa's atrium.7 Gregory Linton agrees with this suggestion, estimating that there were perhaps six smaller church groups in Corinth who would join together to celebrate the Lord's Supper.8 Perhaps more than thirty-five participants were dining.9 Peter Lampe, too, suggests that the wealthy Corinthians participated in First Tables, dinner attended by the leisured elite, and that the poorer people arrived later for the Second Tables, which was the symposium, and received lesser portions consisting of sweet desserts and fruit, or perhaps spicy dishes, seafood, and bread.10 This explanation was accepted by number of other scholars.11 Never- theless, there have been recent challenges to this theory by L. Michael White, David G. Horrell, and J. J. Meggitt, producing a somewhat revised, more cautious attitude concerning the economic status of the Corinthians and the cause of their social divisions.12 Here, inscriptions of the voluntary association banqueting customs may be engaged in the discussion, for they contain much evidence for divisions within dining group-divisions predicated not on wealth but on the honor/shame code of the Mediterranean region. …

Examining the Relationships Between Family Meal Practices, Family Stressors, and the Weight of Youth in the Family

Research is limited on how the social environment of the home is related to childhood obesity. The purpose of this research was to examine the relationships between positive family meal practices, family stressors, and the weight of youth and to examine parental weight status as a moderator of these relationships. The study enrolled 368 parent/child dyads from a Minnesota sample. We used mediation analysis to examine the associations Families represented by an overweight parent reported fewer positive family meal practices (p < 0.001), higher levels of depression (p = 0.01), and fewer family rules (p = 0.02) as compared to families represented by a healthy weight parent. For overweight parents, positive family meal practices mediated the relationship between some family stressors and child weight. This research suggests that the home environment may affect the weight of children in the family, and the effect is more pronounced in families with at least one overweight parent.

WIC Toddlers Offered a Healthy Start

The Nurturing Families' Appetite for Fruits and Vegetables program was designed to provide support and information to Vermont WIC families about enhancing family meal practices and improving the extent to which fruits and vegetables are offered to toddlers.

Forms of Commensality in Greco-Roman Associations

Applying Claude Grignon’s typology of commensality to the full range of meal practices of Greco-Roman associations provides insight into how various meals served as locations of social interaction and group self-definition while inscribing community boundaries. Literary, epigraphic, and papyrological evidence from these associations suggests that their meal practices were not limited to one particular type of commensality, as argued previously by John Donahue. Rather, a broad examination of the data demonstrates that associations undertook, at various times and places, segregative commensality, exceptional commensality, transgressive commensality, and, in some cases, “extra-domestic” commensality.

Fish Consumption Advisories: One Agency's Focus on Families

The New York State Attorney General's Environmental Protection Bureau undertook an effort to publicize fish consumption advisories regarding fish found in the waters around New York City. With informational brochures in English, Spanish, Chinese, Creole, and Russian, we reached out to minority and ethnic women who select and prepare family meals. To enhance the utility of the brochures, we illustrated the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) consumption advisories with pictures of the fish and maps of relevant locations. Follow-up questionnaires indicated that the brochures were generally well understood and readers were likely to change their meal selection and preparation practices as a result of reading the brochures. We accomplished this outreach at minimal expense and with no special funding.

Children's Interpretations of Biblical Meal Stories: Ethnographic Intertextual Voicing as the Practice of Hospitable Pedagogy

Based on the ethnography conducted by Magrini in three midwestern United Methodist congregations, this article examines the development of “ethnographic intertextual voicing,” which describes multiple contexts and the ways in which these contexts influence representation of the participants and in turn, create in a community of learning. The ethnography studied children's interpretations of biblical meal stories, Eucharist experiences, and reflections on daily meal practices. Magrini's hospitable pedagogy approach was applied with 25 children ages 5 through 11. The hospitable pedagogy approach created a teaching and learning environment through which ethnographic intertextual voicing emerged. The author argues that ethnographic intertextual voicing is influenced by familial, ethnic, and faith contexts, as well as those of the researcher, and can create a community of learning as a result of the ethnographic research itself through the practice of hospitable pedagogy as a research methodology.

Meal delivery practices do not meet needs of Alzheimer patients with increased cognitive and behavioral difficulties in a long-term care facility.

Alterations in circadian rhythms and behavioral difficulties likely impact meal consumption patterns in elderly individuals with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite these known changes, the profile of meals provided in the institution parallels the needs of younger, free-living, healthy populations. This investigation examined the impact of food delivery patterns on achieved intakes in elderly individuals with probable AD in a long-term care facility and how this relationship changes depending on time of day, body weight status, behavioral function, and cognitive ability. Twenty-one consecutive days of investigator-weighed food intake and delivery collections were conducted on 25 elderly individuals with probable AD who maintained the ability to self-feed. Energy consumed was positively associated with energy delivered for the majority of subjects, although the strength of this relationship varied across subjects and throughout the day. Energy delivered had the greatest impact on energy consumed at breakfast and the least impact at dinner in those with the greatest behavioral difficulties and cognitive impairment. Although those with low body mass indexes (BMIs) were likely to be delivered more energy, the impact of delivery on intakes decreased as energy delivered increased. Delivering excess energy to patients with poor BMIs likely does not result in increased energy consumption. Behavioral and cognitive deterioration leads to a shift in the time of day that energy delivered has an impact on energy consumption, with the most progressed individuals being most impacted by foods delivered in the morning, suggesting that traditional meal practices are inappropriate for elderly individuals with AD.

L'occupation protohistorique du site de Fontenay-en-Parisis "La Lampe" (Val-d'Oise) : un lieu de consommation collective à La Tène C1/C2 / Protohistoric occupation of the site «La Lampe» at Fontenay-en-Parisis (Val-d'Oise): a feasting site dated of La Tene C1/C2

The Fontenay-en-Parisis site « La Lampe » has revealed remains of the Gallic and Gallo-Roman periods. In the first phase, the abundance and variety of archaeological objects constrasts with the extreme poverty of the setting. The survey of fauna remains highlights two modes of consumption in force on the site, in particular the practice of festive meals. These two features lead us to ask ourselves questions about the exact nature of the site and about the status of its occupants.

Adolescent evening meal practices and attitudes toward the maternal role in evening meal preparation

The purpose of this study was to determine whether maternal employment is related to adolescent evening meal practices and to examine the attitudes of adolescents regarding the mother's role in evening meal preparation. A questionnaire was administered to 1,180 high school students in a suburban area of North Texas. Results indicated that maternal employment affects adolescent evening meals in the number of meals (i) offered per week, (ii) fully prepared by mother, and (iii) eaten away from home. Adolescent participation in meal preparation was higher for the employed group. Attitudes are different between the sexes and those with employed and unemployed mothers.

Nutritional status of selected teenagers in Kentucky

A nutrition survey was conducted in a six-county area of Kentucky which included 118 teenagers of both races and sexes, with a mean age of 15.5 years. Data collected included one 24-hr dietary recall, meal practices, smoking, and physical activity. Fasting blood and urine were analyzed. White boys had higher intakes in overall nutrients and had more regular meal taking habits than others. Intakes of calcium, iron, and vitamin A were grossly deficient among girls of both races, and vitamin A was most deficient in diets of boys, but the serum vitamin A and carotene values did not confirm a dietary deficiency of vitamin A. Black teenagers of both sexes had less acceptable mean hemoglobin and hematocrit values. High incidences of low hemoglobin values below acceptable range were observed in all groups studied. A high incidence of overweight among girls of both races, of high blood pressure in black boys, and of elevated serum cholesterol and β-lipoprotein levels in blacks of both sexes were observed. Intake of energy was correlated with work metabolic rate/basal metabolic rate ratio for both sexes. Blacks were less physically active than whites. Serum cholesterol, triglyceride and β-lipoproteins were positively correlated (P < 0.01) to body weight of girls. Serum cholesterol and β-lipoproteins were negatively correlated (P < 0.05) to the degree of physical activity of boys.