Understanding Food Consumption Research Articles

Does Engel's law work in central and Eastern European countries? The role of aspirations in determining food expenditures

Some of the CEE countries, despite rising per capita incomes and their gradual convergence to the levels of Western European countries, have recently experienced a stabilization or even an increase in share of food in total households’ expenditure. This is, of course, inconsistent with the Engel's Law, which postulates that share of food in total expenditure in these countries should gradually converge to the levels observed in the Western European countries, as the per capita income gap narrows. Using panel regressions it was shown that a factor explaining this anomaly may be aspirations among CEE countries to emulate the Western lifestyle reflected in the disproportionately high share of processed food in their total expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages compared to their per capita income level. The results obtained can be helpful in understanding food consumption patterns in catching-up economies, which is important for analyzing inflationary processes in these countries.

Understanding Food Consumption Patterns: An Analysis of Regional Disparities and Socio-Economic Factors in Moldova

Understanding Food Consumption Patterns: An Analysis of Regional Disparities and Socio-Economic Factors in Moldova

Variability of Food Choice Motives: Two Dutch studies showing variation across meal moment, location and social context

Food Choice Motives (FCMs) such as price, sensory appeal and health are important in understanding food consumption. FCMs are traditionally investigated at a general level, for food choices on ‘a typical day’. However, food choices have been shown to differ across temporal, situational and social contexts. This suggests that measuring FCMs at a context-specific level could increase our understanding of food consumption in different contexts. Therefore, the current paper aims to explore whether FCMs are indeed context-specific for different meal moments, locations and social contexts. Two studies were conducted among Dutch adults (Study 1: N = 935; Study 2: N = 642). Both studies measured FCMs in context, either by using 2-hour recalls (Study 1) or recalls of the last consumption moment (Study 2). Result showed that participants rated and ranked FCMs significantly different across most contexts showing the relevance of considering the context when studying FCMs. Egocentric motives of taste, affordability, and convenience were the most important motives across all contexts, as was health. In contrast, sustainability-related motives were consistently rated as least important. Most variability occurred in the middle part of the rankings and mainly in health-related motives such as weight control and safety. This shows the added value of measuring FCMs in different contexts, particularly for health-related motives. The contexts snacking versus main meals, eating out of home versus at home and eating alone versus with others showed the most pronounced contrasts in ranking of FCMs. The current study is the first to quantitatively explore the variability of FCMs across eating contexts, both in rating and ranking of FCMs. The chosen research method resulted in a representative, though unbalanced sample of consumption contexts in the Netherlands, which limits the generalizability of the results to an international context and restricts the insights in out-of-home contexts as food is mainly consumed at home in the Netherlands. The results enable public health authorities and food companies to target messages, interventions and products to consumers’ Food Choice Motives in specific contexts.

What We Don’t Know About the Effects of Temperature on Salmonid Growth

AbstractSalmonid biologists use both mental models—simple assumptions—and bioenergetics‐based mathematical models to understand and predict effects of temperature regime on growth. Bioenergetics model results, however, sometimes conflict with common assumptions. Previous studies plus “Wisconsin model” bioenergetics simulations lead to four conclusions that conflict with some management assumptions. The first conclusion is that food consumption is at least as important as temperature in explaining growth; we cannot understand temperature effects without understanding food consumption. Second, at natural food consumption rates, there is no “optimal temperature for growth”; growth peaks in model results are artifacts of food consumption assumptions, and growth peaks in laboratory studies are (apparently) artifacts of ad libitum feeding. Third, effects of temperature on growth can be stronger during cooler seasons than in summer; traditional temperature criteria are not useful for managing such effects. Fourth, salmonid populations that are adapted to survive higher temperatures may be more, not less, vulnerable to temperature effects on growth due to their higher metabolic rates. Temperature–growth relations observed under ad libitum feeding seem risky for managing wild populations. Model predictions of growth need to carefully consider assumptions about food consumption. For predicting effects of increased temperature, the traditional assumption that consumption is a constant fraction of maximum consumption rate appears especially uncertain and incautious, with its hidden assumption that consumption increases with temperature; assuming a constant ration is simpler and more cautious. Growth can be predicted more reliably with feeding models and individual‐based population models that consider how consumption and energetic costs depend on processes such as habitat selection, competition, and adaptive behaviors involving tradeoffs between food intake and predation risk. Two research needs are clear: empirical observations for parameterizing and testing the Wisconsin model comprehensively under natural conditions (which we lack despite the extensive energetics literature), and methods for predicting salmonid food production responses to temperature and flow regimes.

Understanding Food Consumption Frequencies Among U.S. Chinese Older Adults

A healthy diet is essential to various health outcomes that are common among minority aging populations. To explore frequencies and correlates of food consumption among U.S. Chinese older adults, this study used data from the Population-based Study of Chinese Elderly (PINE) collected in Chicago during 2015-2017 (N=3053). Food consumption frequencies of five food groups (vegetables, fruits, grains, protein foods, and dairy) were assessed by a validated 48-item food frequency questionnaire. All responses of consumption frequency were transformed to “times per day” and weighted by reported portion size. The average frequencies of vegetables, grains, and protein foods intake among the U.S. Chinese older adults were 2.02 (SD±1.32), 1.32 (SD±0.70), and 1.58 (SD±0.90) times/day, respectively. Fruits and dairy consumption frequencies were much lower: 0.76 (SD±0.70) and 0.48 (SD±0.53) times/day. In addition, higher levels of education were correlated with higher consumption of all five food groups. Being female was positively correlated with frequencies of fruits and dairy intake. In contrast, poorer life quality and having more children were correlated with less intake of all five food groups. Older age, preference to speak Cantonese/Taishanese compared to Mandarin/English, and poorer health status were also correlated with lower consumption frequencies of fruit and dairy. The study provides important dietary data of U.S. Chinese older adults and sheds light on significant socioeconomic correlates of food consumption. More in-depth investigations are needed to clarify the sociocultural determinants of dietary behavior and how they relate to different health outcomes among the U.S. Chinese population.

Household Macronutrient Prices and Livestock Health in Western Kenya.

Understanding food insecurity issues is in part contingent on understanding food consumption and its costs. We develop estimates of protein, lipid, and carbohydrate macronutrient consumption from household food consumption in western Kenya. We then calculate the shadow price per gram of macronutrient consumption as a share-weighted expense-consumption ratio. Using household bovine, goat, and sheep livestock health observations linked to each household, we analyze the association between livestock illness and macronutrient prices. We find that on average carbohydrates have a 75% budget share, with protein at 14% and lipids at 11%. Average macronutrient shadow prices are 0.0936 Ksh/g for carbohydrates, 0.4373 Ksh/g for protein, and 0.5938 Ksh/g for lipids. Average village-level livestock illness occurrences have significant effects on macronutrient shadow prices. Increasing average bovine illness at the village level by one additional case results in a marginal increase of the shadow prices of protein, lipids, and carbohydrates by 0.11, 0.12, and 0.03 (Ksh/g), respectively. Associated marginal impacts of sheep illness occurrence on protein, lipid, and carbohydrate shadow prices (Ksh/g) are 0.1405, 0.182, and 0.0455, respectively. This exploratory analysis provides empirical evidence that livestock illness is associated with increased macronutrient shadow prices, and hence the costs of available energy consumption. These results help guide policy instruments focused on market forces of nutrient consumption and its relationship with livestock health in undernourished areas with smallholder farming systems.

The Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS) 2016: Study Design and Methods

BackgroundDiet and feeding patterns during the infant, toddler, and preschool years affect nutrient adequacy or excess during critical developmental periods. Understanding food consumption, feeding practices, and nutrient adequacy or excess during these periods is essential to establishing appropriate recommendations aimed at instilling healthy eating behaviors in children.ObjectiveThe objective of the 2016 Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS 2016) was to update our knowledge on the diets and feeding patterns of young children and to provide new data in related areas such as feeding behaviors, sleep, physical activity, and screen use. This article describes the study design, data collection methods, 24-h dietary recall (24-h recall) protocol, and sample characteristics of FITS 2016.MethodsFITS 2016 is a cross-sectional study of caregivers of children aged <4 y living in the 50 states and Washington, DC. Data collection occurred between June 2015 and May 2016. A recruitment interview (respondent and child characteristics, feeding practices, physical activity, screen use, and sleep habits) was completed by telephone or online. This was followed by a feeding practices questionnaire and the 24-h recall conducted by telephone. A second 24-h recall was collected for a random subsample of 25% of the total sampled population.ResultsAmong the 4830 recruited households with an age-eligible child, 3248 (67%) completed the 24-h recall. The respondents were more likely to be white, less likely to be Hispanic, and more highly educated than the US population of adults in households with a child <4 y of age. The sample was subsequently calibrated and weighted, and the distribution of respondents was compared with known population distributions.ConclusionsFITS 2016 provides data based on sound methods that can inform researchers, policymakers, and practitioners about the food and nutrient intakes of young children. New findings may also be compared with previous FITS studies.

Effects of tourists’ local food consumption value on attitude, food destination image, and behavioral intention

Despite the importance of understanding food consumption value from tourists’ perspectives, few studies have explored how experiencing local food in a destination shapes tourists’ consumption value. This study explores the effect of tourists’ local food consumption value on their perceptions and behaviors. Tourists’ cultural background is used as a moderating variable. The findings show that tourists’ local food consumption value effectively explains tourists’ attitudes toward local food, food destination image, and behavioral intentions. In addition, the cultural background of tourists partially moderates the relationships between the proposed constructs. This study is the first empirical application of consumption value theory to the context of tourists’ local food experiences. It provides insights into appropriate marketing strategies for the restaurant and food tourism industries and offers practical suggestions to destination marketing organizations (DMOs) for using local food as a destination marketing tool.

Understanding food consumption lifecycles using wearable cameras

Application of design in HCI is a common approach to engendering behavioural change to address important challenges such as sustainability. Encouraging such change requires an understanding of current motivations and behaviours in the domain in question. In this paper, we describe use of wearable cameras to study motivations and behaviours around food consumption by focusing on two contrasting cultures, Malaysia and the UK. Our findings highlight the potential of wearable cameras to enhance knowledge of food consumption practices and identify where and how some digital interventions might be appropriate to change food behaviour. This includes appealing to people's motivations behind food consumption and capitalising on existing practices such as gifting of food and social meals. We propose a food consumption lifecycle as a framework to understand and design human---food interaction. The use of wearable cameras enabled us to capture a high-level overview of spatially distributed food-related practices and understand food behaviours in greater depth.

Stress, cues, and eating behavior. Using drug addiction paradigms to understand motivation for food

Eating patterns that lead to overconsumption of high fat, high sugar (HFHS) foods share similar features with addictive behaviors. Application of addiction paradigms, such as stress inductions, cue reactivity and behavioral economic assessments, to the study of motivation for HFHS food consumption may be a promising means of understanding food consumption. To date, few studies have investigated the interaction of stress and environmental cues on craving, and no study leveraged the state relative reinforcing value of foods (RRVfood) under varying conditions of affective states, the foci of the current study. This study used a mixed factorial design (Mood Induction: Neutral, Stress; Cues: Neutral, Food) with repeated measures on time (Baseline, Post-Mood Induction, Post-Cue Exposure). Participants (N = 133) were community adults who endorsed liking of HFHS snacks but denied eating pathology. The primary DVs were subjective craving and RRVfood. Negative and positive affect (NA, PA), the amount of food consumed, and latency to first bite were also examined. Participants in the Stress condition reported no change in craving or RRVfood. Exposure to food cues significantly increased participants' craving and RRVfood, but an interaction of stress and cues was not present. Participants did not differ on how many calories they consumed based on exposure to stress or food cues, but participants in the food cues condition had a shorter latency to the first bite of food. This study highlights the importance of environmental cues in food motivation. It also demonstrates the utility of using RRVfood to further characterize food motivation.

Dietary Energy Density and Changes in Waist Circumference Among Adult Women in Cebu, Philippines

Dietary energy density (DED) in low and middle income countries (LMIC) is rising with economic development and increased availability of fats and refined sugars. Understanding food consumption patterns contributing to DED may offer insights for obesity prevention and weight loss recommendations in LMIC. This study aimed to describe contributions of food groups to DED and examine how DED relates to changes in waist circumference (WC) from 1994 to 2012 in 1,670 adult Filipino women, ages 24‐58 y in the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey. We created four mutually exclusive groups based on median splits of DED and total energy intake: 1) low DED‐low EI (N= 532), 2) high DED‐low EI (N=304), 3) low DED‐high EI (N=304), and 4) high DED‐high EI (N=531). We used linear regression to estimate 18 y changes in WC related to DED‐EI group, adjusting for 1994 age, income, education, urbanicity, and occupational physical activity. Differences in food group % contributions to EI were tested with ANOVA. Women in groups 1‐4 consumed 76.5, 72.9, 71.3, and 62.9% calories from cereals &amp; cereal products; 1.8, 0.82, 0.48, and 0.32% calories from green leafy &amp; yellow vegetables; 10.3, 12.1, 16.9, and 24.3% calories from fish, meat &amp; poultry; respectively: Group 2‐4 intakes all differed significantly from those of group 1 (p&lt;0.001). WC significantly increased only in younger (&lt;35y) women by 2.20 cm (95% CI: 0.02, 4.37) in group 2 compared to group 1 (p&lt;0.05). Results suggest significant differences in the patterns of food consumption that contribute to DED in all groups, with implications for changes in WC only in younger women in the study population.

EAACI Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Guidelines. Protecting consumers with food allergies: understanding food consumption, meeting regulations and identifying unmet needs.

Individuals suffering from IgE-mediated food allergy usually have to practise life-long food allergen avoidance. This document aims to provide an overview of recent evidence-based recommendations for allergen risk assessment and management in the food industry and discusses unmet needs and expectations of the food allergic consumer in that context. There is a general duty of care on the food industry and obligations in European Union legislation to reduce and manage the presence of allergens alongside other food hazards. Current evidence enables quantification of allergen reference doses used to set-up reliable food safety management plans for some foods. However, further work is required to include a wider variety of foods and to understand the impact of the food matrix as well as additional factors which affect the progression and severity of symptoms as a function of dose. Major concerns have been raised by patients, carers and patient groups about the use of precautionary 'may contain' labelling to address the issue of unintended presence of allergens; these therefore need to be reconsidered. New and improved allergen detection methods should be evaluated for their application in food production. There is an urgent requirement for effective communication between healthcare professionals, patient organizations, food industry representatives and regulators to develop a better approach to protecting consumers with food allergies.

Importance of Understanding Food Consumption Patterns

Importance of Understanding Food Consumption Patterns

A New Portion Size Estimation Aid for Wedge-Shaped Foods

Dietary surveys are important for understanding food consumption patterns in national studies, clinical research, and patient counseling. Portion size estimation aids usually increase accuracy of consumers’ reports of the amount of food they ate in dietary surveys. However, wedge-shaped foods (eg, pie, cake, and pizza) pose special problems; this shape is not easily estimated by previously available portion size estimation aids. In focus groups, respondents indicate they need a portion size estimation aid that is easier to use than a ruler for portion estimation of wedge-shaped foods. An adjustable wedge was developed and tested with 320 respondents, ages 18 to 65 years, of various races and education levels, and both sexes, in four states using multiple sizes and types of wedge-shaped foods. The accuracy of portion size estimation with the two portion size estimation aids was assessed. The adjustable wedge gave similar results to the ruler for most portions tested, but was more accurate ( P<0.05) than the ruler in approximately one third of comparisons. Both aids resulted in substantial misestimation, indicating that regardless of aid some people have difficulty estimating portions of wedge-shaped foods. The adjustable wedge was easy for people to use and can be recommended as an option for estimating portion size of wedge-shaped foods.

FISH AND FARINHA: PROTEIN AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN AMAZONIAN RURAL COMMUNITIES ON ITUQUI ISLAND, BRAZIL

In order to better understand food consumption among indigenous peasant (the so-called “Caboclos”) communities in Amazonia, this article describes and analyzes household and individual food consumption in the communities of Aracampina and São Benedito, located on ltuqui Island on the lower courses of the Amazon river, in the municipio (county) of Santarém, State of Pará, Brazil. ltuqui Island's landscape is dominated by savannas, meadows, secondary floodplain forests, pastures, and cultivation plots. Food consumption data were collected using 24-hour food recalls for a sample of 12 households and 42 individuals. The main patterns of consumption observed on ltuqui Island were higher consumption of protein than energy, dependency on regional staple foods, and a high reliance on imported secondary food items purchased at local urban centers. Also, interhousehold and community variation point toward a sociohistorical particularism of kindreds, as well as microenvironmental differences, both critical elements in understanding food consumption. Other important findings provide some insights about modifications and adjustment of food repertoires in coping with high seasonality. The simplification of staple-food repertoire and increased consumption of energy-rich items such as sugar and oil are probably the most important strategies observed. We conclude that to understand food consumption among Caboclo communities in Amazonia research should focus more closely on the composition of the local food repertoire and local ecological and sociocultural variations.

Regionality of food consumption

Understanding food consumption patterns around the United States is important for food marketers and researchers. A cluster analysis of the food purchases in 126 categories across 54 markets found 11 market groupings that are quite different from those commonly used in demand studies. These new regions were consistent with the findings from some cultural geographers and explained more of the regional variation in food consumption than the standard set of geographic boundaries. Food marketers could use these clusters to balance experiments, identify local marketing opportunities, and segment the US market into geographies with similar food demand patterns. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.