Versions Of Foods Research Articles

Imagined foodways: social and spatial representations of an Inuit food system in transition

ABSTRACT In this study, we examined the social and spatial representations the Nunavimmiut have of their contemporary foodways. Based on Anderson’s concept of ‘imagined communities’ [1991. Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (Rev. ed.). Verso books], we drew on the notion of ‘imagined foodways’ to capture the cultural and territorial distance between imagined and actual dietary patterns. With the spatial organization of the global food system undergoing considerable upheaval, food provenance is an important – although often neglected – dimension of foodways. The aim of this study was to identify the geographical imaginary the Nunavimmiut associate with different types of foods and food sources. To this end, participatory workshops were held in Kuujjuaq and Kangiqsujuaq in Nunavik between June 2016 and May 2018, which resulted in the creation of mental food maps. The results showed that the imagined foodways represent an idealized version of food that maintains the Nunavimmiut’s close relationship to the land as a source of nourishment and to their traditions. Traditional foods are still highly regarded and underpin an intimate relationship with and detailed knowledge of the land. In contrast, commercial foods, although they account for about 80% of the food consumed in Nunavik, arouse less interest and are the subject of a more ambiguous relationship.

Carbon footprint and land use of food products containing oat protein concentrate

There is potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the intake of animal-based proteins. In western countries, the intake of proteins can usually simply be reduced, but substituting even only part of the intake of animal-based proteins with plant-based proteins would also benefit both human health and the environment.The aim of this study was to assess the environmental benefits of using protein-rich side streams from oat beta glucan processing as an ingredient in protein-enriched foods. The environmental impact of food products (bread, pasta, and oatgurt) containing oat protein concentrate (OPC) was assessed using Life Cycle Assessment methodology from cradle-to-processing. The environmental impact was compared with those of regular food products and existing plant protein sources as per kilogram of product (mass) and per kilogram of protein to assess the environmental benefits of novel products.All the ‘high in protein’ versions of foods containing OPC have a nearly equal carbon footprint per kg of protein, and all three products can be used as substitutes for commonly used pasta, bread, and yogurt in the diet. Thus, they all have similar potential to reduce food consumption greenhouse gas emissions. All the foods containing OPC also have very low land use per kg of product compared with the regular products. When products containing OPC are compared with other protein-rich food products, products containing OPC have a smaller carbon footprint per kg of protein compared with animal-based protein sources and a similar footprint with naturally protein-rich plant products like legumes.The potential to reduce the carbon footprint by substituting animal-based protein sources with novel foods containing plant protein concentrates looks promising in the light of these results, as long as the consumption of animal protein sources in the overall diet is reduced at the same time.

Perceptions of Processed Foods Among Low-Income and Immigrant Parents.

Background. Parent-aimed guidance on the topic of processed foods may help limit highly processed foods in children's diets, but little is known about parent understanding and perceptions of these products. Aims. To determine how parent perceptions of processing align with processing classification systems used in research, and to identify opportunities for future research in communicating information about processed foods. Method. Six focus groups with lower income, racial/ethnic minority and immigrant parents of fourth to sixth graders (n = 37) were conducted. Parents were asked to discuss their views on terminology related to food processing, classification of foods according to their processing level, the healthfulness of select foods, and criteria for choosing snacks for their children. Focus groups were guided by a thematic approach. NVivo 12 (QSR International) was used to facilitate analyses. Results. Thirty mothers and seven fathers participated. Two thirds (62%) were foreign-born; 38% identified as Hispanic. The term "processing" lacked consistent meaning among parents, with variation by immigrant status. Participants associated highly processed foods with convenience, packaging, and added ingredients; "less-processed" versions of foods (e.g., fresh; homemade) were perceived as healthier. Children's preferences were the main criteria for choosing snacks. Foreign-born parents were more likely to associate processed foods with positive characteristics (e.g., properly cooked). Conclusion. The concept of food processing is an area of misconception among parents, providing an opportunity for education that may be extended to larger audiences. A universally accepted definition of food classification by processing level is necessary to effectively communicate the link between processing and healthfulness.

Grace expands colloidal silica manufacturing in Germany to support customer growth and innovation

Food environments are potential targets for interventions to reduce obesity prevalence, particularly in island settings that are typically dependent on food imports. This observational study aimed to characterise the availability, quality and price of foods and beverages in a nationally representative sample of grocery stores in Malta using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Stores (NEMS-S) instrument, and to examine the association between area-level density of different types of food stores and the likelihood of children living in these areas being overweight or obese. Fieldwork was carried out between March and May 2014. There was a strong positive correlation between store size and NEMS-S score (p = <0.001), suggesting that smaller grocery stores generally offered a smaller range of products and fewer healthy food/beverage options than larger supermarkets. Across all stores, median prices of certain ‘healthier’ versions of foods were more expensive than their less healthy alternatives. A significant association between risk of childhood overweight, and density of confectionery stores in children’s locality of residence, was found (OR 1.19; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.37). These baseline findings highlight opportunities to improve the food environment in Malta to support more healthful eating, and may be of particular interest to public health practitioners in island settings.

Correlation of instrumental texture properties from textural profile analysis (TPA) with eating behaviours and macronutrient composition for a wide range of solid foods

Faster eating rates have previously been associated with higher ad libitum energy intakes, and several studies have manipulated eating rates and intake by changing food textures. Food texture based changes to slow eating rates can produce reductions in energy intake without affecting post-meal satisfaction or re-bound hunger. However, an understanding of how specific food textures and instrumental texture properties influence oral processing behaviour remains limited. The current study sought to establish relationships between objective measures of oral processing behaviour (i.e. number of bites, average bite size, total chews, chews per bite, oro-sensory exposure time and eating rate) and instrumental measures of a food texture including hardness, adhesiveness, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness, resilience and modulus. Across two studies, behavioural coding analysis was completed on video-recordings of participants consuming fixed portions of a wide range of different solid foods (n = 59) to derive objective measures of oral processing behaviours. These measures were correlated with instrumental Textural Profile Analysis (TPA) for the same set of foods. Significant correlations (p < 0.05) were found between oral processing parameters and texture properties (i.e. springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and resilience). No significant correlations were found between hardness and modulus and oral processing parameters. Protein content of the food was associated with springiness and chewiness, which may help to further reduce eating rates. In terms of the 'breakdown path model', hardness and modulus might represent degree of initial food structure while springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and resilience seem to determine how fast the degree of structure is reduced to the swallowing plane. Water content and adhesiveness were associated with level of lubrication that is required before reaching the swallowing plane. The current study highlights opportunities to understand eating rate (g min-1) through the breakdown path model and the potential for specific features of a foods texture to influence rate and extent of energy intake. The correlation between instrumental texture properties and oral processing patterns provides guidance on the parameters that are likely to produce 'faster' and 'slower' versions of foods, and suggests how texture modifications could be applied to moderate eating rate and energy intake within meals.

Food environments in Malta: Associations with store size and area-level deprivation

Food environments are potential targets for interventions to reduce obesity prevalence, particularly in island settings that are typically dependent on food imports. This observational study aimed to characterise the availability, quality and price of foods and beverages in a nationally representative sample of grocery stores in Malta using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Stores (NEMS-S) instrument, and to examine the association between area-level density of different types of food stores and the likelihood of children living in these areas being overweight or obese. Fieldwork was carried out between March and May 2014. There was a strong positive correlation between store size and NEMS-S score (p=<0.001), suggesting that smaller grocery stores generally offered a smaller range of products and fewer healthy food/beverage options than larger supermarkets. Across all stores, median prices of certain ‘healthier’ versions of foods were more expensive than their less healthy alternatives. A significant association between risk of childhood overweight, and density of confectionery stores in children’s locality of residence, was found (OR 1.19; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.37). These baseline findings highlight opportunities to improve the food environment in Malta to support more healthful eating, and may be of particular interest to public health practitioners in island settings.

Eating and Existence on an Island in Southern Uganda

This article examines contemporary ontological conflicts between people who make their living on an island with fish that are considered by fisheries managers to be “commercially extinct” and people who make their living managing “commercially important” fisheries for this region as a whole. It is an experiment in worlding, the work of wading between content and contexts to configure webs of relevant relations through which the politics of eating and existence play out along Uganda's southern littoral. By attending ethnographically to observable actions and concrete practices, I suggest that fishworkers and fisheries managers enact multiple, relatively distinct versions of food, fish, bodies of water, and fisheries. Attending to this multiplicity is crucial for rendering plausible already existing alternatives to an overdetermined future of death, depravity, and collapse that features within scholarly, popular, and policy-oriented accounts of Lake Victoria's fisheries.

Estimating Serving Sizes for Healthier and Unhealthier Versions of Food According to Canada's Food Guide.

Canada's Food Guide (CFG) defines food serving sizes and recommends a specific number of servings from each of the 4 food groups. However, there is no differentiation in serving sizes for different versions of foods that may differ in nutritional value. Participants (n = 20) estimated serving sizes of "healthier" and "unhealthier" versions of milk, bread, cereal, potatoes, chicken, fish, and juice and reported the amount normally consumed in 1 sitting. Participants estimated unhealthier servings of cereal and juice to be smaller than healthier servings, but estimated unhealthier servings of chicken to be larger than healthier versions (P < 0.05). There were no differences for bread, milk, potatoes, and fish. Accordingly, estimated servings of juice (P < 0.01) had more calories than the unhealthier orange drink. There were no caloric differences for cereal (P = 0.12), but an estimated serving of bran flakes had more fat and fibre than frosted flakes cereal. In contrast with CFG, which does not account for different versions of food, certain unhealthier foods were estimated to be smaller or larger than the healthier versions. However, both healthy and unhealthy serving sizes still tended to be larger than what is prescribed in CFG. Thus, better education or revision of serving sizes in future editions of CFG may warrant consideration.

Clearing Up the Table: Food Pedagogies and Environmental Education — Contributions, Challenges and Future Agendas

AbstractIn our paper, we draw on recent scholarship on food pedagogies and pedagogy studies to explore themes in the collection of articles in this special issue. In particular, we show how the articles variously conceptualise formal and informal pedagogies, their curricula, aims, and potential effects in relation to food and sustainability. Drawing on debates in pedagogy studies, we investigate how the papers reflect on what makes a pedagogy pedagogical. We then turn to food studies literature to identify how the articles in this special issue construct food as a theoretical and empirical object. Given food's multifaceted nature, which means that food works materially, biologically, economically, symbolically and socially, we explore which versions of food and its attributes are profiled across and within the articles. Inspired by critiques on race and class in relation to food and food social movements, in the final section of the paper we ask how the articles and future research on food and environmental education can take account of the racialised, gendered and classed dimensions of education for food sustainability. As part of our discussion, we evaluate the ethics of doing good, the moral economy educators reproduce in relation to class, race and gender, and the contribution feminism and critical race theory can make to future research agendas and writing in the field.

Potential benefits of satiety to the consumer: scientific considerations

Foods and dietary patterns that enhance satiety may provide benefit to consumers. The aim of the present review was to describe, consider and evaluate research on potential benefits of enhanced satiety. The proposal that enhanced satiety could only benefit consumers by a direct effect on food intake should be rejected. Instead, it is proposed that there is a variety of routes through which enhanced satiety could (indirectly) benefit dietary control or weight-management goals. The review highlights specific potential benefits of satiety, including: providing appetite control strategies for consumers generally and for those who are highly responsive to food cues; offering pleasure and satisfaction associated with low-energy/healthier versions of foods without feeling 'deprived'; reducing dysphoric mood associated with hunger especially during energy restriction; and improved compliance with healthy eating or weight-management efforts. There is convincing evidence of short-term satiety benefits, but only probable evidence for longer-term benefits to hunger management, possible evidence of benefits to mood and cognition, inadequate evidence that satiety enhancement can promote weight loss, and no evidence on which consumers would benefit most from satiety enhancement. The appetite-reducing effects of specific foods or diets will be much more subtle than those of pharmaceutical compounds in managing hunger; nevertheless, the experience of pharmacology in producing weight loss via effects on appetite suggests that there is potential benefit of satiety enhancement from foods incorporated into the diet to the consumer.

Mind your plate! The ontonorms of Dutch dieting

In the Netherlands as elsewhere, the overriding message of most dieting advice is that a person who wants to lose weight needs to overrule the desires of her craving body. Her mind has to put itself in a sovereign position and make ‘good choices’ about what to eat. But there are many ways of doing so. Linking up with different traditions within nutrition science, different dieting techniques enact different versions of food and concern themselves with different bodies. The ideals they strive after and the dangers they warn against are different, too. In short, they incorporate different ontonorms. At the same time, in all the ‘mind your plate’ advice, however varied, bodies figure as endowed with a nature that is problematic under the present cultural circumstances. This is in contrast with advice to ‘enjoy your food’, that targets a body that is not naturally given, but deserves to be cultivated. As I bring out the details of the discrepancies between the ontonorms embedded in different kinds of dieting advice, the term ‘ontonorms’ serves as a methodological tool. It helps to focus the analysis. But this article does not provide a ‘theory of ontonorms’, instead it argues for theoretical fluidity and specificity.

DIFFERENTIAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF RIGHT AND LEFT BRAINS TO PAW SKILL IN RIGHT- AND LEFT-PAWED FEMALE RATS

Paw preference and paw frequency was studied in female rats. Paw preference was assessed using a modified version of food reaching task in quadrupedal position. Of 68 rats, 56 (82.4%) were right-handed, 7 (10.3%) were left-handed, and 5 (7.4%) were mixed-handed. There were significantly more right-handers than left-handers. The distribution of right minus left (L) paw reach (R + L = 50) was not U-shaped, it was J-shaped like in humans. Estrus cycle was a significant factor influencing the right-paw entry scores: most of left-handers were in estrus and proestrus, most of left­-handers were in estrus, and most of mixed-handers were in postestrus. In right- and non-right-­handers, the frequency of right-paw usage (right-hand skill) increased linearly with testing days, but the frequency of left-hand usage (left-hand skill) did not show significant changes with the successive testing days. Controlling for body weight and estrus only accentuated these results. It was concluded that distribution of hand preference in rats is J-shaped and there is a right-sided population bias in handedness in rats like in humans. The results suggested that motor learning in paw skill is mainly involved the left brain in right- and mixed-handed rats, not the right brain: only the left brain has the inbuilt capacity for motor learning in female rats. Such an asymmetric cognitive control in an animal model may have a major impact in many aspects of biology in respect to normal functioning, superior talents, and disease (see Geschwind, 1985).­

Is the low-fat message giving people a license to eat more?

In the past decade, technology for modifying the fat content of foods has progressed and led to the development of highly palatable low-fat foods. Many Americans believe that weight loss can be accomplished by eating an ad libitum low-fat diet, and the development of highly palatable foods that are low in fat provides welcome additions to the food supply. However, in order to maintain high palatability, some of these foods have added sugars and other energy-bearing substances resulting in some low-fat foods which remain high in energy content and are energy-dense. Using such products as substitutes for higher-fat versions of foods is likely to bring about only small reductions in energy intake. A better strategy to reduce energy intake is to consume a low-fat diet made up of low-energy density foods such as fruits, vegetables, and other foods high in fiber and complex carbohydrates. Such a diet may include fat-replaced foods which are also reduced in energy since, for weight loss, a sustained reduction in energy intake is necessary. This can be best accomplished by eating a balanced diet not only low in fat content but also lower in energy.

Repeated administration of the adapted stroop test: Feasibility for longitudinal study of psychopathology in eating disorders

This Study investigated the feasibility of using Adapted Stroop Tests repeatedly in the investigation of psychopatholo gy in eating disorders. Alternate, parallel versions of the Food Stroop and Shape Stroop were presented to female volunteers without prior history of eating disorder, with a 2-week interval before repetition. Subjects were randomly allocated to same or different versions of the respective Stroop Tests on the two occasions. No differences were found in performance on either versions of the Stroop Tests, whether the same was repeated or if different versions were used. Therefore Adapted Stroop Tests can safely be repeated with eating disorder patients without fear of a learning effect, and different versions of both Food and Shape Stroops can be regarded as equivalent, when developed together. Researchers using different words chosen in different populations are not guaranteed of obtaining the same results.