Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Commons^™

Nutritious Meals For The Homeless Population: Challenges And Opportunities, Kayla A. Albrecht

Masters Theses

Objective: Consuming a nutritionally adequate diet is extremely challenging for the homeless population. Though meals are available to the homeless population through soup kitchens and homeless shelters, these settings often do not serve meals that provide essential nutrients. The consumption of energy-dense, low-nutrient foods has led in part to high prevalence of obesity, heart disease, and chronic illnesses among the homeless. The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the challenges that homeless shelters face in providing nutritious meals to guests and (b) investigate the need and interest of nutrition education at homeless shelters.

Methods: Nine homeless shelter directors …

Eating Healthy On A Budget: A Grocery Cart Display, Kara R. Wilcoxon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Many barriers to healthy eating have been reported including having to give up favorite food dishes, consuming lesser desired food items, and perceiving that fresh, unprocessed food is too expensive. For a week, customers were able to view a display of two grocery carts: one filled with healthy foods and the other filled with unhealthy foods. Each cart had the cost and nutritive values of the contents posted. For 6 hours on 3 different days, the researcher interviewed interested shoppers (n=33). While the majority of the shoppers indicated they were very concerned about their families eating healthy (mean score 4.2/5), …

Struggle, Aspiration, And Obsession: The Discourse Of Diet, Emily K. L. Jahn

Masters Theses

Research has shown that members of society are generally dissatisfied with their current weight. This study examines how individuals socially construct meanings of the word diet and the dieting process. Participants (n=443) were males and females who ranged in age from 7 to 68. Each were given a diet questionnaire to complete. The older groups were given the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scale in addition to the survey. The text for analysis was obtained by the surveys and four focus groups. The resulting data indicated that both males and females perceive the word diet means "to lose weight." …