Food Studies Commons^™

What You See Is Not What You Get: Food Advertising Amidst The Global Overweight And Obesity Pandemic, Marija Ocokoljic

Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets

The tandem issue of obesity and overweight is a serious global issue that has attained pandemic scale. Media, particularly advertising, plays an active role in shaping perceptions and behavioural patterns, influencing both how and what people eat. This paper analyses food advertising in Serbia in 2023 in the context of promoting dietary habits. Content analysis of commercials aired on a selection of television stations during the year showed the overwhelming prevalence of ads for food high in fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS), with confectionary products in lead positions. Commercial narratives centre on framing them as sources or catalysts for joyful, …

Obesity: Influencing Behavioral Consumption Through Meal Kit Distribution, Alejandro Hernandez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Founded in 2002, Everyone’s Harvest is a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to providing access to healthy, affordable fruits and vegetables through certified farmers markets and community food programs. Its key initiatives—Fresh Rx, Market Match, Edible Education and Farms Together —focus on alleviating nutrition insecurity and combating diet-related health conditions by providing vulnerable populations the resources to purchase, or receive, fresh produce and gain nutritional knowledge. This study explores a new intervention: the distribution of farmers' market meal kits as a complementary strategy to the current Edible Education program. These meal kits, which feature seasonally available produce and pre-measured ingredients, aim to …

Demographic Correlates Of Weight-Loss Strategies In Us Adults: Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Nhanes Data 2017–2020, Anin Mokari-Yamchi, Richard R. Rosenkranz

Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences Faculty Research

Objective: To investigate the frequency of various weight loss strategies among adults in the United States and to explore which weight-loss strategies are associated with several demographic factors.

Methods: The study utilized 2017–2020 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Adult participants (N = 3,130) who had tried to lose weight during the past year were included. Pregnant women and individuals under age 20y were excluded. Weight-loss strategies were categorized into 6 groups: consuming more healthy options (e.g., more fruits); consuming less un-healthy options (e.g., junk food); quality of diet changes (e. g., changed eating habits); assisted weight-loss …

Characterizing How Food Advertising And Genetic Obesity Risk Factors Affect Neural Reward Reactivity And Eating In The Absence Of Hunger In Children, Dabin Yeum

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The complex and multifactorial etiology of obesity involves the interaction of numerous risk factors. Assessing the gene-environment interaction of pediatric obesity can provide valuable insights for the characterization of key factors contributing to obesity and identification of potential points of intervention. The data used in this thesis comes from a single sample of young children recruited from the communities surrounding Dartmouth College. The primary objective of this thesis is to assess the impacts of complicated gene-environment interaction on pediatric obesity. First, we assessed the dynamic and static advertising of food cues to examine they lead to differential neural reward responsivity. …

In-Store Marketing Campaign To Promote The Purchase Of Healthy Foods And Beverages At Convenience Stores In Rural Kentucky, Brynnan Nicole Jacobs Dunaway

Theses and Dissertations--Nutrition and Food Systems

The prevalence of obesity is greater in rural communities, and current health promotion interventions have not shown broad positive impacts on dietary patterns in these areas. Focusing community-based efforts on unconventional food retailers is a unique avenue to encourage healthier food choices in rural populations. This study used shelf-wobblers to market healthier snack and beverage items at convenience stores (n=5) in a rural Kentucky county. Selection of healthy snacks and beverages from the store inventory was conducted using the CDC Food Service Guidelines for Federal Facilities calculator. Items were sorted into four categories: meal replacement snacks, high-protein snacks, low-fat carbohydrate …

Three Essays On Grocery Sales Taxes, Lingxiao Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Grocery sales taxes represent a stable tax revenue stream for state and municipal government, but there is rare empirical evidence suggesting grocery taxes may adversely affect health. In addition, the how governments set grocery sales taxes is still unclear. Therefore, based on a novel national dataset of annual county and state-level grocery taxes from 2009 through 2016, the following three essays in the dissertation investigate the health impacts of grocery sales taxes and the causes of grocery sales taxes in a framework of tax competition.

In the first essay, we document the spatial and temporal variation in grocery taxes and …

The Role Of High-Fructose Corn Syrup Imports In Child And Women Obesity, Anna Subirana Bofill

Master's Theses

High Fructose Corn Syrup is believed to be responsible for the increase of the obesity epidemic that is affecting both developed and developing countries, yet to date there are no rigorous analyses that quantify this effect. To estimate the impact of consumption of HFCS on obesity, I have paired country-specific data on imports of HFCS from the United Nations International Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) with women and child health data from around 70 countries from 1985 to 2018. The results show that conditional on space and time fixed effects, imports of HFCS with a high concentration of fructose have …

Influence Of Gut Microbiome On Obesity In Western-Style Dietary Practices Versus Other Diets: A Systematic Review, Keely A. Niemeyer, Doris I. Buezo, Loren Landeros, Karina Corral

OSRI Journal of Student Research and Innovation

BACKGROUND: The human gut is home to a microbiome that has a complex relationship to human health. Like the human genome project, microbiome is catching the attention of researchers who seek new methods to combat obesity and negative health outcomes associated with it.

OBJECTIVES: This systematic review aims to distinguish the impact of a Western diet on gut health verses a plant-based diet.

DATA SOURCES: EBSCOHost library databases inclusive of CINAHL plus, ScienceDirect, and PubMed using keywords to better understand the correlation of dietary practices and microbiome balance.

STUDY ELIGIBILITY: Criteria that include diet, current research, and scholarly peer reviewed …

West Virginia’S Sugary Drink Tax: Examining Print Media Frames In Local News Sources, Lauri Andress, Ogaga Urhie, Christine Compton

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Framing is an important aspect of the policy process that helps the public and decision makers sort through and resolve highly charged claims about an issue. Through slight changes in the presentation of issues, a framing effect may alter public support. The way a proposed sugary drink tax is discussed in public discourse and by the media significantly influences policy acceptance. Given the public health significance of obesity and diabetes in West Virginia (WV) the study of media frames employed to represent a sugary drink tax policy is useful.

Methods: Using quantitative content analysis, this study assessed news articles—published …

Water And Life. A Cross-Sectional Study On Determinants Of Beverage Consumption And Water Access In One Tribal Community, Christina White

All Master's Theses

Increasingly, poor diet has been shown to be one of the most crucial factors associated with cause of death, even more critical than smoking. Research in the past two decades has consistently linked increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) to the obesity epidemic contributing to a public health crisis all over the United States. Native Americans, among other minority groups, suffer obesity disproportionately from the rest of the US population, yet they continually fail to be included in research on the subject. Traditional research methods, sparse care coverage on reservations, consolidation of unique tribes into one classification, and failure to …

Baby's Best Start: Wic's Role In The Alleviation Of Childhood Obesity, Ashton Hutcheson

Public Health: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In the past 50 years, obesity prevalence has risen to epidemic-like levels in the United States with an average of 25% of American children being classified as overweight or obese. Prevalence of obesity is significantly increased in socioeconomically disadvantaged income categories. This paper aims to discuss public health preventions/interventions that address childhood obesity such WIC, a supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children. It additionally aims to provide broad obesity-related research and begin to suggest preliminary answers to the question of why obesity is so prevalent as well as a brief overview of current treatment options for obesity-related diseases …

An Exploration Of Adolescents' Attitude Toward, Intention To Consume, And Self-Reported Consumption Of Whole Grain Foods, Amy Lynn Queret-Mitchell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to examine Louisiana high school students’ perceptions towards consuming whole grain food products. The findings of this study are presented by objectives in the following sections. There is an obesity epidemic in America. Despite the wealth of information, this issue continues to have a negative impact on many adolescents particularly those of low socio-economic status in America. A possible cause for this problem is that adolescents may not have been taught to select the proper foods for consumption. However, this research shows that adolescents who consume whole grain food products have significantly lower …

Palau: Obesity, Tavia Weis

Global Public Health

Located in the heart of the Western Pacific Ocean is a large group of small islands that make up the country of Palau. Known for its growing tourism, beautiful landscapes, and cultural beliefs. Although the country is developing, the current health issue of obesity is a growing concern. With almost half of the population obese and the other half in jeopardy, the rising concerns of the obesity epidemic have taken global news and brought the attention of major countries to try and fix these rising issues. This public health brief will discuss the problems of obesity in Palau and the …

Perceptions Of Obese African American Women Regarding Altering Traditional Soul Food Preparation, Patricia Young

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

The obesity epidemic continues to be a major concern in the United States. The World Health Organization reported that 1.4 billion adults were either obese or overweight African American (AA) women have the highest incidence of obesity worldwide. A qualitative descriptive study was used to explore the perceptions of obese AA women about altering how they prepare soul food to make it healthier. The empowerment model and the health belief model were used to frame this study. Data were collected using a nonprobability purposeful sampling strategy. The sample for this study consisted of four focus groups with six to seven …

Assessment Of The Campus Food Environment Using Components Of The Healthy Campus Environmental Audit, Candace Sorden

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The objective was to assess whether the food environment at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) campuses supports healthy eating behaviors using components of the Healthy Campus Environmental Audit (vending, dining, and convenience store audits). Secondary aims were to compare the UNL food environment to other college campuses and explore whether there are existing health promotion and obesity prevention initiatives, programs, pledges and/or policies at UNL.

Research team members accessed a secure online website to review training materials prepared by Syracuse University. Evaluators did audit practice trials to meet inter-rater reliability score standards (>80%). audits were conducted at designated sites …

Engaging Parents To Promote Children’S Nutrition And Health: Providers’ Barriers And Strategies In Head Start And Child Care Centers, Dipti A. Dev, Courtney Byrd-Williams, Samantha Ramsay, Brent A. Mcbride, Deepa Srivastava, Ashleigh L. Murriel, Chrisa Arcan, Anna M. Adachi-Mejia

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Purpose: Using the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics benchmarks as a framework, this study examined childcare providers’ (Head Start [HS], Child and Adult Care Food Program [CACFP] funded, and non-CACFP) perspectives regarding communicating with parents about nutrition to promote children’s health.

Design: Qualitative.

Setting: State-licensed center-based childcare programs.

Participants: Full-time childcare providers (n ¼ 18) caring for children 2 to 5 years old from varying childcare contexts (HS, CACFP funded, and non-CACFP), race, education, and years of experience.

Methods: In-person interviews using semi-structured interview protocol until saturation were achieved. Thematic analysis was conducted.

Results: Two overarching themes were barriers and …

The Rates Of Overweight And Obesity Across Racial/Ethnic Group: Focus On Latinos And Latino Subgroups, Sou Hyung Jang

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines demographic and socioeconomic factors of racial/ethnic groups in the United States – particularly the obesity rate of Latinos.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Americans on average are increasingly becoming more overweight and the problems associated with higher levels of obesity are growing. In the U.S. the Latino population has higher rates of overweight and obesity compared to …

European Union Food Law Update, Emilie H. Leibovitch

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The European Union (EU) is facing major institutional challenges because Ireland rejected the Treaty of Lisbon last summer. The Treaty of Lisbon aims at modifying the institutional framework of the EU; more precisely, it aims in part at modifying the interaction of the various EU regulatory bodies with one another, as well as the interaction between the EU regulatory bodies and the national ones. The next few months will be decisive in determining whether the Treaty of Lisbon will finally replace the Treaty of Nice.