Carole A. Bisogni

Food choice : A conceptual model of the process

Interviews examining the food choice process were conducted with 29 adults, primarily individuals making grocery store food choice decisions, who were sampled for their diversity. These people were asked about how they chose foods when shopping and in other settings, and what influenced their choices. Verbatim transcripts of the interviews were analysed using qualitative methods that included constant comparison, concept mapping, and case summaries, and a conceptual food choice process model was developed. Data from the interviews are presented to illustrate the structure of this conceptual model. Peoples life course experiences affected major influences on food choice that included ideals, personal factors, resources, social contexts and the food context. These influences informed the development of personal systems for making food choices that incorporated value negotiations and behavioral strategies. Value negotiations weighed sensory perceptions, monetary considerations, health and nutrition beliefs and concerns, convenience, social relationships and quality of food choice decisions. Strategies employed to simplify the food choice process developed over time. The conceptual food choice process model represents the rich and complex bases of food practices, and provides a theoretical framework for research and practice in nutrition.

Managing values in personal food systems

People in post-industrial societies are faced with many food products and diverse eating situations that can make food-choice decisions complex. This study examined the ways that people managed values in making food choices in various contexts. An analysis of 86 semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews from a diverse population of urban adults living in upstate New York revealed that all participants used a personal food system, which was a dynamic set of processes constructed to enact food choices. Within these personal food systems people managed the five main food-related values of taste, health, cost, time and social relationships, and other less prominent values of symbolism, ethics, variety, safety, waste and quality. The salience of these values varied among the participants as well as across the eating situations that confronted each participant. Participants used three main processes in their personal food systems: (i) categorizing foods and eating situations; (ii) prioritizing conflicting values for specific eating situations; and (iii) balancing prioritizations across personally defined time frames. Understanding the personal food systems people use to help them make food choices can be useful for developing theories about eating behavior and communicating health messages related to food and eating.

Constructing Food Choice Decisions

BackgroundFood choice decisions are frequent, multifaceted, situational, dynamic, and complex and lead to food behaviors where people acquire, prepare, serve, give away, store, eat, and clean up. Many disciplines and fields examine decision making.PurposeSeveral classes of theories are applicable to food decision making, including social behavior, social facts, and social definition perspectives. Each offers some insights but also makes limiting assumptions that prevent fully explaining food choice decisions.MethodsWe used constructionist social definition perspectives to inductively develop a food choice process model that organizes a broad scope of factors and dynamics involved in food behaviors.ResultsThis food choice process model includes (1) life course events and experiences that establish a food choice trajectory through transitions, turning points, timing, and contexts; (2) influences on food choices that include cultural ideals, personal factors, resources, social factors, and present contexts; and (3) a personal system that develops food choice values, negotiates and balances values, classifies foods and situations, and forms/revises food choice strategies, scripts, and routines. The parts of the model dynamically interact to make food choice decisions leading to food behaviors.ConclusionNo single theory can fully explain decision making in food behavior. Multiple perspectives are needed, including constructionist thinking.

Life-Course Influences on Fruit and Vegetable Trajectories: Qualitative Analysis of Food Choices

Abstract Food consumption plays an important role in health, and understanding the process of food choice is central to health promotion. A persons life-course transitions and trajectories (persistent thoughts, feelings, strategies, and actions over the lifespan) are fundamental influences on the development of his or her personal system for making food choices. This analysis used a life-course perspective to examine influences on the fruit and vegetable choices of adults. A purposive, multi-ethnic sample of 86 adults in one U.S. city participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews about their life course, food choices, and influences on fruit and vegetable consumption. Qualitative analysis of interview transcripts, using a grounded theory approach based on the constant comparative method, revealed that past life-course events and experiences were strong influences on present systems for fruit and vegetable choices. Life-course transitions, especially role changes and health events, placed people on relatively stable dietary trajectories that shaped current food choices. Most people experienced a few major transitions that influenced their fruit and vegetable choices, some being abrupt and some more gradual changes in their trajectories. A life-course model of a food choice trajectory was developed from the data to reflect how past events and experiences were operationalized in present contexts to shape food choices. Key influences on the trajectory included food upbringing, roles, health, ethnic traditions, resources, location, and the food system. A life-course perspective on food choice provides unique insights that reveal how past events interact with current environments to both enable and limit current health behaviors such as food choices.

Food Choice Processes of Older Adults: A Qualitative Investigation

Abstract One way to promote optimal nutrition for older adults is to expand nutrition professionals’ understanding of the cognitive food choice processes of the elderly. This investigation used a constructivist approach and qualitative methods to elicit the factors important to the food choices of individuals aged 65 years and older who lived independently. Using a multiple-perspective model of the food choice process as a conceptual framework, two semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with each of 16 individuals to learn about how they chose foods. Interview transcripts were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Life course events and experiences were very important factors affecting food choices. Participants’ food choices and preferences were strongly influenced by beliefs related to appropriate food behavior and expected characteristics of foods and meals, many of which had been formed during childhood. Social structure played an important role in the participants’ food choices, and much of this structure was built around food. The values most often negotiated when making food choices were social context, sensory perceptions, monetary considerations, convenience, and physical well-being. Participants managed frequently encountered food choice situations with strategies and repertoires that included routinization, substitution, limitation, and elimination/avoidance. Based on the data, a multiple-perspective model of the food choice process pertaining to the food choices of older adults is proposed.

A conceptual model of the food and nutrition system

The food system is a widely used concept, but few systematic frameworks model the full scope and structure of the food and nutrition system. Bibliographic searches, a modified Delphi technique, focus groups and interviews with experts on the topic were conducted to identify existing models of agriculture, food, nutrition, health and environmental systems. These models were examined, classified and synthesized into an integrated conceptual model of the food and nutrition system. Few existing models broadly described the system and most focused on one disciplinary perspective or one segment of the system. Four major types of models were identified: food chains, food cycles, food webs and food contexts. The integrated model developed here included three subsystems (producer, consumer, nutrition) and nine stages (production, processing, distribution, acquisition, preparation, consumption, digestion, transport, metabolism). The integrated model considers the processes and transformations that occur within the system and relationships between the system and other systems in the biophysical and social environments. The integrated conceptual model of the food and nutrition system presents food and nutrition activities as part of a larger context and identifies linkages among the many disciplines that deal with the food and nutrition system.

Life-Course Events and Experiences: Association with Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in 3 Ethnic Groups

OBJECTIVE To examine how life-course experiences and events are associated with current fruit and vegetable consumption in 3 ethnic groups. DESIGN A theoretic model developed from previous qualitative research guided the development of a telephone survey. Data were collected on fruit and vegetable consumption, sociodemographic characteristics, ethnic identity, and life-course events and experiences, including food upbringing, social roles, food skills, dietary changes for health, and practice of food traditions. SUBJECTS/SETTING Low- to moderate-income adults living in a northeastern US city were selected randomly from 3 ethnic groups: black (n = 201), Hispanic (n = 191), and white (n = 200). STATISTICAL ANALYSES Bivariate and multiple linear regression analysis of associations between life-course variables and fruit and vegetable consumption. RESULTS Black, Hispanic, and white respondents differed significantly in life-course experiences, family roles, socio-demographic characteristics, and place of birth. Explanatory models for fruit and vegetable consumption differed among ethnic groups and between fruits and vegetables. Among black respondents, a college education was positively associated with fruit consumption; education and family roles contributed most to differences in fruit (R2 = .16) and vegetable (R2 = .09) consumption. Among Hispanic respondents, life-course experiences such as liking fruits and vegetables in youth, making dietary changes for health, and food skills were positively associated with fruit (R2 = .25) and vegetable (R2 = .35) consumption. Among white respondents, socio-demographic characteristics, such as being married with a young child or single with no child and having a garden as an adult, were positively associated with fruit (R2 = .20) and vegetable (R2 = .22) consumption. APPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS An understanding of the determinants of food choice in different subcultural groups can be used to design effective nutrition interventions to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Experiences such as eating fresh-picked fruits and vegetables while growing up or vegetable gardening as an adult may enhance fruit and vegetable consumption among members of some ethnic groups.

Food Choices in Three Ethnic Groups: Interactions of Ideals, Identities, and Roles

Abstract Ethnicity is one of the many factors that play a role in food choices.This project examined how ethnicity was enacted in food choices among 86 adults in one U.S. city, purposively recruited to vary in ethnic identity (Black, Latino, White). Qualitative research methods were used to conduct semistructured depth interviews about participants’ ethnic identity, food choices, and influences on food consumption. Analysis of these data produced a conceptualization of influences on food choices that spanned the different ethnic groups. Ideals, identities, and roles interacted with each other and the food and eating context in reciprocal and dynamic ways to influence food choice. Differences in ideals, identities, and roles were related to ethnic group affiliation and were most apparent during times of personal transition and in contexts highlighting contrasts. This conceptualization can enhance the ability of nutrition educators working in a multicultural society to identify processes underlying ethnic food choices and apply this understanding to research and practice.

Managing Healthy Eating: Definitions, Classifications, and Strategies

This study sought to enhance understanding of how people conceptualize and manage healthy eating. An interpretivist approach employed the constant comparative method to analyze 79 open-ended interviews with individuals about food choices and eating behaviors for health-related themes. Participant reports depicted cognitive systems for defining healthy eating, where personal meanings evolved through ongoing exposure to a variety of experiential and informational sources. Participants’ definitions of healthy eating clustered around seven themes for relating food and eating to their personal health. Healthy eating definitions shaped how participants categorized food and eating situations as healthy and unhealthy. Participants described healthy eating strategies that were differentially associated with various healthy eating themes. These findings provide an emic perspective of how a diverse sample of adults conceptualize and manage healthy eating. Exposing the implicit and multiplistic nature of healthy eating conceptions provides information useful to health educators promoting behavior changes.

Personal and Family Food Choice Schemas of Rural Women in Upstate New York

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to gain conceptual understanding of the cognitive processes involved in food choice among low- to moderate-income rural women. DESIGN This interpretivist study used grounded theory methods and a theory-guided approach. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING Sixteen women aged 18 to 50 years from varied household compositions were purposefully recruited in an upstate New York rural county. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using the constant comparative method. RESULTS Study participants held both personal and family food choice schemas characterized by food meanings and behavioral scripts. Food meanings encompassed self-reported beliefs and feelings associated with food. Food choice scripts described behavioral plans for regularized food and eating situations. Five personal food choice schemas (dieter, health fanatic, picky eater, nonrestrictive eater, inconsistent eater) and 4 family food choice schemas (peacekeeper, healthy provider, struggler, partnership) emerged. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS The findings advance conceptual understanding of the cognitive processes involved in food choice by demonstrating the existence of different food choice schemas for personal and family food choice situations. Further study is needed on food choice schemas in different populations in various food and eating situations.