Marie Plessz

How consumption prescriptions affect food practices

Food consumption has become the subject of many prescriptions that aim to improve consumers’ health and protect the environment. This study examined recent changes in food practices that occurred in response to prescriptions. Based on practice theories, we assume that links that connect practices with prescriptions result from evolving social interactions. Consistent with the life-course perspective, we focus on distinctions between public prescriptions and standards that individuals consider relevant to their lives. We rely on quantitative data and the results of qualitative fieldwork conducted in France. Our results suggest that consumers may change food practices when they reach turning points in their lives. They may reconsider resources, skills and standards. Middle- and upper-class individuals are more likely to adopt standards consistent with public prescriptions. Possible explanations are that they trust expert knowledge sources, their social networks are less stable and smaller gaps exist between their standards and prescriptions.Food consumption has become the subject of many prescriptions that aim to improve consumers’ health and protect the environment. This study examined recent changes in food practices that occurred in response to prescriptions. Based on practice theories, we assume that links that connect practices with prescriptions result from evolving social interactions. Consistent with the life-course perspective, we focus on distinctions between public prescriptions and standards that individuals consider relevant to their lives. We rely on quantitative data and the results of qualitative fieldwork conducted in France. Our results suggest that consumers may change food practices when they reach turning points in their lives. They may reconsider resources, skills and standards. Middle- and upper-class individuals are more likely to adopt standards consistent with public prescriptions. Possible explanations are that they trust expert knowledge sources, their social networks are less stable and smaller gaps exist between their standards and prescriptions.

Do processed vegetables reduce the socio-economic differences in vegetable purchases? A study in France

BACKGROUND Vegetable consumption varies highly across households, based on household structure and socio-economic status, but little is known about the share of fresh vs. processed (e.g. frozen or canned) vegetables. Our aim was to compare the social and economic determinants of fresh and processed vegetable consumption. METHODS We reviewed detailed data on vegetable purchases for at-home consumption of 2600 French households during 2007. We took into account a wide range of processed vegetables (excluding potatoes) and made a distinction between fresh vegetables, processed vegetables and baby food containing vegetables. We conducted regression analyses to predict consumption of fresh and processed vegetables in kilograms per year and unit values in euros per kilogram. RESULTS About 60% of the vegetables bought by the sample households were fresh. Fresh vegetable consumption increased with the respondents income, age and educational level, and with the number of adults but not with the presence of children aged <6 years. The quantity of processed vegetables purchased increased with the household size but was not dependent on age, education or household income, although the richest households spent more per kilogram on processed vegetables. Households with a child aged <6 years also purchased 10 kg of baby foods containing vegetables. CONCLUSION We found socio-economic inequalities in the quantities of fresh vegetables, in the spending on fresh and processed vegetables but not in the quantities of processed vegetables. This suggests that monitoring the price and nutritional quality of processed vegetables and providing this information to consumers could help them identify nutritious, affordable and convenient foods.

Fresh is Best? Social Position, Cooking, and Vegetable Consumption in France

This article uses theories of practice to offer new lines of analysis of distinction through food. Middle-class households typically consume more vegetables than lower-class households. We examine aspects of vegetable consumption practices that might explain this fact. After briefly presenting theories of practice, we define vegetable consumption as a practice. We use household purchase data collected in 2007 for 2600 French households to address two questions: (1) is this theoretical framework relevant in accounting for the determinants of fresh and processed vegetable purchases, and (2) how do commitments to cooking and shopping intervene in the relationship between class position and vegetable consumption? We conclude that distinction occurs through modes of engagement in vegetable consumption. Because the practice’s teleoaffective structure is consistent with middle-class notions of health and proper food, these households engage more in fresh vegetable consumption, even though their commitment to cooking is rather low.

Ageing, retirement and changes in vegetable consumption in France: findings from the prospective GAZEL cohort.

The aim of this study was to describe the change in vegetable consumption with ageing and the transition to retirement. Study subjects were the participants of the GAZEL prospective cohort (Gaz and Électricité de France) aged 40-49 years at inclusion in 1989 who retired between 1991 and 2008 (12,942 men and 2739 women). Four FFQ were completed from 1990 to 2009. We used multiple imputation by chained equations in order to avoid dropping incomplete cases. The OR for eating vegetables everyday was estimated as a function of ageing, retirement status and the place of lunch before retirement through generalised estimating equations. Analyses were stratified by sex, and models were adjusted for confounders, including current spousal status. In 1990, 17.7% of men and 31% of women reported eating vegetables daily. The odds of consuming vegetables everyday increased with ageing for both men and women. The usual place of lunch was home for less than half the sample before retirement and for almost every respondent after retirement. For those who changed their place of lunch, the association between being retired and the odds of eating vegetables daily was positive and significant. We found that, in this cohort, vegetable consumption increased with ageing. Retirement had an indirect effect on vegetable consumption mediated by changes in the place of lunch.

LIFE STAGES AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE LABOR MARKET

ABSTRACT Various mechanisms, including lower productivity, discrimination and composition effects, have been cited to explain the disadvantaged position on the labor market of young people, women, and persons nearing the end of their working life. This article relies on two hypotheses. First we adopt the perspective of life cycle theory, therefore this phenomenon is also understood as a consequence of giving priority on the job market to fathers between 35 and 40 years old. Second we consider that having a job and the level of earnings are two different dimensions of the labor market and of the way people can be advantaged or disadvantaged. In the case of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary in the period running from the 1980s to the early 2000s, the arrangements made vary in time and by country, as is shown by employment chances and earnings for a variety of groups, corresponding here to the life stages of youth, motherhood or fatherhood, and old age. This information brings to light which groups are disadvantaged and in what way. The configurations observed change with the countries’ economic and socio-political transformations, becoming more diverse by country at the end of the period. Older workers appear excluded from the labor market in Hungary; young people in Poland are integrated but paid relatively low wages; in the Czech Republic, where employment rates are relatively high, mothers are less likely to work.

Les légumes transformés : diversité des produits, diversité des usages sociaux

Depuis plusieurs decennies les achats de legumes frais diminuent alors que la consommation de legumes transformes augmente. L’article etudie le lien entre achats de divers produits transformes a base de legumes, la position sociale et l’âge en France. Pour cela nous proposons des categories de produits transformes et realisons des analyses en composante principale sur les donnees Kantar Worldpanel 2007. Les menages les plus aises et les plus âges achetent plus de produits frais et au sein des produits transformes ils choisissent les produits les moins elabores. Toutefois un meme produit comme les crudites en sachet est achete et utilise differemment par les moins de 40 ans et les plus de 60 ans. Enfin chez les moins de 40 ans les proprietes qui jouent sur les produits achetes sont le diplome, la CSP et la structure du menage tandis que chez les plus de 60 ans c’est le revenu qui est pertinent.