Rachel Engler-Stringer

Food, Cooking Skills, and Health: A Literature Review

Over the past century, a major shift in North American food practices has been taking place. However, the literature on this topic is lacking in several areas. Some available research on food and cooking practices in the current context is presented, with a focus on how these are affecting health and how they might be contributing to health inequalities within the population. First, cooking and cooking skills are examined, along with the ambiguities related to terms associated with cooking in the research literature. Food choice, cooking, and health are described, particularly in relation to economic factors that may lead to health inequalities within the population. The importance of developing an understanding of factors within the wider food system as part of food choice and cooking skills is presented, and gaps in the research literature are examined and areas for future research are presented. Cooking practices are not well studied but are important to an understanding of human nutritional health as it relates to cultural, environmental, and economic factors.Over the past century, a major shift in North American food practices has been taking place. However, the literature on this topic is lacking in several areas. Some available research on food and cooking practices in the current context is presented, with a focus on how these are affecting health and how they might be contributing to health inequalities within the population. First, cooking and cooking skills are examined, along with the ambiguities related to terms associated with cooking in the research literature. Food choice, cooking, and health are described, particularly in relation to economic factors that may lead to health inequalities within the population. The importance of developing an understanding of factors within the wider food system as part of food choice and cooking skills is presented, and gaps in the research literature are examined and areas for future research are presented. Cooking practices are not well studied but are important to an understanding of human nutritional health as ...Over the past century, a major shift in North American food practices has been taking place. However, the literature on this topic is lacking in several areas. Some available research on food and cooking practices in the current context is presented, with a focus on how these are affecting health and how they might be contributing to health inequalities within the population. First, cooking and cooking skills are examined, along with the ambiguities related to terms associated with cooking in the research literature. Food choice, cooking, and health are described, particularly in relation to economic factors that may lead to health inequalities within the population. The importance of developing an understanding of factors within the wider food system as part of food choice and cooking skills is presented, and gaps in the research literature are examined and areas for future research are presented. Cooking practices are not well studied but are important to an understanding of human nutritional health as ...

The community and consumer food environment and children’s diet: a systematic review

BackgroundWhile there is a growing body of research on food environments for children, there has not been a published comprehensive review to date evaluating food environments outside the home and school and their relationship with diet in children. The purpose of this paper is to review evidence on the influence of the community and consumer nutrition environments on the diet of children under the age of 18 years.MethodsOur search strategy included a combination of both subject heading searching as well as natural language, free-text searching. We searched nine databases (MEDLINE, Web of Science, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus, ProQuest Public Health, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, and GEOBASE) for papers published between 1995 and July 2013. Study designs were included if they were empirically-based, published scholarly research articles, were focused on children as the population of interest, fit within the previously mentioned date range, included at least one diet outcome, and exposures within the community nutrition environment (e.g., location and accessibility of food outlets), and consumer nutrition environment (e.g., price, promotion, and placement of food choices).ResultsAfter applying exclusion and inclusion criteria, a total of 26 articles were included in our review. The vast majority of the studies were cross-sectional in design, except for two articles reporting on longitudinal studies. The food environment exposure(s) included aspects of the community nutrition environments, except for three that focused on the consumer nutrition environment. The community nutrition environment characterization most often used Geographic Information Systems to geolocate participants’ homes (and/or schools) and then one or more types of food outlets in relation to these. The children included were all of school age. Twenty-two out of 26 studies showed at least one positive association between the food environment exposure and diet outcome. Four studies reported only null associations.ConclusionsThis review found moderate evidence of the relationship between the community and consumer nutrition environments and dietary intake in children up to 18 years of age. There is wide variation in measures used to characterize both the community and consumer nutrition environments and diet, and future research should work to decrease this heterogeneity.

The Domestic Foodscapes of Young Low-Income Women in Montreal: Cooking Practices in the Context of an Increasingly Processed Food Supply

Over the course of the past century, the quantity of prepackaged, pre-prepared foods available in the North American context has increased dramatically. This study examines the shifts in food practices that are taking place through an exploration of the day-to-day cooking practices of a group of young, low-income women in Montreal and considers how these contribute to health problems such as obesity and nutritional deficiencies in addition to health inequalities within populations. The participatory study uses data from five focus groups with a total of 22 participants to contribute to our understanding of how social and physical food environments (the “foodscape”) shape daily food and cooking practices. Aspects of these environments that were discussed include household roles and responsibilities that require complex management, personal food choice and skill, as well as health, learning, and access to food.

Retail food environments research in Canada: A scoping review

OBJECTIVES The field of retail food environments research is relatively new in Canada. The objective of this scoping review is to provide an overview of retail food environments research conducted before July 2015 in Canada. Specifically, this review describes research foci and key findings, identifies knowledge gaps and suggests future directions for research. METHODS A search of published literature concerning Canadian investigations of retail food environment settings (food stores, restaurants) was conducted in July 2015 using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PsychInfo and ERIC. Studies published in English that reported qualitative or quantitative data on any aspect of the retail food environment were included, as were conceptual papers and commentaries. SYNTHESIS Eighty-eight studies were included in this review and suggest that the field of retail food environments research is rapidly expanding in Canada. While only 1 paper was published before 2005, 66 papers were published between 2010 and 2015. Canadian food environments research typically assessed either the socio-economic patterning of food environments (n = 28) or associations between retail food environments and diet, anthropometric or health outcomes (n = 33). Other papers profiled methodological research, qualitative studies, intervention research and critical commentaries (n = 27). Key gaps in the current literature include measurement inconsistency among studies and a lack of longitudinal and intervention studies. CONCLUSION Retail food environments are a growing topic of research, policy and program development in Canada. Consistent methods (where appropriate), longitudinal and intervention research, and close partnerships between researchers and key stakeholders would greatly advance the field of retail food environments research in Canada.

Geographic access to healthy and unhealthy food sources for children in neighbourhoods and from elementary schools in a mid-sized Canadian city

We examined location-related accessibility to healthy and unhealthy food sources for school going children in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We compared proximity to food sources from school sites and from small clusters of homes (i.e., dissemination blocks) as a proxy for home location. We found that (1) unhealthy food sources are more prevalent near schools in lower income than higher income neighbourhoods; (2) unhealthy compared to healthy food sources are more accessible from schools as well as from places of residence; and (3) while some characteristics of neighbourhood low socio-economic status are associated with less accessibility to healthy food sources, there is no consistent pattern of access. Greater access to unhealthy food sources from schools in low-income neighbourhoods is likely a reflection of the greater degree of commercialization. Our spatial examination provides a more nuanced understanding of accessibility through our approach of comparing place of residence and school access to food sources.

Walkable home neighbourhood food environment and children’s overweight and obesity: Proximity, density or price?

OBJECTIVES To identify characteristics of the food environment associated with child overweight/obesity that could, if subjected to intervention, mitigate the risk of childhood overweight/obesity. We examined whether the proximity to or density of grocery and convenience stores or fast food restaurants, or the prices of healthy food options were more strongly associated with overweight/obesity risk in children. METHODS We collected geocoded data by residential addresses for 1,469 children aged 10-14 years and conducted a census of all food outlets in Saskatoon. The Nutrition Environment Measures Survey (NEMS)-Stores and the NEMS-Restaurants were used to measure availability, quality and relative price of healthy food items in stores and restaurants. Childrens weight status was calculated on the basis of measured height and weight. Logistic regression was used to test the associations between overweight/obesity and food environment variables. RESULTS Within an 800 m walking distance from home, 76% of children did not have access to a grocery store; 58% and 32% had access to at least one convenience store or one fast-food restaurant respectively. A significantly lower odds of overweight/obesity was associated with lower price of healthy food items/options in grocery stores (odds ratio [OR] = 0.87, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.77-0.99) and fast-food restaurants (OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.95-0.99) within walking distance of home. Neither the distance to the closest food outlet nor the density of food outlets around childrens homes was associated with odds of overweight/obesity. CONCLUSIONS Improving economic access to healthy food in food outlets or fast-food restaurants is one strategy to counter childhood overweight/ obesity.

Food selection and preparation practices in a group of young low-income women in Montreal

This paper presents results from an interview and focus group study of cooking practices in a group of young, low-income women in Montreal. Overall, food choices appeared to be high in refined carbohydrates and relatively low in fresh vegetables and fruit. Participants prepared packaged noodle and sauce dishes often, as well as other packaged sauces, in part because of concern for food waste. Participants felt that the cost of spices was prohibitive. Results illustrate how individuals manage their resources under conditions of financial challenge, given other life circumstances.

Association between childcare educators’ practices and preschoolers’ physical activity and dietary intake: a cross-sectional analysis

Introduction Childcare educators may be role models for healthy eating and physical activity (PA) behaviours among young children. This study aimed to identify which childcare educators’ practices are associated with preschoolers’ dietary intake and PA levels. Methods This cross-sectional analysis included 723 preschoolers from 50 randomly selected childcare centres in two Canadian provinces. All data were collected in the fall of 2013 and 2014 and analysed in the fall of 2015. PA was assessed using Actical accelerometers during childcare hours for 5 consecutive days. Children’s dietary intake was measured at lunch on 2 consecutive days using weighed plate waste and digital photography. Childcare educators’ nutrition practices (modelling, nutrition education, satiety recognition, verbal encouragement and not using food as rewards) and PA practices (informal and formal PA promotion) were assessed by direct observation over the course of 2 days, using the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care tool. Associations between educators’ practices and preschoolers’ PA and dietary intake were examined using multilevel linear regressions. Results Overall, modelling of healthy eating was positively associated with children’s intake of sugar (β=0.141, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.27), while calorie (β=−0.456, 95% CI −1.46 to –0.02) and fibre intake (β=−0.066, 95% CI −0.12 to –0.01) were negatively associated with providing nutrition education. Not using food as rewards was also negatively associated with fat intake (β=−0.144, 95% CI −0.52 to –0.002). None of the educators’ PA practices were associated with children’s participation in PA. Conclusions Modelling healthy eating, providing nutrition education and not using food as rewards are associated with children’s dietary intake at lunch in childcare centres, highlighting the role that educators play in shaping preschoolers’ eating behaviours. Although PA practices were not associated with children’s PA levels, there is a need to reduce sedentary time in childcare centres.

An examination of the roles played by early adolescent children in interactions with their local food environment

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to examine how pre- and early adolescent (10-14 years old) children from a wide range of neighbourhoods interact with their local food environment (FE), with a focus on the foods and food sources they access and their locations. Children in this age group are developing independence and mobility within (and beyond) their home neighbourhoods but are somewhat geographically bound as they cannot yet drive. METHODS This research consists of qualitative interviews with 31 children (15 males, 16 females) aged 10-14 years living in socio-economically diverse neighbourhoods across Saskatoon, SK. A thematic analysis was conducted. RESULTS Childrens descriptions of what constitutes their neighbourhood FE were varied, ranging from a couple of city blocks to several kilometres from home. Children were familiar with the types of establishment that sell food within their perceived neighbourhood. When children purchased their own food they most frequently cited buying snacks such as ice cream, candy and slushes, and the majority of these purchases were made in convenience stores, gas stations and grocery stores. Few children reported frequenting fast-food or other restaurants without adults, and when they did it was usually to buy snacks such as French fries and ice cream rather than meals. CONCLUSIONS Our results highlight the importance of interventions targeted to this age group, in which personal food choices were reported almost exclusively as being energy- but not nutrient-dense snack foods.

Retail food environments research: Promising future with more work to be done

As members of the scientific committee for the Food Environments in Canada conference, we reflect on the current state of food environments research in Canada. We are very encouraged that the field is growing and there have been many collaborative efforts to link researchers in Canada, including the 2015 Food Environments in Canada Symposium and Workshop. We believe there are 5 key challenges the field will need to collectively address: theory and causality; replication and extension; consideration of rural, northern and vulnerable populations; policy analysis; and intervention research. In addressing the challenges, we look forward to working together to conduct more sophisticated, complex and community-driven food environments research in the future.