1
Food for Thought 2020
HC1: Introduction
4 Topics related to food choice and dietary behaviour:
1. The socio-cultural environment.
2. The physical environment.
3. Sensory aspects.
a. The smell, sound, taste and appearance.
b. If you like it and how intense the product is.
4. Sustainability.
There is a need for greater understanding of the determinants of food choice so the right
determinants can be targeted when trying to improve food choice. Because food choice
influences health and environment and vice-versa. And food choice is complex because
dietary behaviors are influenced by many factors such as psychosocial factors, biological
factors and factors in the physical environment. And these factors are often interrelated.
What we eat is important, so global and national organizations bother.
● Because food is so relevant many global and national organizations work on the
topic, nationally and internationally
○ WHO, Rijksoverheid for example.
The UN is also a bother. The United Nations states: “Our health and what we eat are
inextricably linked. But what and how we eat is just as important to planetary health, and
right now our diets are helping to create a sickly Earth.
Nobel peace prize 2020 for un world food programme. “WFP provides lifesaving food
assistance to millions across the world - often in extremely dangerous and hard-to-access
conditions”.
Food choice influences health:
● Nutrition is an important factor in the burden of disease.
● Suboptimal diet is the second-leading risk factor for deaths globally, accounting for
almost 1 in 5 of all deaths.
● Diseases related to nutrition:
○ Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, cardiovascular disease for example.
Food choice influences environment:
- Unfair trade.
- Food industry, pollution and GM.
- Food miles.
- Food waste.
Environment also influences our food choice:
, 2
● Food industry influences food choice (and thus health).
● Different policy sectors influence nutrition and health (for example by subsidizing
certain agricultural crops).
Determinants of your daily intake:
What and how much?
● Socio-cultural environment.
● Physical environment.
● Sensory-aspects.
● Sustainability.
Food choice is complex.
Differences in dietary habits:
Many different dietary habits within the population and across cultures and countries.
- Cambodians like fried tarantula.
- Dutch like deserts and raw herring.
- Some religious people eat pork and others do not.
Logic model of change:
● Targeting the right determinants is crucial for effective solutions.
● People in research, policy and practice concerned with health are always looking for:
○ These determinants.
○ How they affect dietary behaviours.
○ And how that affects health.
● To study this, theoretical models help.
There are different models possible.
How to catch a complex truth in one model?
Review bij Larson et al. of research that examines factors having an influence on food
choice in 3 environments:
● Social environments = family and home, peer networks.
● Physical environments = child care, schools, worksites, supermarkets, restaurants.
● And macroenvironments = income, socioeconomic status, cultural norms and values,
food marketing, agricultural and food policy.
Conclusion review Larson et al. 2009: “Overall, a system oriented, multilevel framework is
needed for advancing research on individual and environmental determinants of eating
behaviors and interventions to positively impact food choices at a community or population
level.
Approach of Huang and Glass according to Larson et al. They have proposed a multilevel
research approach, which frames food and physical activity behaviors as complex systems
that are not only a matter of individual choice but also strongly influenced by multiple
contexts at the interpersonal level (e.g. family, peers, social networks), community level (e.g.
schools, worksites), and governmental level (local, state, national policies), and interactions
with biological processes.
, 3
How to catch a complex truth in one model?
● Trying to catch the determinants of food choice in a model is not easy. There is just
one model, there are many.
● We choose the framework from Contento as the theoretical framework for this
course.
● People’s food choices are influenced by many factors.
● All of these influences interact with each other dynamically.
HC2: Sustainability
1. FRAMING THE PRESENT DAY CHALLENGES
Maltus Hypothesis (1798):
The only solution= moral restraint = poor people should not have a family, because you
could not afford it. That was his solution to this problem.
, 4
External pressures to food production: Population growth, urbanization, economic
development, globalization.
External pressures to food production: Climate change, water stress & environmental
degradation.
There is strong evidence of structural crises in the food system:
Food for Thought 2020
HC1: Introduction
4 Topics related to food choice and dietary behaviour:
1. The socio-cultural environment.
2. The physical environment.
3. Sensory aspects.
a. The smell, sound, taste and appearance.
b. If you like it and how intense the product is.
4. Sustainability.
There is a need for greater understanding of the determinants of food choice so the right
determinants can be targeted when trying to improve food choice. Because food choice
influences health and environment and vice-versa. And food choice is complex because
dietary behaviors are influenced by many factors such as psychosocial factors, biological
factors and factors in the physical environment. And these factors are often interrelated.
What we eat is important, so global and national organizations bother.
● Because food is so relevant many global and national organizations work on the
topic, nationally and internationally
○ WHO, Rijksoverheid for example.
The UN is also a bother. The United Nations states: “Our health and what we eat are
inextricably linked. But what and how we eat is just as important to planetary health, and
right now our diets are helping to create a sickly Earth.
Nobel peace prize 2020 for un world food programme. “WFP provides lifesaving food
assistance to millions across the world - often in extremely dangerous and hard-to-access
conditions”.
Food choice influences health:
● Nutrition is an important factor in the burden of disease.
● Suboptimal diet is the second-leading risk factor for deaths globally, accounting for
almost 1 in 5 of all deaths.
● Diseases related to nutrition:
○ Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, cardiovascular disease for example.
Food choice influences environment:
- Unfair trade.
- Food industry, pollution and GM.
- Food miles.
- Food waste.
Environment also influences our food choice:
, 2
● Food industry influences food choice (and thus health).
● Different policy sectors influence nutrition and health (for example by subsidizing
certain agricultural crops).
Determinants of your daily intake:
What and how much?
● Socio-cultural environment.
● Physical environment.
● Sensory-aspects.
● Sustainability.
Food choice is complex.
Differences in dietary habits:
Many different dietary habits within the population and across cultures and countries.
- Cambodians like fried tarantula.
- Dutch like deserts and raw herring.
- Some religious people eat pork and others do not.
Logic model of change:
● Targeting the right determinants is crucial for effective solutions.
● People in research, policy and practice concerned with health are always looking for:
○ These determinants.
○ How they affect dietary behaviours.
○ And how that affects health.
● To study this, theoretical models help.
There are different models possible.
How to catch a complex truth in one model?
Review bij Larson et al. of research that examines factors having an influence on food
choice in 3 environments:
● Social environments = family and home, peer networks.
● Physical environments = child care, schools, worksites, supermarkets, restaurants.
● And macroenvironments = income, socioeconomic status, cultural norms and values,
food marketing, agricultural and food policy.
Conclusion review Larson et al. 2009: “Overall, a system oriented, multilevel framework is
needed for advancing research on individual and environmental determinants of eating
behaviors and interventions to positively impact food choices at a community or population
level.
Approach of Huang and Glass according to Larson et al. They have proposed a multilevel
research approach, which frames food and physical activity behaviors as complex systems
that are not only a matter of individual choice but also strongly influenced by multiple
contexts at the interpersonal level (e.g. family, peers, social networks), community level (e.g.
schools, worksites), and governmental level (local, state, national policies), and interactions
with biological processes.
, 3
How to catch a complex truth in one model?
● Trying to catch the determinants of food choice in a model is not easy. There is just
one model, there are many.
● We choose the framework from Contento as the theoretical framework for this
course.
● People’s food choices are influenced by many factors.
● All of these influences interact with each other dynamically.
HC2: Sustainability
1. FRAMING THE PRESENT DAY CHALLENGES
Maltus Hypothesis (1798):
The only solution= moral restraint = poor people should not have a family, because you
could not afford it. That was his solution to this problem.
, 4
External pressures to food production: Population growth, urbanization, economic
development, globalization.
External pressures to food production: Climate change, water stress & environmental
degradation.
There is strong evidence of structural crises in the food system:
