Balancing Nutrition (Asynchronous - Online Only)
When Just Salad Won’t Do: Meat Avoiders’ Counterbalancing of Cultural Asceticism with Perceived Hedonism to Elevate Food Enjoyment View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Attila Pohlmann
The choice to not eat meat is often regarded as self-depriving act, denying individuals the sensory joys of consuming meat. Meat-free diets such as vegetarianism or veganism are generally perceived as inferior in the hierarchy of Western diets (Berndsen & Pligt, 2004; Cole, 2008; Cole & Morgan, 2011). Meat consumption is thus associated with hedonism and meat avoidance with asceticism. To date, little research has empirically investigated how consumers who are voluntarily avoiding meat rationalize their choice in light of the prevalent perception that their diet is—albeit morally less conflicting—perceived as inferior, at least by the omnivorous majority (Cole, 2008; Rozin, Markwith, & Stoess, 1997). Our findings offer restaurateurs and food producers guidelines for improving offerings and communications for consumers who want to avoid meat to some extent. We collected data from over 200 patrons who had a gratuitous choice of three items from a cafeteria menu with beef, turkey, and soy as the main ingredient. Patrons who reported that they avoid meat in their diet evaluated the vegetarian dish as better tasting compared to the two meat-containing alternatives. Although vegetarian foods are generally regarded as less pleasurable compared to meat dishes, meat-avoiders psychologically counterbalance this notion by elevating their hedonic benefits derived from a food choice that is congruent with their values. Providers of food experiences can improve the food experience by crafting hedonic, meatless dishes in the kitchen, by modifying marketing communications and food presentation, and by training wait staff to emphasize hedonic aspects of vegetarian dishes.
Food Collective among Minority Group to Obtain Affordable Food until Equality: Reflection of COVID-19 Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Theresia Pratiwi Elingsetyo Sanubari
The COVID-19 pandemic causes a food access crisis among communities. In addition, restricted mobilization and disturbed food systems in Indonesia become a challenge for communities, especially minority groups. Unfortunately, food collective initiatives during the pandemic rarely included the queer community as a target group. This study aims to explore food resilience among the queer groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection was done using focus group discussion (FGD) online of queer practicing cultivating through COVID-19 response workshop initiative. The result shows that queer participation in a food collective named kebun keadilan (the farm justice) can bring affordable food for them. It can help them to provide their daily food requirement, such as vegetables. In addition, the food interaction between queer community to other community help to transfer new perspective and it leads to advocacy process. The understanding of food affordability among minority communities has important implications for food justice.
Agriculture in American Literature: Quality, Context, Community View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kathryn Dolan
U.S. literature is inseparable from the nation’s history and culture. As the country has developed, so have the stories it has been telling about itself. Farming stories tell us who we are culturally through what we prepare, produce, and consume. In both history and literature, the significance of agriculture has been dominant. The development of the United States and its earliest rationale for expansion involved the concept of Jeffersonian agrarianism, an ideal of small-scale farmers who produced and consumed mostly off their own land. In Notes on the State of Virginia (1787), Thomas Jefferson famously names farmers “the chosen people of God,” adding that other forms of production could even lead to moral corruption (pp. 164–165). From Jefferson’s agrarian dreams, to the monoculture efficiency represented by twenty-first century fast food restaurants, farming stories remain fundamental to an understanding of U.S. culture. I engage with the main theme of agriculture throughout U.S. literature. After contextualizing literature and agriculture the United States, I then briefly model close readings of agricultural themes in four authors from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries: Henry David Thoreau, Charles Chesnutt, Willa Cather, and Robin Wall Kimmerer. This connection between stories and the role of farming and gardening provides readers with a useful way to consider the past, present, and even the future of agriculture in U.S. literature in terms of race, gender, and sustainability.
Investigating the Effects of Electroplasmolysis Pretreatment and Ultrasound Assisted Blanching on the Quality of Pumpkin Candy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ahsen Rayman Ergün, Elif Gürbüz, Irem Akbulut, Taner Baysal
The pumpkin belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family. It is rich in minerals such as potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and fiber. In this study, pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duchesne which was consumed fondly in Turkey) was used for candy production. This candy product is a traditional dessert of Hatay city with a glassy texture and crispy structure. In this study, we aimed to improve the quality properties of the pumpkin dessert with electroplasmolysis pretreatment for increasing cell permeability and ultrasound blanching alternative to traditional blanching process. The sample groups were electroplasmolysis and traditional blanching (EP+TB), electroplasmolysis and ultrasound blanching (EP+UB), and control groups without electroplasmolysis; traditioanal blanching without electroplasmolysis (TB), and ultrasound blanching group (US). The voltage parameters of the electroplasmolysis process and the time parameters for ultrasound assisted blanching were determined by pretreatments. Quality (color, texture, total sugar, ash, moisture, water activity, pH, total soluble solid) analysis were performed weekly during 21 days. The mositure content, water activity, total soluble solid, and sugar contents were found statistically significant after the ultrasound blanching process compared to control group. Additionally, electroplasmolysis improved mass transfer by its degradation effect on cells. Thus, dehydration has become faster and easier. L * value was found highest in the combination of pretreatments. As a result, the color values of the samples treated with electroplasmolysis were better preserved compared to the control groups. The combination of electroplasmolysis and ultrasound blanching enabled the pumpkin slices to be produced with a higher quality.
New Winegrowing Geographies : A Socio-anthropological Study on the Territory and the Creation of Value View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Del Carmen Salas Quesada
In the XXI century, the wine industry is in a new phase, its production and consumption continue to expand and diversifies towards “non-traditional” countries such as China, Canada, India, Thailand, Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, among others. These new wine geographies, despite the low representation and visibility at the national and international level, are introducing new actors in the global wine scene and they raise new questions for the socio-anthropological analysis of the value creation in the wine sector. The above ideas constitute the center of my Ph.D. work, a binational ethnographic analysis of two recently developed viticultural areas, Cananea, Sonora (Mexico), and Sonoita-Elgin, Arizona (USA), located on the northwest and southwest borders of both countries, respectively. After the ethnography work carried out since 2018, the preliminary results reveal, firstly that the globalization of wine agribusiness despite favoring the imitation of the hegemonic ideas (varieties, techniques, classification systems) and discourses (terroir, tradition, and identity) of the 'old and new world', does not cause its homogenization. Secondly, the factors that condition wine-growing activity and its specificity are not just geo-climatic, but relational and contextual which demonstrates the need to integrate socio-anthropological analysis of the creation of “value” for a well-aimed interpretation of the evolution of new wine geographies and its challenges.
Southern California Festive Foodways: Altruism, Entrepreneurialism, and Cultural Affirmation View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tiff Graham
While festive gatherings bring communities together, it is the foodways of these events that offer an opportunity to garner more insights about culture and people. This paper focuses on the role of food and drinks in multiple community festivals and parades in the Southern California region of the United States pre-pandemic cancellations as they reveal altruistic, entrepreneurial, and cultural beliefs, practices, and influences. Ethnographic methods (i.e., interviews, photography, video recordings, and participant observation in cultural settings) were employed to document what is prepared, shared, and sold, along with inquiries about personal motivation. Some of the festive events to be discussed include the Bangladesh Day Parade and Festival, Sikh Baisakhi Celebration, Taste of Ecuador Food Festival & Parade, Little Saigon Westchester Tet Parade, South Bay Greek Festival, Central American Independence Parade, Kingdom Day Parade, East L.A. Mexican Independence Day, Topanga Days Parade, and Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade.
American Soldiers’ Cultural and Sensory Experiences of Mexican and Afro-descendant Foods during the Mexican-American War, 1846-1848
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nicole Mottier
This paper combines the literatures about the Mexican-American War, tourism, taste, and food to conceptualize soldiers as unlikely culinary tourists. Although their reasons for being in Mexico revolved around warfare -- causing them to engage in different types of violence -- these soldiers nevertheless found themselves experiencing and describing a variety of flavors different from what they had encountered at home. Within the parameters of their White, male, tourist, militant, and imperialist gazes, there nevertheless existed differences between American soldiers’ cultural and sensory perceptions of the tastes of Mexican food. Although Afro-descendant Mexican foods were well established in several parts of the country Americans fought in, these went unrecognized by Americans. By not writing about the African influences in some of the Mexican dishes they ate in the state of Veracruz, US soldiers contributed to the absence of Afro-descendant ingredients, cooking techniques and flavors in the American imagination of Mexican food. Furthermore, because these soldiers were among the first Americans to experience different regional Mexican ingredients and cuisines, their commentaries about Mexican food, cooking techniques and flavors traveled throughout the public sphere in mid-nineteenth America, shaping what Americans visiting Mexico in future decades would expect from the country’s food.
Featured Communicating Value of Short Food Supply Chains and Conscious Consumption in Restaurants View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ellen Gonzalez, Manuela Quaresma
The present study addresses the contemporary scenario of the food and beverage industry in terms of environmental, social, and economic sustainability, putting an effort to shorten food chains. Having the chef de cuisine as the protagonist in fostering change in production and consumption patterns, influencing the behavior of diners. The purpose of this article is to introduce consistent sustainability initiatives adopted by multidisciplinary teams in co-creative projects with chefs and how Participatory Design projects lead to more engaging results. For this purpose, an overall literature review has been done in food-related co-design proposals and up-to-date eco-responsive restaurant initiatives. Semi-structured interviews were carried to enhance project information, providing deeper subject insights. The outcome of this analysis is not intended to exhaust the potentials but rather to illustrate and discuss the possibility of expanding and replicating co-designed sustainable ideas and how they can become tools of connection between the players.
Resemblance of Dietary Intake among Parent and Offspring: The Myth and Reality of Familial Resemblance in Dietary Intake View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sonia Pervin
There is a strong societal belief that parents are role models for children's dietary behaviors in early life that may persist throughout the life course. However, the association of dietary intake between parents and offspring has shown inconclusive findings. We did a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression to explore the resemblance between parent-child dietary intakes including nutrient intakes, food groups, and whole diet. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and CINAHL on the parent-child dietary resemblance between January 1980 and December 2019. We performed quality effect meta-analysis on reported correlation coefficients (r) and did meta-regression analysis to explain the resemblance and potential moderators. Heterogeneity and inconsistency were examined using the Q and I2 statistics. A total of 51 studies met the inclusion criteria for systematic review, whilst 42 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled analyses showed weak to moderate parent-child dietary intake associations for different aspects of diet including energy, fat (% energy), protein (% energy), carbohydrate (% energy), fruits and vegetable (g/d), confectionery food (g/d), and whole diet. A substantial variation was observed in associations across dietary intake variables by different study characteristics, including population, study year, dietary assessment method, the person reporting dietary intake, quality of the study, and study design. Implication: The resemblance is weak to moderate in most aspects of dietary intakes among parent-child pairs. These findings challenge the social myth that parental practices of dietary habits profoundly shape children’s dietary intake.
Understanding Food Consumption Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preliminary Findings from a Trinbagonian Sample View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fareena Alladin
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted persons’ food consumption patterns while highlighting and exacerbating existing disparities in food availability and accessibility. Using the Bourdieusian concept of capital and the Community Nutrition Environment Model, the present study explored changes in healthy and unhealthy food consumption before and during the pandemic, as well as the role of cultural capital, food availability, and accessibility. An online survey of persons residing in Trinidad and Tobago (n = 327) was conducted between July and October 2021 to investigate household availability, accessibility, and individual consumption of healthy and unhealthy food items. A series of t-tests and mediation analyses using Hayes PROCESS macro were conducted. There were significant differences in food availability, accessibility, and consumption comparing before and during the pandemic. Generally, consumption of healthy foods increased and unhealthy food items decreased. Mediation analysis revealed that objectivized cultural capital had an indirect effect on healthy food consumption, and a direct effect on unhealthy food consumption. Institutional capital did not significantly affect consumption, while incorporated cultural capital directly and indirectly predicted consumption. Significant differences in consumption were found for educational, income, and relationship status, but not for sex. While these results indicate differences in food availability, accessibility and consumption before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they highlight the role of capital and point to the need for future studies on the ways in which the pandemic has affected multiple facets of social life.
Featured Mindful Eating Practiced Through the Plum Village App View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Weranuj Ariyasriwatana
This study explores the benefits of mindful eating perceived by college students. Fifty-four Marist College students were purposively sampled. They were instructed to download, use the Plum Village App for two weeks, and keep a daily diary. On the first day, they were required to listen to five lessons from Start Here, the first section on the Meditations menu. From the second to the 14th day, they had to pick one new meditation session from the Meditations menu per day. Findings were collected from diary entries for the four lessons under the category “Eating Meditation”: Coffee or Tea Meditation, The Five Contemplations, Tangerine Meditation, and Mindful Dishwashing. The coding scheme was built with both inductive and deductive strategies. Benefits revealed were content analyzed into the following categories: appreciation, enjoyment, focus on the food, relaxation, slowing down one’s eating (which prevents overeating), and time for myself. These findings suggest incorporating mindful eating into a healthy eating scheme for youths. Also, having various kinds of guided meditation that connect to everyday life such as mindful eating might help meditation apps—e.g., the Plum Village app—appeal to college students. Plum Village and other meditation apps should take this into consideration when planning a marketing communication campaign for college students. Mindful eating practiced through a free app—such as the Plum Village app—may make life during the COVID-19 pandemic more bearable. This study contributes to food studies, mental health, mobile communication, and contemplative studies.
