Religion and Body Weight Among African-American Adults Attempting to Lose Weight: An Exploratory Study.

Religion and body weight was explored at two time points among overweight and obese African-American adults. Baseline and follow-up data were collected from 26 adults participating in a weight loss intervention and analyzed using multiple regression analyses of religious measures, body weight, and other variables. Frequent church attendance was significantly associated with greater weight lost from baseline to 16-week follow-up. In this exploratory study, religious interactions and experiences may be involved in shaping body weight among African-Americans attempting to lose weight.

Do Adults Draw Differently-Sized Meals on Larger or Smaller Plates? Examining Plate Size in a Community Sample.

BACKGROUND: Prior research has reported that plate size may influence an individual's perceptions and recall of food and meal size. Therefore, manipulating plate size could influence projected meal quantities and portion size among community dwelling adults. METHODS: The present study interviewed 281 adult parents in their own homes in a medium-sized city in the United States. Participants were asked to accurately draw and label the foods they expected to eat for dinner that night, drawing on either a 23 cm or 28 cm paper plate. The respondents were then asked to label each food drawn in order to ensure proper recording of meals. RESULTS: Results showed clear differences in drawn food sizes between plate sizes as well as between sexes. Larger plates had about 24% more food drawn on them than small plates. Men drew their meals on 28 cm plates to be 37% larger than men who received 23 cm plates, while women with 28 cm plates drew their meals to be about 17% larger than women given 23 cm plates. Most (60%) of the overall differences in food size between plates came from the biggest food that was drawn. Women and men both drew bigger meat portions on 28 cm plates when compared to the meat portions on 23 cm plates. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these findings support the concept that adult participants' estimates of dinner meal size may be shaped by plate size. The effect of differing plate sizes appears to be more powerful for men than women, and may encourage greater food consumption among men, primarily as meat products.

Health-related knowledge, beliefs and self-efficacy in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

STUDY QUESTION: Do health-related knowledge, beliefs and self-efficacy differ between women with and without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)? SUMMARY ANSWER: Women with PCOS felt at greater risk for adverse health outcomes, yet believed a healthy lifestyle was less beneficial to prevent weight gain relative to a comparison group. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Diet and physical activity are often used to treat PCOS, but there are high attrition rates and less engagement in self-help methods. It is unclear whether there are unique psychosocial considerations in PCOS that should be incorporated into these interventions. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: This cross-sectional study enrolled 475 women with (N = 255) and without PCOS (N = 220). PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: Female participants were recruited through paper and web-based advertisements across the US (mean age: 28.1 ± 5.4 years). Participants were either diagnosed with PCOS by a healthcare professional (PCOS group) or had self-reported regular menstrual cycles (comparison group). A reliable and valid online instrument about health-related knowledge, beliefs and self-efficacy was administered to these participants. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: Most women with PCOS had a basic understanding of nutrition (96%), but had misconceptions about diagnostic criteria for PCOS (≥86%). PCOS was associated with greater perceived susceptibility for disease and weight gain and poorer perceived control over these health outcomes (all P < 0.05), in relation to the comparison group. Women with PCOS also perceived fewer benefits of healthy behaviors on weight gain (P = 0.03) with less than half of the PCOS group attempting to follow government diet recommendations (47%). There were no differences in the self-efficacy of dietary behaviors between groups. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: It is likely that participant self-selection occurred due to the nature of recruitment in this study and results may have limited generalizability since most participants identified as Caucasian. Additionally, it is unclear whether some results may be clinically meaningful due to small effect sizes. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: These findings support that behavioral interventions should incorporate the unique psychosocial considerations associated with PCOS to encourage patient participation in lifestyle interventions. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S): This manuscript was partially supported by Cornell University Human Ecology Alumni Association and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Alumni Association. The authors have no competing interests. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT01859663.

Does measuring body weight impact subsequent response to eating behavior questions?

OBJECTIVES: If being weighed impacts perceptions of eating behavior, it is important that the order of questionnaires and weighing be considered in research and practice. A quasi-experimental study was performed to examine whether being weighed immediately prior to completing a questionnaire affects responses to eating behavior questions. It was hypothesized that being weighed would serve as a priming stimulus and increase measures of dietary restraint, disinhibition, and hunger. METHODS: Trained researchers collected a sample of volunteers (n = 355) in 8 locations in the United States on two Saturdays in the summer of 2011. Half of the participants were weighed immediately prior to completing the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), with the remaining half weighed immediately after TFEQ completion. RESULTS: A priori hypotheses were not supported despite replicating known relationships between weight, dietary restraint and disinhibition. Results indicated that being weighed first produced a difference in differences on disinhibition scores between low restraint score (95% CI = 4.65-6.02) and high restraint score (95% CI = 6.11-7.57) compared to being weighed after questionnaire completion (p = 0.003). However, this relationship was not significant when modeling restraint as a continuous variable, questioning the use of dichotomization. CONCLUSIONS: Being weighed is unlikely to be a strong enough prime to significantly change scores on eating behavior questionnaires for everyone, but may allow differences in restraint status to become more evident. Researchers assessing dietary restraint should be wary of the possibility of producing different results when treating restraint as continuous or dichotomous, which could lead to different interpretations.

The impact of a supermarket nutrition rating system on purchases of nutritious and less nutritious foods.

OBJECTIVE: The current study examines the impact of a nutrition rating system on consumers' food purchases in supermarkets. DESIGN: Aggregate sales data for 102 categories of food (over 60 000 brands) on a weekly basis for 2005-2007 from a supermarket chain of over 150 stores are analysed. Change in weekly sales of nutritious and less nutritious foods, after the introduction of a nutrition rating system on store shelves, is calculated, controlling for seasonality and time trends in sales. SETTING: One hundred and sixty-eight supermarket stores in the north-east USA, from January 2005 to December 2007. SUBJECTS: Consumers purchasing goods at the supermarket chain during the study period. RESULTS: After the introduction of the nutrition ratings, overall weekly food sales declined by an average of 3637 units per category (95 % CI -5961, -1313; P<0·01). Sales of less nutritious foods fell by 8·31 % (95 % CI -13·50, -2·80 %; P=0·004), while sales of nutritious foods did not change significantly (P=0·21); as a result, the percentage of food purchases rated as nutritious rose by 1·39 % (95 % CI 0·58, 2·20 %; P<0·01). The decrease in sales of less nutritious foods was greatest in the categories of canned meat and fish, soda pop, bakery and canned vegetables. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of the nutrition ratings led shoppers to buy a more nutritious mix of products. Interestingly, it did so by reducing purchases of less nutritious foods rather than by increasing purchases of nutritious foods. In evaluating nutrition information systems, researchers should focus on the entire market basket, not just sales of nutritious foods.

Family dinner frequency, settings and sources, and body weight in US adults.

Contemporary families and food systems are both becoming more dynamic and complex, and current associations between adult family meals and body mass index (BMI) are not well understood. This investigation took a new approach by examining diverse settings and sources of food for family dinners in relationship to BMI in a cross-sectional nationally representative survey of 360 US adults age 18-85 living with family members. In this sample, 89% of adults ate family dinners at least 5 days per week and almost all ate family dinners cooked and eaten at home. About half of these adults also ate family dinners at restaurants, fast food places, or ate takeout food at home, and less common were family dinners at homes of relatives or friends. Family dinners eaten at fast food places, but not other settings or sources, were significantly associated with higher BMI. Overall, adult family dinners were commonplace, usually involved home cooking, and when at fast food places may be related with higher adult body weights.

Consumer food system participation: a community analysis.

This study examined the prevalence, patterns, and health associations of consumer participation in different stages of the food system using a survey of 663 adults in one U.S. county. Consumer food system participation by stage was 43% in food production, 47% in food processing, 65% in food distribution, 62% in food acquisition, 61% in food preparation, and 100% in food consumption. Consumers participated in an average of 3.7 of these 6 possible stages. Women and unmarried people participated in more stages. Food system participation was associated with few health problems, although people reporting some illnesses had higher food system participation.

Weight and weddings. Engaged men's body weight ideals and wedding weight management behaviors.

Most adults marry at some point in life, and many invest substantial resources in a wedding ceremony. Previous research reports that brides often strive towards culturally-bound appearance norms and engage in weight management behaviors in preparation for their wedding. However, little is known about wedding weight ideals and behaviors among engaged men. A cross-sectional survey of 163 engaged men asked them to complete a questionnaire about their current height and weight, ideal wedding body weight, wedding weight importance, weight management behaviors, formality of their upcoming wedding ceremony, and demographics. Results indicated that the discrepancy between men's current weight and reported ideal wedding weight averaged 9.61 lb. Most men considered being at a certain weight at their wedding to be somewhat important. About 39% were attempting to lose weight for their wedding, and 37% were not trying to change their weight. Attempting weight loss was more frequent among men with higher BMI's, those planning more formal weddings, and those who considered being the right weight at their wedding as important. Overall, these findings suggest that weight-related appearance norms and weight loss behaviors are evident among engaged men.

Using plate mapping to examine sensitivity to plate size in food portions and meal composition among college students.

People eat meals rather than nutrients or food groups. Plate size may influence meal size, meal composition, and food type. To examine effects of plate size on meals, we developed a method we label plate mapping. A quasi-experimental study asked university students to accurately draw what they would like to eat for dinner on either a 9″ or 11″ paper plate. Coding plate drawings for total meal size revealed that students drew an average of 26% more food on larger plates. When plates were coded for meal composition we found that the biggest three food portions drawn by students were bigger on 11″ plates, with 70% of the overall difference in food area occurring in the biggest food. Participants drew bigger portions of vegetables on larger plates, while other food types showed little change in mean size. Gender moderated plate sensitivity for food types: women drew 36% bigger vegetable portions than men on larger plates. Smaller plates may lead to smaller meal sizes, but plate size may differentially influence composition of meals for men and women. These findings suggest plate mapping can be used to reflect meal conceptualizations and assess sensitivity to plate size.

Eating maps: places, times, and people in eating episodes.

This project developed a method for constructing eating maps that portray places, times, and people in an individual's eating episodes. Researchers used seven consecutive days of qualitative eating recall interviews from 42 purposively sampled U.S. adults to draw a composite eating map of eating sites, meals, and partners for each person on a template showing home, work, automobile, other homes, and other places. Participants evaluated their own maps and provided feedback. The eating maps revealed diverse places, times, and partners. Eating maps offer a flexible tool for eliciting, displaying, validating, and applying information to visualize eating patterns within contexts.

Family meals and body weight in US adults.

OBJECTIVE: Family meals are an important ritual in contemporary societies and many studies have reported associations of family meals with several biopsychosocial outcomes among children and adolescents. However, few representative analyses of family meals have been conducted in samples of adults, and adults may differ from young people in predictors and outcomes of family meal consumption. We examined the prevalence and predictors of adult family meals and body weight outcomes. DESIGN: The cross-sectional 2009 Cornell National Social Survey (CNSS) included questions about the frequency of family meals, body weight as BMI and sociodemographic characteristics. SETTING: The CNSS telephone survey used random digit dialling to sample individuals. SUBJECTS: We analysed data from 882 adults living with family members in a nationally representative US sample. RESULTS: Prevalence of family meals among these adults revealed that 53 % reported eating family meals seven or more times per week. Predictive results revealed that adults who more frequently ate family meals were more likely to be married and less likely to be employed full-time, year-round. Outcome results revealed that the overall frequency of family meals among adults was not significantly associated with any measure of body weight. However, interaction term analysis suggested an inverse association between frequency of family meals and BMI for adults with children in the household, and no association among adults without children. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that family meals among adults are commonplace, associated with marital and work roles, and marginally associated with body weight only in households with children.

Family meals and body weight. Analysis of multiple family members in family units.

Prior research suggests that frequent family meals are associated with lower body mass index (BMI) among children and adolescents. The primary focus of this study was examining associations of reported frequency of family meals with reported BMI for multiple members of family units that included adults and adolescents. A secondary focus was examining settings for family meals and body weight (home and away from home). A cross-sectional survey recruited 327 individuals in 103 family units visiting one U.S. University. Results revealed that for individuals, frequency of family meals at home was inversely related with BMI, while frequency of family meals away from home was directly related with BMI. Family role analyses showed that frequency of family meals eaten by fathers and sons at home was inversely related to BMI, while for only fathers the frequency of family meals away from home was directly related to BMI. Full family unit analyses summed family member characteristics and found associations between family meal frequency and family BMI at home were inverse, but they were direct away from home. Multilevel regression models indicated that family level characteristics accounted for a substantial portion of the variability in body weight measures both at home and away from home. These findings reveal that meal settings, family roles, and full family units help to understand family meals and body weight.

Body weight relationships in early marriage. Weight relevance, weight comparisons, and weight talk.

This investigation uncovered processes underlying the dynamics of body weight and body image among individuals involved in nascent heterosexual marital relationships in Upstate New York. In-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with 34 informants, 20 women and 14 men, just prior to marriage and again one year later were used to explore continuity and change in cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors relating to body weight and body image at the time of marriage, an important transition in the life course. Three major conceptual themes operated in the process of developing and enacting informants' body weight relationships with their partner: weight relevance, weight comparisons, and weight talk. Weight relevance encompassed the changing significance of weight during early marriage and included attracting and capturing a mate, relaxing about weight, living healthily, and concentrating on weight. Weight comparisons between partners involved weight relativism, weight competition, weight envy, and weight role models. Weight talk employed pragmatic talk, active and passive reassurance, and complaining and critiquing criticism. Concepts emerging from this investigation may be useful in designing future studies of and approaches to managing body weight in adulthood.

Shopping for fruits and vegetables. Food and retail qualities of importance to low-income households at the grocery store.

Purchasing fruits and vegetables is an integral part of managing food consumption and dietary quality. This study examined how low-income adults who had primary responsibility for household food purchases considered retail produce decisions. We used a qualitative research approach based on grounded theory and an ecological conceptual framework. Twenty-eight low-income rural, village, and inner city heads of households in upstate New York, USA, were selected by purposive and theoretical sampling and interviewed about fruit and vegetable shopping habits, attitudes toward local food stores, and where and how they would prefer to buy produce. Analyses revealed their concerns were organized around five themes: store venue; internal store environment; product quality; product price; relationships with the stores. An unanticipated finding was the differing social relations that appear to exist between participant consumers, store employees and management, and the store itself as a representation of the larger retail food system. Attitudes toward retail food stores in this study are described as passive or fatalistic indifference, supportive, opportunistic, and confrontational (change agents). These attitudes are related to how shoppers considered retail fruit and vegetable choice, access, and availability. These findings suggest ways to individualize nutrition education and consumer education messages.

Constructing food choice decisions.

BACKGROUND: Food 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. PURPOSE: Several 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. METHODS: We 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. RESULTS: This 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. CONCLUSION: No single theory can fully explain decision making in food behavior. Multiple perspectives are needed, including constructionist thinking.

Dating and eating. How university students select eating settings.

People use cognitive scripts to decide to eat in particular settings, such as selecting where to eat on dates during courtship. We surveyed 562 university students about scripts for eating on dates. Public, formal eating settings were seen as more appropriate for first dates, but a broader variety of settings, including individuals' homes, was considered appropriate for dates in long-term relationships. Gender analysis revealed that women were more flexible than men about appropriateness of eating places for dates. These findings suggest that scripts may guide eating decisions and behaviors, particularly among women, and that eating scripts may become more flexible as relationships develop.

Dating and eating. Beliefs about dating foods among university students.

Dating is an important courtship activity in the U.S., and food consumption is part of dating events. Students use dating scripts to guide decisions and behaviors on dates, and perform scripts on dates to construct positive impression management. This study examined how students conceptualized dating foods. A questionnaire was administered in one large university class, and data from 301 students were analyzed. Students were asked to name three dating foods, three foods that are not dating foods, what makes foods dating foods, and what makes foods not dating foods. Findings revealed that both common and uncommon foods were named as dating and not dating foods. Alcoholic beverages were sometimes named as dating foods. Women often named feminine foods (considered appropriate for females) as dating foods, but men were not more likely to name masculine foods (considered appropriate for males) as dating foods. Neat and easy-to-eat foods were often named as dating foods, while pungent foods and foods causing bad breath were named as not dating foods. These findings support the conception that dating scripts guide thinking about food choices to enhance impression management. Dating food choices are important for current health and as potential precursors for long-term eating relationships like marriage.

Eating routines. Embedded, value based, modifiable, and reflective.

Eating routines are a compelling issue because recurring eating behaviors influence nutrition and health. As non-traditional and individualized eating patterns have become more common, new ways of thinking about routine eating practices are needed. This study sought to gain conceptual understanding of working adults' eating routines. Forty-two purposively sampled US adults reported food intake and contextual details about eating episodes in qualitative 24-h dietary recalls conducted over 7 consecutive days. Using the constant comparative method, researchers analyzed interview transcripts for recurrent ways of eating that were either explicitly reported by study participants as "routines" or emergent in the data. Participants' eating routines included repetition in food consumption as well as eating context, and also involved sequences of eating episodes. Eating routines were embedded in daily schedules for work, family, and recreation. Participants maintained purposeful routines that helped balance tension between demands and values, but they modified routines as circumstances changed. Participants monitored and reflected upon their eating practices and tended to assess their practices in light of their personal identities. These findings provide conceptual insights for food choice researchers and present a perspective from which practitioners who work with individuals seeking to adopt healthful eating practices might usefully approach their tasks.

Draw Your Dinner: A Longitudinal Study of Perceptions of Meal Size with Different Plate Sizes.

Objectives: In this study, we examined the role of plate size in an individual's ability to draw what they had for dinner the previous evening. Methods: A sample of 199 students at one US university were given large pieces of paper with the image of a plate printed on them and asked to make an accurate drawing on the plate of what they had for dinner the previous evening once per week for 10 weeks. The sizes of the printed plates either stayed constant at 10.5 inches or 8.5 inches or started at 10.5 inches and decreased in small weekly increments to 8.5 inches. We hypothesized that participants given the changing size plates would unknowingly alter their drawn meal sizes in relation to the size of the plate offered. Results: Participants drew more food on larger plates than smaller plates. Participants given plates that decreased in size also decreased the size of their drawings and reported consuming a total of 69 square inches less food on the decreasing than the large plates. Conclusion: These findings suggest that changes in plate size may be useful in influencing food portion sizes over time when the size of the plates is decreased incrementally.

Weight and weddings: expectations about wedding-specific body weight and shape ideals and dieting and exercise behavior among university students.

Weddings are significant life events when brides and grooms often seek a culturally-defined ideal appearance. A cross-sectional survey of 275 unmarried university students assessed current weight and shape, general ideal weight and shape, desired wedding weight and shape, and expectations to diet and/or exercise when contemplating their future wedding. Results indicated that men and women conceptualize the size and scope of their wedding similarly, but wedding appearance (including weight) was more important among women than men. Few men and women idealized a wedding-specific weight and shape that differed from their general ideal weight and shape. When contemplating their future wedding day, expectations about engaging in weight control behaviors were more common among women, and exercise was preferred over dieting among both genders. These findings suggest that although weddings focus attention on body weight and shape, young adults do not have overly unrealistic body weight and shape expectations when contemplating their future wedding and generally do not construct a specific body weight and shape for their future wedding. These relationships may change as marriage becomes more salient.