Food choice and health across the life course: A qualitative study examining food choice in older Irish adults

Ireland has experienced much economic and social change in recent times along with rising levels of overweight. Two-thirds of adults are now overweight or obese. Excess weight is a major risk for chronic disease for all ages which heralds a great societal burden and presents challenges and opportunities for the food industry. Individual food choice is an important and complex factor to be understood in order for food manufacturers to enable healthy choices. It can be understood as a process in which patterns arise and change over time, influenced by a range of personal factors and environmental influences. This study aimed to gain insight into the key contextual influences on food choice patterns in older Irish adults of varied health status who have lived through much socioeconomic change. In-depth semi-structured interviews on food choice across the life course were conducted with 32 adults aged 61-79. Data was thematically analysed using content analysis. Patterns of eating within the changing food environment and dietary choices in the face of ageing and illness were influenced by accumulated life experiences. Findings can contribute to health and nutrition policies and to the design of tailored interventions and products to facilitate the adoption of healthful diets.food, health, food life experiences, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Trends in the Irish Beef Market During the 1990s - Identification and Analysis of Change Drivers

This paper provides a brief review of the Irish beef market during the 1990s. It sets out to identify the key factors influencing beef consumption during this period and reviews industry/ government response to consumer needs. A number of factors influencing beef consumption are identified, including: price, safety, eating quality and health. In addition to price competitiveness, industry/government response has focused on safety and quality systems. Safety emerged as an important factor during the 1990s and various traceability, quality assurance schemes and supply chain partnerships were established to reassure the consumer. By the end of the decade such systems are a pre-requisite to market entry and increasingly the focus is on using these systems to develop and deliver product attributes demanded by target markets, improve quality and reduce costs. Increasingly, customers along the supply chain are focusing on supplier processes rather than product and thus less effort will be on product testing and more attention will be given to process auditing. In this way a customer can engage in a more strategic approach to purchasing. It is argued that future system development will evolve from a control/inspection orientation to systems focused on quality management and improvement that support competitiveness.Irish beef consumption, price, food safety, quality, supply chain, Demand and Price Analysis, Livestock Production/Industries,

Deconstructing consumer discipline:how self-management is experienced in the marketplace

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to build an understanding of what we term “consumer discipline” by unpacking the practices and strategies by which people manage and exert control over what they consume. This is facilitated by looking at the context of food, an everyday necessity imbued with sizeable importance in terms of its impact on personal well-being, and how it is experienced by individuals who must manage the constraints of a chronic illness. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the Foucauldian concept of governmentality and theories surrounding the social facilitation of self-management, this paper analyses interviews with 17 consumers diagnosed with diabetes or coronary heart disease. Findings – By exploring how the chronically ill generate different strategies in managing what they eat and how they think about it; this paper outlines four analytical areas for which to continue the discussion of how consumption is disciplined and its conceptualisation in marketing and health-related research: “the Individual”, “the Other”, “the Market”, and “the Object”. Practical implications – The results signal to policy makers the aspects of health promotion that can be enhanced in order to improve self-management amongst consumers in the pursuit of well-being. Originality/value – This paper makes two contributions: it conceptualises consumer discipline as a practice that involves self-control but also comprises the capabilities to self-manage one’s identity and relationships through leveraging personal and social strategies across various contexts; and it identifies macro influences such as the market as negotiable powers that can be contested or resisted to help assist in one’s self-management

Meat consumption: Trends and quality matters

peer-reviewedThis paper uses quality theory to identify opportunities for the meat sector that are consistent with trends in meat consumption. Meat consumption has increased and is likely to continue into the future. Growth is largely driven by white meats, with poultry in particular of increasing importance globally. The influence of factors such as income and price is likely decline over time so that other factors, such as quality, will become more important. Quality is complex and consumers' quality expectations may not align with experienced quality due to misconception of certain intrinsic cues. Establishing relevant and effective cues, based on extrinsic and credence attributes, could offer advantage on the marketplace. The use of extrinsic cues can help convey quality characteristics for eating quality, but also for more abstract attributes that reflect individual consumer concerns e.g. health/nutrition, and collective concerns, e.g. sustainability. However, attributes are not of equal value to all consumers. Thus consumer segmentation and production differentiation is needed.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Irish Department of Agriculture Food and Marine for funding through their Stimulus Fund for the project entitled “Genetic selection for improved milk and meat product quality in dairy, beef and sheep”: project reference no: 11/SF/311

The North Dakota Experience: Achieving High-Performance Health Care Through Rural Innovation and Cooperation

Explores how North Dakota has met the healthcare challenges of rural communities with support for primary care and the idea of a medical home, organization of care through coordination and cooperation networks, and the innovative use of technology

Development and evaluation of lessons for class and group situations in grade I. Volume I.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University For volume II, please see: http://hdl.handle.net/2144/1415

Improvement of oral reports through the students' use of audio-visual aids

Author misnumbered thesis. Please note that there are TWO page 108s, but the continuity is the same. Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Beef quality attributes: a systematic review of consumer perspectives.

Informed by quality theory, this systematic literature review seeks to determine the relative importance of beef quality attributes from a consumer perspective, considering search, experience and credence quality attributes. While little change is anticipated in consumer ranking of search and experience attributes in the future, movement is expected in terms of ranking within the credence category and also in terms of the ranking of credence attributes overall. This highlights an opportunity for quality assurance schemes (QAS) to become more consumer focused through including a wider range of credence attributes. To capitalise on this opportunity, the meat industry should actively anticipate new relevant credence attributes and researchers need to develop new or better methods to measure them. This review attempts to identify the most relevant quality attributes in beef that may be considered in future iterations of QAS, to increase consumer satisfaction and, potentially, to increase returns to industry

The climatic impact of food consumption in a representative sample of Irish adults and implications for food and nutrition policy

peer-reviewedTo evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) associated with the diet of Irish adults. GHGE were estimated by applying conversion factors to habitual food consumption data taken from the National Adult Nutrition Survey, which was representative of the population. Descriptive analyses were undertaken for GHGE for the total population, as well as accounting for energy misreporting and across categories of sociodemographic and socio-economic factors and tertiles of emissions. Republic of Ireland. Adults aged 18–87 years (n 1500). The GHGE derived from daily dietary intakes was estimated as 6·5 kg of CO2 equivalents (CO2eq) per person. Males, younger consumers, those with secondary education and student employment status were associated with significantly higher GHGE. Red meat was the highest contributor to GHGE with 1646 g CO2eq arising from a mean intake of 47 g/d. Dairy and starchy staples were the next largest dietary GHGE sources, with mean daily emissions of 732 g CO2eq and 647 g CO2eq, respectively. The lowest emissions were associated with consumption of vegetables, fruits and legumes/pulses/nuts. Based on profiling using actual food consumption data, it is evident that one single measure is not sufficient and a range of evidence-based mitigation measures with potential to lower emissions throughout the food chain should be considered. The research contributes towards an improved understanding of the climatic impact of the dietary intakes of Irish adults and can serve to inform a sustainability framework to guide action in food and nutrition policyThis study was funded by the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine through the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM)funding instrument (grant number 13/F/527)