Thesis (doctoral)--Delhi School of Economics, 1980. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-221).

The Diploma Thesis "Sociology of Food - Vegetarianism as a Specific Phenomenon" consists of a theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part aims at the basic information relating to the sociology of food and the lifestyle. The consequent chapters deal with vegetarianism. The practical part brings the presentation of the results reached. The primary data collection utilized the quantitative research, the questioning method and the questionnaire technique. The questionnaire was distributed, in particular, via the Internet, in collaboration with the discussion forums of healthy diet and the vegetarianism forums. Also, within the Yoga system, in a daily life it was spread into all the Yoga Centres in the Czech Republic. Furthermore, the questionnaire was spread in the healthy diet shops and in the healthy canteen in České Budějovice. The research set was made up by vegetarians from all over the Czech Republic regardless of age, sex or any other criteria. In total 421 questionnaires were returned to be utilized for the research, however, 74 of them could not be used at all due to the incorrect or insufficient data completion or illegibility. Thus the research utilized 347 questionnaires, i.e. 82.4 %. The aim of the Diploma Thesis was to ascertain how the phenomenon of nourishment influences the lifestyle of a vegetarian. Consequently, other two goals were set. Partial goal 1: Monitoring of vegetarianism within the Czech Republic from the point of view of vegetarians. Partial goal 2: Description of contemporary trends within vegetarian nourishment. Evaluation of positives and negatives of such nourishment. I assume the goals of the Thesis have been fulfilled. In connection with the goal of the Thesis the hypothesis arose: Vegetarianism as the choice of nourishment is simultaneously a choice of a specific lifestyle (e.g. the style of housing, leisure time, so-called life philosophy, etc.). This hypothesis was acknowledged from the results ascertained. The Diploma Thesis results can serve for the further research and a wider exploration of this field. Furthermore, they will utilised for the needs of the vegetarian centres and, thanks to the scope of the research set, they can be intended to be published in professional periodicals.

This study was undertaken to determine the cobalt intake in food and milk, and the excretion of cobalt in the urine and feces of young college women living in the home management house at the North Texas State College and consuming a self-selected diet. Cobalt as a trace inorganic element has long been recognized according to Martin (1945) as a nutritional essential in ruminants in whom cobalt deficiency is a typical anemia. For that reason emphasis has been placed upon studies with ruminants, since it seems logical to use a species for which cobalt is known to be essential.

The disproportionate concentration of unhealthy food in communities of color in the United States may contribute to health inequities and food insecurity. Gentrification has been associated with residents’ increased adverse health outcomes in its early and rapid phases. This study adds to the growing body of research by examining the relationship between gentrification, the food environment, food habits (the interplay between food chances and food choices), and health in New York City. I used a mixed methods approach to assess the food landscape in NYC between 1990 and 2014, using group-based trajectory modeling, the National Establishments Time-Series database, census data, and in-depth interviews with mothers from the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health study. I found that the growth in the food environment was unevenly distributed. While healthy food chances declined across all examined neighborhoods, unhealthy food chances quickly grew, commanding dominance. It was gentrifying neighborhoods; however, that surprisingly experienced the most remarkable growth in unhealthy food chances compared to other neighborhoods. A cross-tabulation of the food chance trajectories of New York City census tracts indicated the presence of food ecologies that exhibit both healthy and unhealthy food chances. There was a strong association between the type of food ecology and gentrification status (p < 0.001). The in-depth interviews corroborated these findings and revealed that food insecurity is a by-product of gentrification in two ways. First, neighborhoods in the early stages of gentrification are inundated with unhealthy food chances, such as fast-food chains, without adequate access to quality, fresh, healthy foods. Secondly, when healthy food chances finally arrive in resource-deprived areas through gentrification, families are forced to relocate to areas without access to fresh, affordable, healthy foods due to the increased cost of living. This cycle of food insecurity is inequitable due to historical racial segregation, exploitative capitalistic markets, and racist stereotypes. Speculators invest in unhealthy food chances aligned with pre-existing stereotypes, assumptions, and beliefs that such communities do not or will not consume healthier foods. Therefore, a cycle of structural racism reinvents itself through this investment in unhealthy food chances, constructing food deserts and swamps bestowed upon communities experiencing poverty and disproportionate adverse cardiovascular health conditions. Strengthening policy focused on the relationship between gentrification mitigation and health outcomes is needed.

The first chapter of this dissertation tests for addiction to food. This is the first empirical study using nationally representative data to do so. Data show that many common foods are addictive, suggesting that prices play a larger role in food consumption than previously thought. The finding of significant addiction also suggests that targeted food taxes may provide effective instruments for reducing the prevalence of overweight and obesity. The second chapter of this dissertation investigates the determinants of childhood obesity. This research improves upon previous economic research on the topic by incorporating controls for biological relationships of mothers and fathers and examining the entire child weight distribution using quantile regression. I find evidence of genetic weight transmission though the behavioral influence of mothers appears to be dominant. Furthermore, I find that the commonly cited influences on childhood weight do little to explain the most extreme weights. The third chapter of this dissertation studies the contract choice effect. Though frequently discussed, the impact of changes in insurance contract on utilization in response to a change in the expected cost of care has not been explicitly studied in an empirical setting. The analysis identifies a significantly negative contract choice effect, implying that individuals choose better insurance plans in response to increases in the expected cost of care. / text

The purpose of this project was to explore parent perceptions about their children's weight and the perceived barriers to implementing healthy eating habits and patterns of physical activity for their children.

The purpose of this project was to explore parent perceptions about their children's weight and the perceived barriers to implementing healthy eating habits and patterns of physical activity for their children.

Ce travail de recherche porte sur la mise en exposition des questions scientifiques et techniques sensibles (QSTS). Objet encore relativement peu formalisé en sciences de l’information et de la communication, les QSTS désignent l’ensemble des savoirs pour lesquels le consensus scientifique n’est pas établi et dont l’intégration sociale pose question. Leur intégration aux institutions muséales soulève de nombreux enjeux quant à la posture de médiation adoptée dans le media exposition. La conduite de ce travail de recherche est étroitement liée au contexte dans lequel il a été produit, à savoir une convention CIFRE avec le pôle de compétitivité de la filière fruits et légumes. Ce pôle ayant un projet de création d’un musée vivant sur les fruits et légumes, nous avons travaillé d’un point de vue professionnel sur l’élaboration de ce projet, et d’un point de vue académique sur une réflexion autour du traitement muséographique de la thématique des liens entre alimentation et santé. La recherche commence par un cadrage théorique des notions, c’est-à-dire l’élaboration d’une définition des QSTS et l’appréhension de la thématique Alimentation et santé en tant que QSTS. Nous proposons ensuite une analyse formelle contrastive de 6 expositions portant sur cette thématique, avec pour objectif de caractériser des postures de médiation liées à la mise en exposition d’une QSTS. Enfin, nous recentrons la recherche sur l’élaboration du musée vivant par le pôle de compétitivité, afin d’affiner nos résultats par une analyse plus précise portant sur la préfiguration d’un dispositif particulier de l’exposition. / This research is focused on the display of socioscientific issues in science exhibitions. The concept of socioscientific issues has not been theorized in Information and Communication Sciences yet. It includes all the knowledge that does not bring consensus among the scientific community and that calls into question their social acceptability. Their integration to museums raise many issues concerning the kind of mediation that is adopted in the exhibition as a medium. The conduct of this thesis work is closely linked to its context of production, which is a CIFRE convention with the fruit and vegetable cluster. This one having a project of museum for fruit and vegetables, we worked professionally on the development of this project and academically we lead a reflexion about the display of one specific subject into science exhibitions, namely the link between food and health. The research begins with the building of a theoretical frame of the concept, that means the definition of socioscientific issues and the features of the subject of food-health relationships as a socioscientific issue. Then we propose a formal and contrastive analysis of 6 exhibitions dealing with this subject, with the goal of characterizing different mediation attitudes. Finally we focus the research on the development of the museum of fruit and vegetables by the cluster, in order to refine the results with a more specific analysis of the prefiguration of an exhibition device

<p>The thesis consists of a summary and four papers, concerned with food consumption, behavior associated with overconsumption of food and analysis of the economic policy reforms designed to improve health.</p><p>Paper [I] estimates a hedonic price model on breakfast cereal, crisp bread and potato product data. The purpose is to examine the marginal implicit prices for food characteristics associated with health. A trade-off exists between health and taste. For instance, sugar, salt and fat are tasty but can be unhealthy if overconsumed; whereas fiber is unhealthy if underconsumed. If the marginal implicit price for sugar is negative, consumers value health over its taste. Our results are the marginal implicit price for sugar is negative for breakfast cereals and crisp bread—consumers value health over the taste of sugar. For salt, we find the opposite—a positive marginal implicit price, suggesting people value its taste over health. For fat, we find a negative marginal implicit price of fat in breakfast cereals and potato products containing salt, whereas we find a positive marginal implicit price of fat in hard bread and potato products that contain no salt. For the one healthy characteristic, fiber, we find a negative marginal implicit price in breakfast cereals and a positive implicit price in hard bread.</p><p>Paper [II] uses a general equilibrium model to derive the optimal policy if people overconsume unhealthy food due to self-control problems. Individuals lacking self-control have a preference for immediate gratification, at the expense of future health. We show the optimal policy to help individuals with self-control problems to behave rationally is a combination of subsidies for the health capital stock and the physical capital stock.</p><p>Paper [III] estimates a demand system for grain consumption based on household panel data and detailed product characteristics, and simulate the effect on grain consumption of economic policy reforms designed to encourage a healthier grain diet. Our results imply it is more cost-efficient to subsidize the fiber content than to subsidize products rich in fiber given the goal to increase the fiber intake of the average Swedish household. Our results also imply subsidies alone give rise to an increase in fiber, and to other unhealthy nutrients. Also, subsidies alone have negative effects on the budget. We therefore simulate the effect of policy reforms in which the subsidies are funded either by taxes on the content of unhealthy nutrients or by taxes on products that are overconsumed. Our results suggest that price instruments need to be substantial to change consumption. For instance, removing the VAT on products rich in fiber has little effect on consumption.</p><p>Paper [IV] explores habit persistence in breakfast cereal purchases. To perform the analysis, we use a mixed multinomial logit model, on household panel data on breakfast cereal purchases. If habit persistence in consumption is strong, short and long-run responses to policy reforms will differ. Our results are breakfast cereal purchases are strongly associated with habit persistence. Our results also imply preferences for breakfast cereals are heterogeneous over households and the strength of habit persistence is similar over educational and income groups.</p>

The thesis consists of a summary and four papers, concerned with food consumption, behavior associated with overconsumption of food and analysis of the economic policy reforms designed to improve health. Paper [I] estimates a hedonic price model on breakfast cereal, crisp bread and potato product data. The purpose is to examine the marginal implicit prices for food characteristics associated with health. A trade-off exists between health and taste. For instance, sugar, salt and fat are tasty but can be unhealthy if overconsumed; whereas fiber is unhealthy if underconsumed. If the marginal implicit price for sugar is negative, consumers value health over its taste. Our results are the marginal implicit price for sugar is negative for breakfast cereals and crisp bread—consumers value health over the taste of sugar. For salt, we find the opposite—a positive marginal implicit price, suggesting people value its taste over health. For fat, we find a negative marginal implicit price of fat in breakfast cereals and potato products containing salt, whereas we find a positive marginal implicit price of fat in hard bread and potato products that contain no salt. For the one healthy characteristic, fiber, we find a negative marginal implicit price in breakfast cereals and a positive implicit price in hard bread. Paper [II] uses a general equilibrium model to derive the optimal policy if people overconsume unhealthy food due to self-control problems. Individuals lacking self-control have a preference for immediate gratification, at the expense of future health. We show the optimal policy to help individuals with self-control problems to behave rationally is a combination of subsidies for the health capital stock and the physical capital stock. Paper [III] estimates a demand system for grain consumption based on household panel data and detailed product characteristics, and simulate the effect on grain consumption of economic policy reforms designed to encourage a healthier grain diet. Our results imply it is more cost-efficient to subsidize the fiber content than to subsidize products rich in fiber given the goal to increase the fiber intake of the average Swedish household. Our results also imply subsidies alone give rise to an increase in fiber, and to other unhealthy nutrients. Also, subsidies alone have negative effects on the budget. We therefore simulate the effect of policy reforms in which the subsidies are funded either by taxes on the content of unhealthy nutrients or by taxes on products that are overconsumed. Our results suggest that price instruments need to be substantial to change consumption. For instance, removing the VAT on products rich in fiber has little effect on consumption. Paper [IV] explores habit persistence in breakfast cereal purchases. To perform the analysis, we use a mixed multinomial logit model, on household panel data on breakfast cereal purchases. If habit persistence in consumption is strong, short and long-run responses to policy reforms will differ. Our results are breakfast cereal purchases are strongly associated with habit persistence. Our results also imply preferences for breakfast cereals are heterogeneous over households and the strength of habit persistence is similar over educational and income groups.