Revised; Originally published: 12/2008 / Food labels are designed to help consumers to make healthy food choices. Yet the Nutrition Facts label is not always easy to understand, due to a lot of technical information. The step-by-step approach in this publication is easy to follow, and may help consumers to build skills how to read and use the information on a Nutrition Facts label more easily and effectively for their needs. This two page information sheet is useful, especially when a nutrition educator teaches a lay person those tricky foods labeling terms and recommends healthy alternative in his/her diet.

Rhizosphere and soil bacteria are important drivers in nearly all biochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems and participate in maintaining health and productivity of soil in agriculturally managed systems. However, the effect of agricultural management systems on bacterial communities is still poorly understood. In this study, cultural methods and advanced molecular methods (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) and 454- pyrosequencing) were used to identify shifts in soil and rhizosphere bacterial diversity, community composition, and functions under different cropping systems in Manitoba, Canada. This included monoculture vs. rotation, zero tillage vs. conventional tillage, and organic farming vs. conventional farming. Results showed that: (1) different cropping systems did not significantly influence the diversity of bacterial communities. However, a significant variation in relative abundances of bacterial communities at both the phylum and genus level was observed among different cropping systems. Compared to conventional farming systems, organic farming system had a higher percentage of the phylum Proteobacteria (many Plant Growth Promoting Rhizosbacteria) and a lower percentage of the phylum Actinobacteria. When canola monoculture was compared to wheat-oat-canola-pea rotation, a significantly higher percentage of Proteobacteria and a lower percentage of Actinobacteria were found in the rotational system. Wheat monoculture shared similar bacterial communities with wheat-oat-canola-pea rotation. Zero tillage did not change bacterial community profiles except for an increase in Firmicutes (many PGPR), compared to conventional tillage. At the genus level, significant differences were found for the dominant genera Pseudomonas, Rhizobium, Stenotrophomonas, Brevundimonas, Burkholderia, Marmoricola, Microlunatus, and Solirubrobacter. The bacterial distribution was strongly associated with soil pH. (2) The cropping systems also influenced the antibiotic-producing Pseudomonas populations determined through PCR-based screening for the detection of genes involved in the biosynthesis of antibiotics. It was found that pyrrolnitrin- and phenazine- producing Pseudomonas spp. were more prevalent in the soil under zero tillage and organic farming systems, while 2,4-DAPG and pyoluteorin-producing strains were not found in this study. This comprehensive study provided fundamental information on how different cropping systems affect soil and rhizosphere bacterial communities, which can be used to guide Manitoba farmers to choose proper farming systems to maintain soil health and increase PGPR populations in soil.

The burden of obesity-related illness, which disproportionately affects low income households and historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups, is a leading public health issue in the United States. In addition, previous research has documented differences in eating behavior and dietary intake between racial and ethnic groups, as well as between urban and rural residents. The coexistence of diet-related disparities and diet-related health conditions has therefore become a major focus of research and policy. Researchers have hypothesized that differences in eating behavior originate from differing levels of access to and affordability of healthy food options, such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Therefore, this dissertation examines the affordability of fresh produce in the Brazos Valley of Texas. This study uses information on produce prices collected by taking a census of food stores in a large regional area through the method ground-truthing. These are combined with responses to a contemporaneous health assessment survey. Key innovations include the construction of price indices based on economic theory, testing the robustness of results to different methods of price imputation, and employing spatial econometric techniques. In the first part of the analysis, I evaluate the socioeconomic and geographical factors associated with the affordability of fresh fruits and vegetables. The results based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression show that except housing values (as median value of owner-occupied units) and store type, most factors do not have significant effects on the prices for these food items. In addition, the sizes and signs of the coefficients vary greatly across items. We found that consumers who pay higher premiums for fresh produce reside in rural areas and high proportion of minorities neighborhoods. We then assess how our results are influenced by different imputation methods to account for missing prices. The results reveal that the impacts of the factors used are similar regardless of the imputation methods. Finally we investigate the presence of spatial relationships between prices at particular stores and competing stores in the neighborhoods. The spatial estimation results based on Maximum Likelihood (ML) indicate a weak spatial correlation between the prices at stores located near each others in the neighborhoods. Stores selling vegetables display a certain level of spatial autocorrelation between the prices at a particular store and its neighboring competitors. Stores selling fruits do not present such relations in the prices.

Currently, nutritional labelling is difficult to interpret and time-consuming to read. This is a major problem as many consumers are overweight and resort to eating readymade meals and snacks. These are likely to be energy-dense food and beverages that are high in fat, sugar and artificial preservatives. Simplifying nutritional labels could help stem rising obesity rates. Front-of-pack labels are a tool to help overcome this problem by providing consumers with understandable, visible information to aid them into making healthier food choices. This study expands on past research by evaluating 7 separate pre-existing, proposed and fictitious front-of-pack nutritional labels. It includes Information, Image or a combination of both Information and Image based labels. Plus No label, which is a control variable to determine the effectiveness of each label. The nutritional labels were placed on a chicken salad sandwich which was kept consistent for all 14 manipulations. The nutritional components were altered to reflect either an Unhealthy or Healthy sandwich. The design of this experiment is a 2 (nutritional level: Healthy, Unhealthy) X7 (labelling system: Traffic Light, Star, Running, Walking, Third Party, Daily Intake, Caloric, None) between subjects design. The results provide evidence of the urgent need to communicate nutritional information more effectively. Images, simplicity, colour and reliability, are determining label elements that influence consumption behaviour. The results from this study help to understand behaviours associated to labels. This study draws differences between those who partake in health behaviours and those who do not. This information could help to trigger support for a new, more effective front-of-pack labelling system to be put in place globally to guide consumers in making healthier food choices.

Ohälsosamma levnadsvanor bland barn och ungdomar är ett folkhälsoproblem. Ett av skolhälsovårdens uppdrag är att verka för sunda levnadsvanor hos eleverna. Syftet med studien var att undersöka skolhälsopersonalens upplevelser av att främja sunda levnadsvanor hos skolbarn i 6-10 års ålder vid kommunala grundskolor i Västerås Stad. En kvalitativ studiedesign valdes för att uppnå syftet. Datainsamlingen skedde genom sex individuella semistrukturerade intervjuer med skolhälsovårdens personal och en manifest innehållsanalys tillämpades för att analysera insamlad data. Resultatet visade att samverkan mellan olika aktörer mot ett gemensamt mål samt en individbaserat arbetsmetod ansågs vara centrala förutsättningar för skolhälsopersonalen för att främja sunda levnadsvanor hos elever. Ojämlik resursfördelning, brist på kompetens hos skolsköterskor samt brist på effektiva evidensbaserade arbetsstrategier identifierades som utmaningar för att uppfylla målet. I resultatet framkom även att skolhälsopersonalen upplever sin roll både som vägledande och stödjande för beteendeförändringar mot sunda levnadsvanor. Studien visade dock att dessa roller behövde förstärkas. Det behövs mer forskning för att utveckla evidensbaserad kunskap och ett evidensbaserat ramverk för att bemöta de upplevda utmaningarna inom skolhälsovårdens hälsofrämjande arbete för att främja sunda levnadsvanor hos elever. / Unhealthy lifestyles are increasing among children and this has been identified as a public health problem. School is a key setting for promoting healthy lifestyles. The school health services have an ambition to promote healthy lifestyles among pupils. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of school healthcare staff of promoting healthy lifestyles among school children 6-10 years old at the municipal primary schools in the city of Västerås. A qualitative study design was chosen and data collection took place through six individual semi-structured interviews with school healthcare staff. A content analysis was applied to analyze the collected data. The study showed that collaboration between various stakeholders towards a common goal as well as a person-centered approach were considered as main facilitators for the school healthcare staff to promote healthy lifestyles. Unequal distribution of resources, lack of knowledge and skills among school nurses and lack of practical evidence-based working strategies were considered as challenges for the school healthcare staff to promote healthy lifestyles. This study proved to be a guiding as well as a supporting role for the school healthcare staff in health behaviour changes in pupils and their families. This study, however, showed that these roles needed to be strengthened. More research is required to improve evidence-based knowledge and to develop an evidence-based framework to address the perceived challenges in school healthcare efforts towards promoting healthy lifestyles among pupils.

Rhizosphere and soil bacteria are important drivers in nearly all biochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems and participate in maintaining health and productivity of soil in agriculturally managed systems. However, the effect of agricultural management systems on bacterial communities is still poorly understood. In this study, cultural methods and advanced molecular methods (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) and 454- pyrosequencing) were used to identify shifts in soil and rhizosphere bacterial diversity, community composition, and functions under different cropping systems in Manitoba, Canada. This included monoculture vs. rotation, zero tillage vs. conventional tillage, and organic farming vs. conventional farming. Results showed that: (1) different cropping systems did not significantly influence the diversity of bacterial communities. However, a significant variation in relative abundances of bacterial communities at both the phylum and genus level was observed among different cropping systems. Compared to conventional farming systems, organic farming system had a higher percentage of the phylum Proteobacteria (many Plant Growth Promoting Rhizosbacteria) and a lower percentage of the phylum Actinobacteria. When canola monoculture was compared to wheat-oat-canola-pea rotation, a significantly higher percentage of Proteobacteria and a lower percentage of Actinobacteria were found in the rotational system. Wheat monoculture shared similar bacterial communities with wheat-oat-canola-pea rotation. Zero tillage did not change bacterial community profiles except for an increase in Firmicutes (many PGPR), compared to conventional tillage. At the genus level, significant differences were found for the dominant genera Pseudomonas, Rhizobium, Stenotrophomonas, Brevundimonas, Burkholderia, Marmoricola, Microlunatus, and Solirubrobacter. The bacterial distribution was strongly associated with soil pH. (2) The cropping systems also influenced the antibiotic-producing Pseudomonas populations determined through PCR-based screening for the detection of genes involved in the biosynthesis of antibiotics. It was found that pyrrolnitrin- and phenazine- producing Pseudomonas spp. were more prevalent in the soil under zero tillage and organic farming systems, while 2,4-DAPG and pyoluteorin-producing strains were not found in this study. This comprehensive study provided fundamental information on how different cropping systems affect soil and rhizosphere bacterial communities, which can be used to guide Manitoba farmers to choose proper farming systems to maintain soil health and increase PGPR populations in soil.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Kristin Timken, for the Master of Science degree in Food & Nutrition, presented on November 21, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PERCEPTIONS & SATISFACTION OF HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES AMONG COLLEGE-AGED FEMALES IN A SELF-SERVE DINING FACILITY SETTING MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Sara Long Roth Objective: The purpose of this study was to measure perceptions of healthy food choices and satisfaction of menu choices among members of a sorority house. Design: Three surveys were used in this experiment, two pre-tests and one post-test. Subjects and Setting: The study consisted of a self-selected sample of 38 females aged 18-23 who were living in Stein Hall. Intervention: Food and menu items were changed to incorporate healthier food items and healthier recipes along with addition of more fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains Statistical Analysis: One-way ANOVA tests were used to test for significance. Post-hoc tests were used to compare the three surveys. Results: Almost 90% of the participants reported being dissatisfied, to some extent, with menu items served at meals on the first survey. Residents' reported satisfaction of menu changes changed significantly throughout duration of the study. Conclusions: Results of this study suggest that increasing healthy foods on the menus increased reported satisfaction of meals.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-02-28Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:59:06Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 gaino_ra_me_botfm.pdf: 963780 bytes, checksum: 4229ce0ebd75ee2aeaa0f206881f5fce (MD5) / Considerando-se que a alimentação e a nutrição são aspectos fundamentais para a promoção da saúde da criança, a presente pesquisa tem por objetivo identificar a concepção da criança em idade escolar em relação à alimentação e nutrição. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, de abordagem interpretativa, na qual foram entrevistadas dezessete crianças com idade de 9 a 11 anos de uma escola municipal de Botucatu, no interior paulista, no ano de 2011. Foram realizadas duas entrevistas semi-estruturadas; questionário com questões abertas; observação participativa com uma oficina culinária, leitura e interpretação de histórias infantis e trabalho com desenhos e; diário de campo, como material para coleta de dados. As entrevistas abordaram as concepções das crianças em relação à alimentação e a nutrição. Essas foram gravadas e tiveram a duração de cerca de uma hora cada uma As transcrições foram feitas pela pesquisadora. Os dados foram apresentados de forma descritiva e as entrevistas foram interpretadas através de análise de conteúdo, sendo que emergiram dos dados empíricos cinco categorias de análise. Como resultados, esse estudo possibilitou identificar que as crianças têm noção do caminho por que passam os alimentos nos seus sistemas digestivos e percebem a digestão nas suas diferentes etapas. Além disso, aponta a presença da mãe na prática alimentar e na escolha dos cardápios. Há, ainda, preocupação com a concepção dos alimentos como promotores de saúde e também como produtores de doenças e até como sua falta ou excesso pode contribuir para o óbito. As crianças destacam as funções dos alimentos assim como seus componentes específicos e apresentam concepções adequadas sobre as qualidades especificas de alimentos considerados promotores de saúde. No entanto... / Considering that alimentation and nutrition are crucial for the child health promotion, the present work aims to identify the school-age child's conception in relation to alimentation and nutrition. This is a qualitative-interpretive approach-research in with seventeen children aged 9-11 years have been interviewed on a municipal school of Botucatu in the countryside of São Paulo in 2011. Several activities were realized as two semi-structured interviews; a questionnaire with open questions; a culinary workshop dynamic observation; children's stories reading and drawings interpretation; and work with a field journal, as material for data collection. The interviews approached the children conception about alimentation and nutrition. They were recorded and lasted approximately one hour each. The interviews approached the children conception about alimentation and nutrition. They were recorded and lasted approximately one hour each. The transcripts were made by the researcher. Data were presented descriptively and interviews were interpreted using content analysis. Five categories of analysis emerged from empirical data. As a result, this study identified that children have notion of the way the food passes in their digestive systems have the perception of digestion in its different stages. Furthermore, it indicates the presence of the mother in eating habits and choice of menus. There is also concern about the concept of food as health promoters as well as producers of disease and even as their lack or excess can contribute to death. Children highlight the roles of food as well as their specific components and have adequate conceptions about the special qualities of foods considered health promoters. However, it was revealed that they do not like foods such as vegetables and some fruits and this may be related to the habits... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

A adoção de hábitos saudáveis como a prática de atividades físicas, alimentação equilibrada, sono saudável e a cessação do tabagismo tem sido apontada como importante medida para melhorar a saúde, a qualidade de vida e facilitar a prevenção e controle de algumas doenças crônicas na população. Assim, intervenções em saúde que visam orientar e facilitar a adoção de tais hábitos são componentes importantes e necessários no planejamento de programas de promoção da saúde. Mesmo que desconsiderássemos qualquer outro benefício além do financeiro, este já seria suficiente para justificar ações voltadas para a promoção da saúde por possibilitarem otimização dos recursos materiais e humanos nas intervenções em saúde . Visando ampliar ainda mais este benefício, novas tecnologias capazes de reduzir custos e manter qualidade de atendimento têm sido pesquisadas. É neste contexto que a abordagem telefônica para promover saúde surge como uma opção. Este estudo tem a finalidade de avaliar a efetividade da abordagem telefônica na promoção da saúde. O estudo foi realizado no Centro de Promoção da Saúde da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, com 46 indivíduos. Foram feitos de 3 a 5 contatos por pessoa, por meio dos quais foram feitas orientações e intervenções baseadas nos preceitos da Terapia Cognitivo-Comportamental e do Modelo Transteórico. Os resultados mostraram que, após a intervenção, os clientes que receberam cinco contatos telefônicos, mudaram o comportamento, passando a praticar alguma atividade física com regularidade e melhorando a qualidade do sono, esta mudança foi estatisticamente significativa. Os outros comportamentos estudados não apresentaram mudança estatisticamente significativas após 3 ou 5 contatos, apesar de alguns clientes apresentarem mudanças favoráveis em seu comportamento, principalmente no grupo que recebeu 5 contatos. Concluindo, a abordagem telefônica favoreceu a adoção de hábitos saudáveis, mostrando-se, portanto, como uma estratégia de apoio favorável à promoção da saúde. / The adoption of healthy habits such as physical activities, balanced diet, healthy sleep, and the cessation of smoking have been pointed out as important measures to improve health, quality of life and further the prevention and control of some chronic diseases in our population. As such, healthy interventions aiming to guide and further the adoption of these habits are important and necessary compounds in the planning of programs dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles. Even if we do not consider any other benefit, aside from the financial benefit, this would already be enough to justify actions taken for promoting a healthy lifestyle since this could optimize material and human resources in the areas dedicated to health. Aiming to extend even more this benefit, research is being done to find new technologies capable of reducing costs and maintaining the quality of attendance. It is in this context that the telephonic approach for healthy lifestyle promotion appears as an option. This study intended to evaluate the effectiveness of the telephonic approach for healthy lifestyle promotion. This study was performed at the Healthy Lifestyle Promotion Center of the University of São Paulo Medical School, with 46 individuals. Each individual received 3 to 5 telephone calls through which guidance and interventions were made based on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Transtheoretical Model norms. The results pointed out, that after this intervention the clients, who had received 5 telephone calls, changed their behavior, They started to practice some form of regular physical activity and changed their quality of sleep, this change was statistically significant. The remaining behaviors studied showed no statistically significant changes after the 3 to 5 telephone calls, although some clients presented favorable behavior changes, principally in the group that had received the 5 telephone calls. In conclusion, the telephonic approach indeed has furthered the adoption of healthy lifestyle habits, and thus has shown to be an favourable strategy in the promotion of healthy lifestyles.

Background. Self-categorisation theory and the identity-based motivation perspective suggest that people’s motivation to engage in a particular behaviour is stronger when that behaviour is congruent with their salient social identity. In situations where a certain social identity is made salient, or where people identify strongly with a particular group, the social norm associated with that group may have a strong effect on individual behaviour. This perspective can be used to enhance the understanding of health-related intentions and behaviour. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the usefulness of adding concepts related to social identity to existing social cognitive models of healthy eating. The prediction being made is that members of groups that value healthy eating might be more likely to engage in healthy eating when their membership in that particular group is made salient. Five experimental studies tested the effect of social identity salience and group identification on healthy eating intentions and behaviour. Both intentions and behaviour were measured in each of the five studies, to allow for investigating the existence and potential causes of the intention-behaviour gap for healthy eating. Methods and Results. All five studies included random assignment of participants to conditions, and an experimental manipulation of social identity salience or social image healthiness. In Study 1 (n = 149), conducted among female university students, participants’ female, family, or personal identity was made salient. The results showed that increasing the salience of female or family identity led to stronger healthy eating intentions, but did not increase the likelihood of picking a healthy snack over an unhealthy one. Study 2 (n = 115) did not include a successful manipulation of salient social identity, but it showed a positive association between female identification, measured as a trait, and healthy eating intentions, even after controlling for attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. Study 3 (n = 156) included a manipulation of social identity salience (female or student) and a manipulation of social image healthiness (images presenting in-group members engaging in either healthy or unhealthy behaviour). The results corroborated the earlier finding that female identification is positively correlated with healthy eating intentions. Also, the results indicated that when participants were shown social images of their in-group members engaging in healthy or unhealthy behaviour, they expressed intentions in line with the social images only if they did not express strong identification with the in-group. Study 4 (n = 87) was conducted in the context of Australian identity and included a manipulation of social images healthiness. The findings provided evidence for the existence of a vicarious licensing effect for healthy eating. Namely, for participants who highly identified with their social group, exposure to pictures of other in-group members engaging in healthy behaviour resulted in choosing less healthy food items from a restaurant menu. Study 5 (n = 117) demonstrated the existence of a vicarious licensing effect in the context of female identity, where participants’ food intake during a taste test was predicted by the interaction of the social image healthiness and their group identification. Conclusions. By examining the predictors of both healthy eating intention and behaviour, the research presented in this thesis sheds light on some of the phenomena potentially underlying the intention-behaviour gap for healthy eating, particularly among women. It appears that the healthy eating norm is internalised by women and translated into healthy eating intentions, to the extent that women who identify more highly with their gender group, and those whose female identity is made temporarily salient, also express stronger healthy eating intentions. The association between female identification and healthy eating behaviour, however, appears to be much less consistent, and in most studies the correlation between healthy eating intentions and eating behaviour was poor, even though a variety of measures of behaviour was used. These findings suggest that actual eating is often not predicted by intentions, but depends on contextual factors, such as being given an opportunity to reinforce the healthy eating goal, or the availability of information about in-group members’ eating behaviour. The results also have implications for health-psychological interventions, in suggesting that people’s response to health-related content (such as social images that may be used in health promotion interventions) may be different depending on their level of group identification. In line with the vicarious licensing effect, individuals who report high levels of group identification might be less likely to respond to interventions aimed at their specific social groups.