Background: Food insecurity (FI) in children is linked with adverse health outcomes, particularly among Latinx youth. Study aims were twofold: (a) to assess the effect of the intervention on FI and ...(b) to evaluate if changes in FI are associated with changes in children's adiposity and cardiometabolic measures. Methods: The TX Sprouts randomized controlled trial tested the effects of a school-based gardening, nutrition, and cooking intervention in 16 elementary schools serving primarily low-income Hispanic families. Schools were randomly assigned to TX Sprouts (n = 8) or delayed intervention (control; n = 8). The following were collected at baseline and eight-months: household and child-reported FI via surveys, adiposity (BMI parameters and percent body fat) via anthropometry and bioelectrical impedance, and cardiometabolic measures (lipid panel, HbA1c and glucose) via fasting blood sample. Generalized weighted linear mixed models examined intervention effects on FI, accounting for clustering by school. Multivariable regressions assessed the relationship between changes in FI with changes in adiposity and cardiometabolic measures, adjusting for intervention, age, sex, ethnicity/ race, BMI-z score, free/reduced lunch eligibility and the respective baseline measure. Results: The analytic sample included 417 children with complete data. Change in FI was grouped as: secure to secure (n = 285), insecure to insecure (n = 49), secure to insecure (n = 61) and insecure to secure (n = 22). There was no intervention effect on change in FI. Independent of the intervention, children who became food secure had significant increases in HDL-cholesterol (ß = 1.62, p = 0.047) and significant decreases in triglycerides (ß = 14.47, p = 0.035) compared to those who stayed food insecure. Change in FI was not related to changes in adiposity or other cardiometabolic markers. Conclusions: Improvements in food security were associated with favorable changes in cardiometabolic markers, independent of intervention.
Background: Weight regain occurs in 1/3 of those achieving successful weight loss, which is often attributed to non-adherence to lifestyle interventions. Psychosocial factors, like negative affect, ...and food insecurity (FI) through episodic overeating have been proposed to impede long-term weight loss. To date, these variables have not been investigated in conjunction with dietary adherence; given the literature gap we examined the role of affect and FI on dietary adherence. Methods: Fifty participants (19 m; 49 ± 14 y; BMI = 30 ± 8) completed a 6-week outpatient dietary study including BMI measures and the USDA Household Food Security Form. Twice daily ecological momentary assessments captured real-time affect ratings and adherence. Between-person (trait-level; between participant's overall score relative to the mean score across all participants) and lagged within-person (whether each person's current affect ratings impacted future adherence) scores were calculated. Higher adherence scores (range = 0-3) denoted greater adherence. Results: Greater FI and trait-1 evel negative affect was associated with reduced adherence (p = 0.002, p < 0.0001 respectively). Higher levels of trait-level positive affect were associated with greater adherence (p < 0.0001). Negative or positive affect (lagged-within) did not predict subsequent adherence. Significant interactions between affect and FI revealed an association between higher negative affect (lagged-within) and decreased adherence only observed at low levels of FI (p = 0.04), and an association between higher negative affect (between) with decreased adherence, strengthened at greater levels of FI (-1 SD: B = -0.34, p = 0.0483; Mean: B = -0.57, p < 0.0001; +1 SD: B = -0.80, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Trait-level affect may be more crucial for measures of momentary adherence but FI modified the relationship between negative affect and short-term adherence. Stable traits compared to momentary changes in affect may have disparate longer and shorter-term effects on overall dietary adherence.
Lack of humanitarian action during early stages of acute food insecurity takes a heavy toll
Lack of humanitarian action during early stages of acute food insecurity takes a heavy toll
The issue of biofuels has already been much debated, but the focus to date has largely been on Latin America and deforestation - this highly original work breaks fresh ground in looking at the ...African perspective. Most African governments see biofuels as having the potential to increase agricultural productivity and export incomes and thus strengthen their national economies, improving energy balances and rural employment. At the same time climate change may be addressed through reduction of green house gas emissions. There are, however, a number of uncertainties mounting that challenge this scenario. Using cutting-edge empirical case studies, this knowledge gap is addressed in a variety of chapters examining the effects of large-scale biofuel production on African agriculture. In particular, 'land grabbing' and food security issues are scrutinised, both of which have become vital topics in regard to the environmental and developmental governance of African countries. A revealing book for anyone wishing to understand the startling impact of biofuels and land grabbing on Africa.
Food is fundamental to health and social participation, yet food poverty has increased in the global North. Adopting a realist ontology and taking a comparative case approach, Families and Food in ...Hard Times addresses the global problem of economic retrenchment and how those most affected are those with the least resources. Based on research carried out with low-income families with children aged 11-15, this timely book examines food poverty in the UK, Portugal and Norway in the decade following the 2008 financial crisis. It examines the resources to which families have access in relation to public policies, local institutions and kinship and friendship networks, and how they intersect. Through ‘thick description’ of families’ everyday lives, it explores the ways in which low income impacts upon practices of household food provisioning, the types of formal and informal support on which families draw to get by, the provision and role of school meals in children’s lives, and the constraints upon families’ social participation involving food. Providing extensive and intensive knowledge concerning the conditions and experiences of low-income parents as they endeavour to feed their families, as well as children’s perspectives of food and eating in the context of low income, the book also draws on the European social science literature on food and families to shed light on the causes and consequences of food poverty in austerity Europe.
The cover image is based on the Special Issue Parasites and the Microbiota. Cover image: Worm; Trichinella spiralis, David Linstead; Obtained from wellcomecollection.org Cover image: Bacteria; ...Proteus, SEM, David Gregory & Debbie Marshall; Obtained from: wellcomecollection.org Cover image: Food; “Africa Food Security 12 (10665035905)” by Kate Holt/AusAID; Obtained from: commons.wikimedia.org
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