Using Collective Lifestyles to Study Food Preparation and Food Security in LowIncome Women in Montre

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Using Collective Lifestyles to Study Food
Preparation and Food Security in Low-Income Women
in Montreal, Canada

• Rachel Engler-Stringer, PhD, Postdoctoral
  Researcher

Chaire Approches communautaires et Inégalités de
santé FCRSS/IRSC
2
Background

• Empirically gathered knowledge about domestic
  cooking... is scant and lacks theoretical
  perspective. The concept of cooking skills is
  rarely defined and usually interpreted as a
  straightforward set of practical techniques or
  tasks. (Short, 2003).
• Research on this subject is lacking, but there
  are increasing mentions of  cooking deskilling 
  in scientific literature and in documents
  produced by community organisations (Jaffe
  Gertler, 2006).
• The terms associated with cooking are not
  universally understood so it is difficult to
  interpret participants responses when they are
  asked how much they cook from basic
  ingredients(Short, 2003).

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The CL Framework(Frohlich, Corin Potvin, 2001
Frohlich Potvin, 1999 Frohlich, Potvin, Chabot
Corin, 2002)

• Use of the term lifestyle in the health
  literature has come to mean daily discrete and
  unrelated behaviours removed from context.
• CL attempts to bring context back into health
  research on behaviours (Frohlich Potvin, 1999).
  A collective lifestyle is not just the
  behaviours that people engage in, but rather the
  relationship between peoples social conditions
  and their behaviours. (p. S13)
• Brings social structure, social practices and
  agency together to explain how health outcomes
  become differentially distributed.

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Purpose of the CL Framework

• To study health behaviour in context
• Limitations of behavioural models generally look
  at food-related behaviour without examining the
  context in which they occur. How can we hope to
  change behaviour if we do not address the
  contexts in which people live?

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Research Methods

• Began in the fall of 2005
• Participatory research project - a special
  research team.
• Planning meetings November 2005 - January 2006
  (studied the topic, developped research
  questions, chose data collection methods - focus
  groups, photography of meals, questionnaire)
• Training in focus group moderation
• March, 2006 - 5 focus groups moderated by
  research team members and sent cameras home with
  participants.

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Research Methods

• Current step - analysis of qualitative data from
  focus groups and photographs
• Future steps - develop and administer a
  questionnaire with the help of the results from
  the first stage of the study (July - November,
  2006)

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Some Preliminary Results

• 22 participants in 5 focus groups
• 21 participants took photos of their meals for
  three days.
• The young (18-35 year old) women who agreed to
  participate in the study are likely not
  representative of the general population - they
  likely have more of a tendency to enjoy cooking
  and so likely to cook more than the general
  population.
• All of the focus group quotes are translated from
  French.

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Preliminary Results Grocery Shopping

• Have mental hierarchy of best to worst stores
• Focus on getting the best prices - aware of
  prices at each type of market and supermarket
• Shopping at several stores on a regular basis
• Stores located as far as 20-30 minutes away from
  their homes (most often by bus or on foot)
• Generally purchased the same foods each time they
  shop plus specials
• so I go to one place and then another, and
  sometimes I can run to five places in one week.
  But its really one specific thing at each
  store.
• I always do my shopping at the same places and
  I always buy basically the same things. Depending
  on specials and things that change.

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Preliminary Results Learning

• Mothers (in some cases fathers or grandparents)
  were the most often stated kitchen role models -
  people they watched cook and learned from
  observation
• Werent sure where they learned cooking but
  guessed parents and school, felt that the
  information was around
• Some did not have parents who taught them to cook
  or they felt that their parents did not cook well
  or cooked unhealthy food and wanted to cook
  differently
• Internet an important source of recipes and
  learning about cooking particular foods
• Lack of knowledge of basics soup, gravies,
  sauces
• I dont know, I feel like I have always known
  how to cook (laughs). I feel like that.
• Well my mother made more basic things -
  shepherds pie, spaghetti, all that. My father,
  he was all or nothing either he made chicken
  brochettes that had been marinated for, well or
  grilled cheese sandwiches. So I learned all three
  basics. I tried to eliminate the grilled cheeses
  and the hot dogs to keep more the middle and from
  time to time make the more elaborate.

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Preliminary Results Day-to-Day Cooking

• Lack of motivation to cook an issue
• R I always want to buy food and cook it, but it
  seems like once I have bought everything I eat it
  all raw I no longer feel like cooking it. Its
  not all alone, I dont like it really...
• R Cooking only for myself, I have never liked
  it.
• R The TV is a great friend of the meal.
• R Yes, its my only link.
• Pasta described as cheap and versatile - most
  commonly cooked food (includes Lipton SideKicks
  and Kraft Dinner)
• R Pasta
• Q Pasta also. Okay. How often do you cook these
  meals?
• R For me its not every day but almost. Like
  macaroni with tuna, macaroni with meat sauce, a
  lasagna, spaghetti But I try to include meat and
  vegetables, not just pasta
• Expressed not seeing the utility in cooking from
  scratch and that they prefer to cook foods that
  come with directions on the package or on the
  box
• I always take something quickly prepared with
  instructions written on it. Well most of the time
  its things I already know how to make. Either
  its written on the box or its things I really
  know how to make. A spaghetti sauce, shepherds
  pie, like that

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Preliminary Results Health

• Named varied and specific issues considered
• Descriptions of guilt when do not eat healthy
• For me its vegetables because I dont have them
  very often. When I have them I use them, but when
  I dont have them - you feel guilty for not
  having enough vegetables (laughs). I use cans but
  its not the same. I feel guilty. But for fat,
  things like that, not really. I have been
  obsessed with that before. I make what I like and
  its good.
• Had their own food rules (specific foods they
  said eat or dont eat)
• ... I dont buy anything with Aspartame, that
  kind of stuffWe dont eat too many things made
  with bad stuff, but I dont like them. But its
  true that I eat some anyway. Kraft Dinner is
  good.

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Preliminary Results Others Perceptions

• Very conscious of perceptions of others
• me I dont eat them, but my boyfriend eats a
  bag of chips a day. Its really terrible what he
  eats. So in my shopping cart there are four bags
  of chips because otherwise he will go out and buy
  more anyway. So people look at me like she eats
  chips and ice cream and she doesnt care. Then
  they look at my son like poor little guy, you
  are going to get fat.(laughs).
• girls are supposed to know how to make food
  its like we have a difficult time with food
  sometimes. People judge us if we dont eat or
  dont cook well.
• R They think that we stuff ourselves with junk -
  in my opinion thats how people see us. That we
  dont eat healthy, we dont pay attention to what
  we eat.
• Q Why do you think that?
• R Because lots of low-income people are obese.
  They have weight problems because they eat too
  much fat. We cant buy really healthy food
  because healthy food is usually, its usually
  pretty expensive. Its true that we will buy
  things of lower quality like instead of buying
  lean ground beef we are going to buy medium
  ground beef. The lean we wont buy - its too
  expensive.

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Preliminary Results Food Insecurity

• When money runs out use food banks and other
  services
• Describe leaving out certain types of food
  (cheese) to make groceries cheaper
• Sacrifice for adults to feed child
• Very aware of how much they spend on groceries
• Lots of contradiction
• the restriction for her is health, that she has
  everything, and for us that the little money we
  have left is for pleasure. We always try to have
  something for pleasure... Its not true that
  because we dont have much money we always eat
  peanut butter - we work it out.
• there are times in the month when I dont eat
  much anymore, and I am looking closely at what I
  have left. But I try really hard to have lots.
  Otherwise there are plenty of of organizations,
  lots of stuff.

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Examples of Meal Photos
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Conclusions - Collective Lifestyles

• Useful for conceptualizing the collective and
  context-based character of food practices.
• Point of entry for health sciences trained
  researchers into social sciences contributions
  to understanding.
• Difficult to use social theory without training.

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Thank You

• Louise Potvin (academic supervisor)
• Lise Bertrand (decision-maker supervisor)
• Patricia, Néné, Maryse and Geneviève (research
  team)
• Table de concertation sur la faim et le
  développement social du Montréal métropolitain
• Katherine Frohlich, Treena Delormier and Sherri
  Bisset

• Lea Roback Centre for Research on Social Health
  Inequalities in Montréal (research funding)
• Canadian Health Services Research Foundation
  (postdoctoral fellowship)