Flavors of the city: access to regional fruit and fruit consumption in the State of Acre, Brazil

Abstract

In 2010 more than 70% of the population in the Brazilian Amazon was living in urban centers. This article looks at the effect of urbanization on market availability and consumption of regional fruits in the state of Acre. The east and west region were used as proxies for urbanization, and quantitative and qualitative methods were combined in interviews with regional fruit vendors and consumers. Open markets in large cities provided a greater variety of regional fruits for purchase, yet fruit consumption was more diverse in the less urbanized west, than in the east. This pattern reveals the importance of fruit tree diversity in home gardens and urban forested fragments, as well as of non-monetary exchanges of goods as promoters of variety in fruit consumption. Findings suggest that children may be benefiting the most from this consumption. Also, certain regional fruits have gained a 'cultural marker' status and are widely consumed regardless of the urbanization rates. Nevertheless, this article demonstrates how urbanization affects the diversity of fruit consumption in different social groups, and how this process is mediated by access, income level, and health concerns.

Mothers' food choices and consumption of ultra-processed foods in the Brazilian Amazon: A grounded theory study

“…Given that food choices are highly affected by context, it seems relevant to approach the phenomenon from a region going through changes in the food system associated with greater UPF consumption, while still maintaining a strong traditional food culture, as in Amazonian settings. The region has been experiencing a nutrition transition, with increasing rates of obesity (Braz, Duarte & Tauil, 2012) and other nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (Lourenço, Gimeno & Cardoso, 2014), and has gone through an intense process of urbanization in the 1960s and 1970s (Lima, 2014). In this paper we aimed to understand the factors promoting UPF choices and consumption among mothers living in this urban context in the Brazilian Amazon, and to present a conceptual model grounded on their experiences and perceptions that illustrates the relations and dynamics between the observed factors.…”

Signs and strategies to deal with food insecurity and consumption of ultra-processed foods among Amazonian mothers

“…Gender health inequalities have been described by several studies (Chibber et al, 2018), however, despite the central role that women often have in ensuring the food security of the household, little attention has been paid to their own food (in)security experiences (Broussard, 2019). Also, studying how the dynamics between food insecurity and UPF consumption within a recently urbanized setting in which food traditions are still strong and co-exist with a fast increase of UPF availability (Lima, 2014) might be very elucidating to understand the above-described changes in food consumption.…”

Café da manhã : aspectos nutricionais e culturais entre frequentadores adultos de restaurantes populares do Brasil

“…Para alguns autores (LIMA, 2014;, certas frutas possuem status de marcador cultural por serem amplamente consumidas, e são reconhecidas, juntamente com as hortaliças, o feijão e o peixe, como marcadores de um padrão saudável de alimentação . Considerando que o Brasil é o terceiro maior produtor mundial de frutas, com uma produção de 40 milhões de toneladas ao ano (FACHINELLO et al, 2011), não deveria haver obstáculos para que as frutas representassem um marcador de identidade cultural no Brasil.…”