Food democracy, health disparities and the New York City trans fat policy

Abstract

Objective:To investigate food democracy and health disparities in the New York City (NYC) trans fat policy process.Design:Texts from semi-structured interviews, public testimony and comments on the policy were analysed using categorization and thematic coding. A priori content analysis for themes of food democracy was followed by open, axial and selective coding for sub-themes on health disparities. Data and method triangulation and respondent validation were used to establish data dependability, trustworthiness and representativeness.Setting:NYC.Participants:Interviews from a purposive, snowballed sample of thirty-three participants included restaurateurs, scientists, health and consumer advocates, consumers and policy makers. Additionally, 261 pages of transcript from public testimony of fifty-three participants and a purposive sample of public comments on the policy from a pool of 2157 were analysed.Results:Principles of food democracy involving inclusive citizenship, access to information, collaborative participation and focus on collective good were well represented in the data. Additionally, sub-themes linked to health disparities included: government responsibility for fairer access to healthier foods; recognition that people made choices based on circumstances; concern for vulnerable groups; and outrage with a food industry viewed as unconcerned for public health.Conclusions:Principles of food democracy present in the successful process of adoption of the 2006 NYC trans fat policy addressed nutrition-related health. Food democracy is a contemporary food system and policy approach with potential for public health benefits in reducing nutrition-related health disparities.

Food security status and cardiometabolic health by sex/gender and race/ethnicity among adults in the United States

“…Policies that help grant access (e.g., food trucks with produce) and reduce the cost of healthier food options in low-income communities may be a way to afford and ultimately purchase healthy food options that may exist in their neighborhoods but otherwise are unaffordable. Additionally, future policies seeking to take a harm reduction (strategies that seek to minimize the unfavorable effects of health behaviors) approach should focus on limiting serving sizes of energy-dense, low nutrient items in a non-punitive way [50]. Such approaches may be promising for combating food insecurity disparities among racially/ethnically minoritized groups, despite cohabitating with food swamps.…”