Lay Understandings of Functional Foods as Hybrids of Food and Medicine

Jauho, Mikko; Niva, Mari

doi:10.2752/175174413x13500468045362

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…While some such articles focused on the benefit of empowerment through facilitating choice, others promoted supplements based other values deemed attractive to consumers, such as fashion: “Take the new supplement everyone is talking about! Resveratrol, an antioxidant plant extract, is set to become the pill of 2011.” UK Magazine This tendency to de-emphasise a product’s original function in favour of other desirable qualities such as newness, naturalness and exclusivity when health benefit claims were prohibited echoes Jauho and Niva’s comments on functional foods [65]. Romanian newspaper articles went furthest in combining promises of health benefits with other desirable qualities. “Absolutely natural diet, the fastest and most famous for immediate weight loss without a prescription (for people in a hurry).” Romanian Newspaper These articles focused on healthiness less as a benefit in itself and more as part of a desirable lifestyle encompassing naturalness, empowerment and convenience.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herbal supplements in the print media: communicating benefits and risks

Peacock

Badea

Bruno

et al. 2019

BMC Complement Altern Med

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Background The rise in use of food supplements based on botanical ingredients (herbal supplements) is depicted as part of a trend empowering consumers to manage their day-to-day health needs, which presupposes access to clear and accurate information to make effective choices. Evidence regarding herbal supplement efficacy is extremely variable so recent regulations eliminating unsubstantiated claims about potential effects leave producers able to provide very little information about their products. Medical practitioners are rarely educated about herbal supplements and most users learn about them via word-of-mouth, allowing dangerous misconceptions to thrive, chief among them the assumption that natural products are inherently safe. Print media is prolific among the information channels still able to freely discuss herbal supplements. Method This study thematically analyses how 76 newspaper/magazine articles from the UK, Romania and Italy portray the potential risks and benefits of herbal supplements. Results Most articles referenced both risks and benefits and were factually accurate but often lacked context and impartiality. More telling was how the risks and benefits were framed in service of a chosen narrative, the paucity of authoritative information allowing journalists leeway to recontextualise herbal supplements in ways that serviced the goals and values of their specific publications and readerships. Conclusion Providing sufficient information to empower consumers should not be the responsibility of print media, instead an accessible source of objective information is required.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herbal supplements in the print media: communicating benefits and risks

Peacock

Badea

Bruno

et al. 2019

BMC Complement Altern Med

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“…Lack of consensus between lay population and public health professionals is common [ 23 24 ]. Understanding of lay people's views dramatically improved the effectiveness of health advices and interventions [ 25 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions and practices of commensality and solo-eating among Korean and Japanese university students: A cross-cultural analysis

Cho

Takeda

et al. 2015

Nutr Res Pract

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BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVESCommensality, eating together with others, is a major representation of human sociality. In recent time, environments around commensality have changed significantly due to rapid social changes, and the decline of commensality is perceived as a serious concern in many modern societies. This study employs a cross-cultural analysis of university students in two East Asian countries, and examines cross-cultural variations of perceptions and actual practices of commensality and solo-eating.SUBJECTS/METHODSThe analysis was drawn from a free-list survey and a self-administrative questionnaires of university students in urban Korea and Japan. The free-listing survey was conducted with a small cohort to explore common images and meanings of commensality and solo-eating. The self-administrative questionnaire was developed based on the result of the free-list survey, and conducted with a larger cohort to examine reasons and problems of practices and associated behaviors and food intake.RESULTSWe found that Korean subjects tended to show stronger associations between solo-eating and negative emotions while the Japanese subjects expressed mixed emotions towards the practice of solo-eating. In the questionnaire, more Korean students reported they prefer commensality and tend to eat more quantities when they eat commensally. In contrast, more Japanese reported that they do not have preference on commensality and there is no notable difference in food quantities when they eat commensally and alone. Compared to the general Korean cohort finding, more proportion of overweight and obese groups of Korean subjects reported that they tend to eat more when they are alone than normal and underweight groups. This difference was not found in the overweight Japanese subjects.CONCLUSIONOur study revealed cross-cultural variations of perceptions and practices of commensality and solo-eating in a non-western setting.

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“…Functional foods are similar to conventional food but additionally offer health benefits, such as risk reduction, prevention, or even treatment of diseases (Kim, ; Mark‐Herbert, ). However, big pharmaceutical companies were not successful in marketing and distributing functional foods and other related products as the material properties of the carriers (e.g., yoghurt and spread) were associated more with the image of food than with drugs (Jauho & Niva, ; Lu, ). The limited reference to food in the object of pharma's activity (contradiction between instrument [image] and objective), as well as the absence of a concrete regulatory regime usually associated with drugs (Wong, Lai, & Chan, ; new contradiction between objective and rules), blared the image of these “pharmaceutical” products, and contributed to their failure.…”

Section: The Evolution Of the Food Sociotechnical System And The Emermentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity‐based analysis of sociotechnical change

Adamides

2019

Syst Res Behav Sci

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In this paper, we introduce activity‐based analysis (ABA) for explaining and learning about sociotechnical system change at the societal function level. The analysis is based on a novel conceptualization of sociotechnical systems as activity systems, and change as result of the resolution of contradictions that develop within and between activities carried out for the fulfilment of societal functions. We develop ABA for the specific domain and employ it in the construction of a narrative explanation of the evolution of the food/nutrition sociotechnical system from the institutionalization of processed food to the emergence of medical nutrition.

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Lay Understandings of Functional Foods as Hybrids of Food and Medicine

Cited by 17 publications

References 42 publications

Herbal supplements in the print media: communicating benefits and risks

Herbal supplements in the print media: communicating benefits and risks

Perceptions and practices of commensality and solo-eating among Korean and Japanese university students: A cross-cultural analysis

Activity‐based analysis of sociotechnical change

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