Women's Dietary Intakes in the Context of Household Food Insecurity

Abstract

A study of food insecurity and nutritional adequacy was conducted with a sample of 153 women in families receiving emergency food assistance in Toronto, Canada. Contemporaneous data on dietary intake and household food security over the past 30 d were available for 145 of the women. Analyses of these data revealed that women who reported hunger in their households during the past 30 d also reported systematically lower intakes of energy and a number of nutrients. The effect of household-level hunger on intake persisted even when other economic, socio-cultural, and behavioral influences on reported dietary intake were considered. Estimated prevalences of inadequacy in excess of 15% were noted for Vitamin A, folate, iron, and magnesium in this sample, suggesting that the low levels of intake associated with severe household food insecurity are in a range that could put women at risk of nutrient deficiencies. J. Nutr. 129: 672-679, 1999.Food insecurity, "the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways" (Anderson 1990), has become a matter of increasing concern among western nations in recent years. The assessment of this construct typically occurs through self-reported appraisals of the adequacy and security of the household food supply and individuals' accounts of their experiences of food deprivation. However, an understanding of the relationship between household or individual-level food insecurity and dietary adequacy is imperative in appraising the consequences of food insecurity for nutritional health and well-being. Some indication that perceived adequacy of the household food supply is related to individual members' dietary intakes has come from observed associations between household food sufficiency status and dietary intake data (Cristofar and Basiotis 1992, Rose and Oliveira 1997) and between household food security status and the available household food supply (Kendall et al. 1995) and dietary intake (Kendall et al. 1996).A study undertaken to assess food insecurity and nutritional adequacy among women in families who seek emergency food relief (Tarasuk and Beaton, unpublished data) provided an opportunity to examine the relationship between women's dietary intakes and a comprehensive, contemporaneous measure of household food security status. In this paper, women's intakes are examined in relation to reported household food security status and presence or absence of hunger in the household. To examine whether the women's intakes were in a range that suggested possible nutritional problems, the apparent prevalence of nutrient inadequacy was estimated. METHODSParticipant recruitment and data collection. Participants were recruited on a first come, first served basis when they came to seek food assistance at one of a stratified random sample of 21 of the 77 emergency food hamper programs operating in Metropolitan Toronto. (These are ad hoc, community-based, charitable food prog...

Obesity and household food insecurity: evidence from a sample of rural households in Malaysia

“…In our study, whether consumption of higher-energy dense foods in combination with more time spent in physically less vigorous activities (domestic and leisure activities) and physical limitations is associated with household food insecurity and thus contributes to overweight and obesity requires further examination. Several studies have shown that the diets of women reporting household food insecurity or food insufficiency were not only inadequate in nutrient and food variety, but also in calorie (Kendall et al, 1996;Rose & Oliveira, 1997;Tarasuk & Beaton, 1999;Rose, 1999;Dixon et al, 2001). In the present study, none of the energy, nutrient or food group intakes was significantly different among the food-secure and food-insecure groups; however, the food variety score as an indicator of dietary diversity was highest in the foodsecure group than all of the food-insecure groups.…”

Diet Quality Varies by Race/Ethnicity of Head Start Mothers

“…Energy intakes overall were similar to those reported by mothers the same age in Canada seeking food assistance (34) and in data from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes of Individuals (12), but 150 to 200 kcal less than those reported by women in a national survey (35) and 400 kcal less than those reported in another regional survey of African-American and white adults in southern states (36). In our study, the energy intakes of the Hispanic women were both significantly higher than those of the other ethnic groups and similar to those from national survey data (8).…”

Coping and the biosocial consequences of food insecurity in the 21st century

“…Because food insecurity results in shifts or alterations to one's diet in both high income (Rose, 1999;Tarasuk and Beaton, 1999;Dixon et al, 2000;Lee and Frongillo, 2001;Zizza et al, 2008) and low-income settings (MelgarQuinonez et al, 2006;Hadley et al, 2007;Knueppel et al, 2010) many have explored the potential relationship between food insecurity and measures of undernutrition and overnutrition, including overweight and obesity. The results of this work highlight the variation in the relationship between measures of food insecurity and measures of nutritional wellbeing.…”