Ecology of Food and Nutrition (EFN) promotes scholarly discussion and engagement on the holistic and cross-cultural dimensions of the study of food and nutrition. Articles published in this journal focus on foods and food systems not only in terms of their utilization to satisfy human nutritional needs and health, but also how social and cultural factors relate to food, food cultures, and nutrition. Only a handful of journals publish articles that explicitly address the intersections of food and nutrition, biology and culture, and policy and practice from a holistic and global perspective. It is this kind of scholarship that EFN seeks to promote. This issue of EFN includes seven articles based on scholarly research conducted in Ethiopia, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States of America. The articles focus on several unique issues related to infant feeding practices, household strategies during times of food insecurity, school-based nutrition education intervention, and orthorexia nervosa.
The article by Deubel et al. presents the results of a qualitative study exploring beliefs and practices of breastfeeding among African American women receiving care at a publicly funded clinic and delivering in an associated urban hospital in Tampa, Florida. The authors examine the interpersonal, sociocultural, and institutional barriers to breastfeeding. The results highlight some of the challenges faced by women, including lack of maternity leave, social pressures to start formula feeding, absence of breastfeeding role models and limited support network. Based on their findings, the authors recommend that efforts to increase breastfeeding by African American women must be culturally appropriate and address underlying personal, socioeconomic, and structural barriers.
Based on an in-depth qualitative study to understand facilitators and barriers to food security, Khakpour and colleagues report elevated levels of hunger and food insecurity in Afghan refugee households in Karachi, Pakistan. The results of this study suggest that the length of the residence and the level of integration into the host country’s culture do not have a significant impact on the level of food insecurity among Afghan refugees. The authors recommend that aid organizations involved in repatriation of Afghan refugees should be aware of the challenges of chronic food insecurity and the associated health complications.
The article by Sang-ngoen and colleagues presents the results of a cross-sectional study examining the relationshp between natural environment or setting and consumption and accessibility of food in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand. The authors collected data on 128 women (65 hill tribe setting and 63 urban setting) using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The authors argue that education and income gaps may, in part, explain differences in food consumption patterns among ethnic groups in Thailand. These results could potentially inform the reported health disparities among ethnic groups in Thailand and have wider ramifications for implementing strategies to promote healthy eating and living.
The article by Dansa et al. presents the findings of an evaluative study of an school-based nutrition education intervention to combat undernutrition by improving consumption of lentils among adolescent girls (n = 66) in Ethiopia. The researchers adopted a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the nutrition education intervention among 11–19-year-old adolescent girls attending schools in the Halabe Special District in southern Ethiopia. The results of this study show a less diversified diet of adolescent girls with little consumption of lentils. The authors suggest that school-based nutrition education and intervention programs should promote dietary diversity by enhancing lentil consumption.
The article by Acik and Cakiroglu reports the results of an innovative study aimed at understanding the relationship between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and depression among 134 women university students in Ankara province, Turkey. The researchers collected data using diverse yet complementary methods, including structured questionnaire, anthropometric measurements, physical activity record, depression scale, and 3-day food intake recall. The results of this study show that a higher DII – an indicator of pro-inflammatory diet – is associated with an increased risk of depression. The authors conclude by reinforcing the importance of further investigating the complex relationship between diet quality and depression among youth.
Drysdale and colleagues present the results of a study comparing food preferences and consumption practices in rural and urban households especially in times of food scarcity in iLembe, South Africa. The authors adopted a cross-sectional study design using household surveys to collect information on 376 households (229 rural and 147 urban). The results of the study suggest that, in contrast to urban households, rural households have better access to or reliance on natural resources. Furthermore, the authors discuss the importance of geographic location and the availability of natural resources as key factors for planning and implementing future interventions efforts to reduce household food insecurity.
Finally, the article by Akturk et al. presents the results of a study aimed at determining the level of orthorexia nervosa among nursing students. The authors used socio-economic indicators, BMI scale, and orthorexia nervosa scale to collect data on a large sample (N = 558) of nursing students studying at the Faculty of Nursing, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey. The results suggest that 73.5% of the nursing students showed signs of orthorexia nervosa. The key risk factors associated with orthorexia nervosa among nursing students included lack of satisfaction with body weight and limited food consumption.