Perspectives in practice
An examination of at-home food preparation activity among low-income, food-insecure women

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Abstract

A secondary analysis of data from a study of nutritional vulnerability among 153 women in families seeking charitable food assistance was undertaken to estimate the extent and nutritional significance of at-home food preparation activity for these women. At-home food preparation was estimated from women’s reported food intakes from three 24-hour recalls. The relationships between food preparation and energy and nutrient intake, food intake, and 30-day household food security status were characterized. Almost all participants (97%) consumed foods prepared from scratch at least once during the three days of observation; 57% did so each day. Both the frequency and complexity of at-home food preparation were positively related to women’s energy and nutrient intakes and their consumption of fruits and vegetables, grain products, and meat and alternates. The intakes by women in households with food insecurity with hunger reflected less complex food preparation but no less preparation from scratch than women in households where hunger was not evident, raising questions about the extent to which food skills can protect very poor families from food insecurity and hunger. Our findings indicate the need for nutrition professionals to become effective advocates for policy reforms to lessen economic constraints on poor households.

Section snippets

Description of data

Data were drawn from a 1996–1997 study of food insecurity and nutritional vulnerability among women using charitable food assistance programs in Toronto 31, 32. Participants were recruited on a “first come, first served” basis from a stratified, random sample of 21 food assistance programs. Eligible women were 19 to 49 years of age, not pregnant, had at least one child younger than 15 years in their household, had used a food assistance program at least one other time in the past 12 months, and

Application of method to estimate food preparation

The predictive equation was first applied to estimate preparation at each eating occasion. Eating occasions that did not include any home-prepared foods were assigned a score of zero. For each participant, the preparation scores assigned to all reported eating occasions were summed over each 24-hour recall period, and two summary measures were constructed: food preparation complexity and the frequency of food preparation from scratch. Food preparation complexity was represented by the mean of

Statistical analyses of relationships between food preparation and other variables

Least-squares regression was used to examine the relationships between food preparation complexity or frequency of preparation from scratch and women’s 3-day mean intakes of energy, macronutrients, vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, iron, magnesium, zinc, and calcium, as well as 3-day mean numbers of servings from each food group. The micronutrients examined were those for which there was some evidence of inadequacy in the sample (31).

The relationship between at-home food preparation and dietary

Food preparation activity

During the 3 days of data collection, 97% of participants consumed foods prepared from scratch at least once. More than half (57%) consumed foods prepared from scratch on all 3 days; 26% did so on 2 days, and 14% did so on 1 day. Participants’ 3-day mean complexity scores ranged from 0 to 100 (mean score 32.8±15.9). The observed distributions of 3-day mean complexity scores and frequency of preparation from scratch are summarized in Table 1. There was a strong, positive correlation between the

Discussion

The high levels of at-home food preparation reflected in women’s dietary intakes are consistent with other research documenting the skill and resourcefulness of low-income families 25, 26, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51. These findings challenge the stereotypical notions that families in poverty lack the skill or motivation to cook foods from scratch, but also raise questions about the extent to which food skills can protect very-low-income families from food insecurity. We did not find a

Applications

■In planning intervention programs for low-income women with children, it is important for nutrition professionals to recognize the skills and resourcefulness that already exist in these households and the limited extent to which food skills can compensate for income inadequacies. Undoubtedly there are particular subgroups who could benefit from education interventions, but our research and that of others (52) suggest that food skills alone are unlikely to protect very poor families from hunger

C. McLaughlin was with the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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  • Cited by (0)

    C. McLaughlin was with the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

    V. Tarasuk is with the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, On-tario, Canada

    N. Kreiger are with the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. N. Kreiger is also with Cancer Care Ontario, Toronto.

    This research project was funded by a grant from the Danone Institute of Canada.

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