Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Why do teenage girls diet? This is a far more complex question than it initially seems. Even the most obvious answer, to lose weight, is not always correct. Adolescent dieting is not solely about managing weight; it is a gendered social behavior that is associated with social status, peer esteem, and ego gratification among young women. In this paper, I examine dieting among adolescent girls and young adults. I present a theoretical framework for understanding dieting and status that takes in to account context-specific patterns. From this framework, I present a series of models predicting dieting as an outcome related to social roles, status, and female physical development during adolescence. I find that dieting is less common among adolescent girls who have alternative pathways to status, but this relationship does not persist in to adulthood once a woman leaves high school or college. I also find that the peer-centered environment of college prolongs adolescent dieting patterns.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study was designed to better understand how diet websites function on the web. Even though websites have become an essential component of the weight loss related non-profit organizations and commercial business entities, very little academic attention has been given to the analysis of diet websites.
Among a total 890 available diet websites, randomly sampled 151 diet websites were content analyzed. To evaluate website efficiency and diet information composition, three categories of websites (information/infomercial/commercial websites) and six main components of diet websites (commercial information, commercial transaction, non-commercial information, navigation structures, interactive, and presentation style) were developed.
Content analysis results suggested that Infomercial diet website is a leading major form of diet websites followed by commercial and information diet websites. Also, categorical differences exist in diet website composition.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The FDA Health and Diet Survey: A Data Resource

Contact Person: Linda A. Verrill, Ph.D., U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center For Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Office of Scientific Analysis and Support, Consumer Studies, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD 20740-3835; phone (301) 436-1765; fax (301) 436-2626; email lverrill@cfsan.fda.gov.

The Health and Diet Survey is a single-stage, random-digit-dialing telephone survey conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It was administered in the fall of 2002 to a total of 2,743 non-institutionalized adult respondents in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The purpose of the survey was to track and gather new information on consumer awareness, attitudes and practices related to health and diet issues. In particular, the survey focused on foods and dietary supplements, two categories of the consumer products regulated by the FDA. On diet and health, the survey asked about (1) awareness of the relationship between diet and diseases (cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure), (2) knowledge of fats and cholesterol, (3) knowledge of dietary deficiencies, (4) dietary management practices, and (5) use and impact of food labels. On dietary supplements, the survey asked about (1) prevalence of use, (2) information sources and uses, (3) perceptions of dietary supplements and their labels, (4) substitution of dietary supplements for prescription or over-the-counter drugs, (5) adverse experiences with dietary supplements, and (6) children's and teenagers' use of dietary

Contact Person: Linda A. Verrill, Ph.D., U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center For Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Office of Scientific Analysis and Support, Consumer Studies, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD 20740-3835; phone (301) 436-1765; fax (301) 436-2626; email lverrill@cfsan.fda.gov.

The Health and Diet Survey is a single-stage, random-digit-dialing telephone survey conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It was administered in the fall of 2002 to a total of 2,743 non-institutionalized adult respondents in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The purpose of the survey was to track and gather new information on consumer awareness, attitudes and practices related to health and diet issues. In particular, the survey focused on foods and dietary supplements, two categories of the consumer products regulated by the FDA. On diet and health, the survey asked about (1) awareness of the relationship between diet and diseases (cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure), (2) knowledge of fats and cholesterol, (3) knowledge of dietary deficiencies, (4) dietary management practices, and (5) use and impact of food labels. On dietary supplements, the survey asked about (1) prevalence of use, (2) information sources and uses, (3) perceptions of dietary supplements and their labels, (4) substitution of dietary supplements for prescription or over-the-counter drugs, (5) adverse experiences with dietary supplements, and (6) children's and teenagers' use of dietary

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Many authors suggest that there has been a steady homogenization of tastes in food amongst the global population, such that there has been the development of a global diet. Does this have a potential impact on the natural resources used to produce foodstuffs? What are the ecological and economic impacts of this homogenization of diet? In this paper I will argue that one particular food resource, salmon, has seen a remarkable increase in consumption in the past several years. This has significant implications for the environments in which farmed salmon are grown, the affiliated fisheries which supply the feed used in salmon aquaculture, the natural runs of salmon that retain a significant cultural and even spiritual value to many people around the world, the various industries that compete amongst themselves for supremacy in the marketplace, and perhaps even the health of consumers. Furthermore, I will argue that the production of salmon for human consumption has gone through several distinct phases, during which the evolution of the industry has led to fundamental transformations of how salmon is perceived, consumed, and valued, which has sometimes resulted in unique paradoxes. This paper will particularly emphasize the latest phase of salmon production, which is characterized by mixed production through ocean catch and, increasingly, salmon produced through aquaculture techniques. I will especially focus on the growth of the aquaculture industry, paying close attention to Norway and Chile, the world's two leading producers of farmed salmon, and how this growth has affected the world market for all salmon species. Because farmed salmon production totals have recently surpassed the production levels of all salmon species harvested from the ocean, salmon farmers now wield considerable influence in determining market prices, which can be poignantly illustrated by examining market price trends in the world and select markets over the past decade. Furthermore, because of certain market idiosyncrasies such as a lack of point of origin labeling on salmon products sold in the United States, farmed salmon acts as a substitute good, which has particular significance in economic analysis. It will be shown that as a result of the lower prices that have accompanied the rise of aquaculture production, there is a potential for a perverse effect of increasing the ocean harvest of naturally produced salmon.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Television food advertising is often named as a cause for the increased prevalence of childhood overweight. This popular conception is driven by the Big Food Advertising Effects Hypothesis (BFAE): Children who are often exposed to advertising for high-calorie “big food” are expected to have a less healthy diet than children who are less often exposed. The present study refines the BFAE hypothesis by focusing at the differential impact of children’s food advertising exposure at a brand and a category level. In a diary study in 234 households with children aged 4 to 12 years, we investigated the relation between children’s exposure to big food advertising and their consumption of (a) advertised brands, (b) big food products, and (c) food products overall. Our results show that exposure to food advertising was significantly related to children’s consumption of advertised brands and big food products, but not to more generic food consumption. In other words, consistent with communication theories predicting spill-over effects of advertising, the impact of TV food advertising generalized to other brands within the same product category as the advertised brand. Thus, our findings confirm the assumption that advertising exposure unbalances children’s diets, and thereby ads to calorific intake.