Can the frequency with which a food is depicted in paintings give historical insight into family meals over the years and across countries? To initially explore this question, 750 food-related paintings were screened down to 140 paintings from Western Europe and the United States depicting small, family meals. Quantitative content analyses showed the most frequently eaten foods (such as chicken, eggs, and squash) were least frequently depicted in paintings. In contrast, the most aspirational foods such as shellfish were commonly painted in countries with the smallest coastlines (Germany), and more than half (51.4%) of the paintings from the seafaring Netherlands contained non-indigenous tropical lemons. Moreover, although bread and apples have been commonly available over time, bread has been painted 74% less frequently and apples painted 302% more frequently. In general, paintings tend to feature meals with foods that were either aspirational to the commissioning family, aesthetically pleasing or technically difficult for the painter, or that encoded cultural, religious, or political information for informed viewers. Care should be taken to not project food depictions in paintings as indicative of what was actually served or eaten in that country at the time.

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Objective: A high prevalence of overweight/obesity has been linked to low income neighborhoods. One factor that has been found to impact this association is the availability of healthy foods in neighborhood supermarkets, but study results are often confounded by differences between stores. Investigating food availability within chain supermarkets may minimize confounders and provide a better understanding of the relationship between neighborhood income level and the consumer nutrition environment. The purpose of this study was to compare the availability, pricing, quality, and shelf space of healthy foods compared to regular food options using the Nutrition Environments Measurement Survey for Stores (NEMS-S) in 36 chain supermarket stores located in low and high income neighborhoods using the model of community nutrition environments. Design, Setting and Participants: Using the Nutrition Environments Measurement Survey for Stores (NEMS-S) 36 chain supermarket stores were surveyed. Outcome Measures and Analysis: Data were compared by neighborhood income level using t test and chi-square analysis. A significant difference was seen in the availability score when comparing low and high income neighborhood stores. Results: Results showed that healthier food items, specifically tomatoes, corn, cauliflower, honeydew melon, strawberries, oranges, lean ground beef, and baked chips were more available at high income neighborhood stores compared to low income stores (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in price score, quality score, shelf space, or the overall combined score. Conclusions and Implications: This research broadens the conversation on healthy food availability and promotes positive social change by identifying possible avenues for store level, individual, and community initiatives that would improve the nutrition environment and reduce nutrition-related chronic diseases in low income communities. Funding: None.

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