Concepts of Healthy Diet Among Urban, Low-Income, African Americans

Abstract

We sought to explore concepts of healthy diet and to elicit recommendations to support healthier eating among urban, low-income, African Americans. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 33 self-identified African American adults (18-81 years of age, 15 male participants) from a low-income neighborhood in west Philadelphia, PA, during summer and fall 2008. Our qualitative approach was continuous, iterative and thematic considering gender, age category, and participants' "mentions" of fast-food and fruit-and-vegetable intake from the preceding day. We found that participants shared concepts about broad nutritional principles consistent with national dietary recommendations, but disagreed about the healthfulness of specific foods-e.g. meat. On average-with little variation-participants reported eating >2 "mentions" more of fast foods the preceding day than fruits and vegetables (P < 0.001). Suggested strategies to help promote eating more produce included increasing exposure, advertising, affordability, and local availability (vice versa to limit fast-food consumption), and more education on the health effects of diet and how to find and prepare healthy foods. Women's ideas reflected their roles in food shopping and food preparation; otherwise, participants' ideas did not differ appreciably by gender or age. Overall, participants generally expressed sufficient understanding of nutritional principles to eat healthfully, but disagreed about the healthfulness of specific foods and described largely unhealthy dietary consumption from the preceding day. If poor dietary intake results from barriers to recognizing, purchasing, and preparing healthy foods, then participants' suggestions to increase education and modify the environment may lead to improved diets and better health in the community.

Environmental influences on fruit and vegetable intake: results from a path analytic model

“…34-37,47,64,66,67 Contrary to these findings and our hypotheses, no direct association of perceptions of healthy food availability or ease of access was observed with fruit and vegetable intake in our sample. One potential explanation for this discrepancy may be that the measures of perceptions used in previous studies reflected some of the information contained in food shopping behavior, which we were able to parse out into independent and relative influences.…”

Interviewing Baltimore Older Adults About Food System Change: Oral History as a Teaching Tool

“…Similar to our findings, in a qualitative study of healthy food perceptions among African Americans of diverse ages, about a third of 33 participants indicated organic and "natural" foods are healthy, and about a sixth expressed the complementary idea that "chemicals," "artificial things," and "preservatives and additives" are unhealthy (Lucan, Barg, Karasz, Palmer, & Long, 2012). By contrast, many consumers view technology in food as 'unnatural' and 'artificial.…”

Characteristics of Youth Food Preparation in Low-Income, African American Homes: Associations with Healthy Eating Index Scores

“…The males and females in this population did not significantly differ in the frequency of food preparation which is inconsistent with traditional roles in the African American household (Laska et al 2011, Kumanyika et al 2007, Lucan et al 2012). Although this finding may be due to the broad definition of ‘cooking’ used in this study (i.e.…”