food chain or shackles exploring vegetarianism with women of childbearing age in providence public s

1
food chain or shackles? exploring vegetarianism
with women of childbearing age in providence
public schools as a means to reduce toxic
exposure and improve public health
caroline colesworthy center for environmental
studies, brown university
2
background

• Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins and Persistent
  Organic Pollutants
• Dove-tailed health risks
• Behavioral nutrition
• A vegan diet
• Central questions

3
NASIM recommendations (2004)

• national science and technology councils
  interagency working group, supported by USDA and
  US department of health and human services,
  requested that the national academies of science
  institute of medicine make recommendations for
  policy options to reduce dioxins, among them
• reduce dioxin-like compound intakes in girls and
  young women promote changes in
  dietary-consumption patterns of the general
  population that more closely conform to
  recommendations to reduce consumption of animal
  fats, such as the recommendations of the dietary
  guidelines for americans

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The costs of poor diet are high

• 23 of Rhode Island high school students are
  overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.
• 20042005 28 states have CDC funding, .
• five states are funded at 800,000 to 1.5
  million for basic implementation
• 23 states, including RI, are funded at 300,000
  to 450,000 for capacity building
• costs in medical bills hover near 120
  billion/year
• obesity increases the risk of developing a number
  of health conditions including type 2 diabetes,
  hypertension, coronary heart disease, ischemic
  stroke, and colon cancer.

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there are toxins in our foods
Schechter et al.. JTEH, 632001
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young women

• are increasingly interested in body image, more
  likely to follow diets
• are the fastest growing group of vegetarians- as
  a demographic, issues surrounding vegetarianism
  are important
• adolescents want to do things differently

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sandmans risk theory
hazard outrage risk
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the ADA/DC says well planned vegan and other
types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all
stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy,
lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence.
vegetarians have been reported to have lower body
mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as
lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease
vegetarians show lower blood cholesterol levels
lower blood pressure and lower rates of
hypertension, types 2 diabetes, and prostate and
colon cancer.
JADA 1036, 2003
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central questions

• could framing healthy food as a reproductive
  justice issue increase saliency for young women?
• what are the barriers and opportunities  to young
  women choosing foods lower on the food chain?
• what are the barriers and opportunities to access
  to this information?
• what other issues might make the argument more
  salient?

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purpose (health!)

• characterize young womens beliefs and knowledge
  of toxins, nutrition, and food systems
• define salient food issues
• make recommendations to educators regarding
  toxics reduction messaging to improve healthy
  eating messaging

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methods

• central and classical high schools
• healthy womens nutrition survey (N73)
• simple frequencies
• focus groups (N15)
• full transcripts from audio recording
• coded for content and themes
• observations

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findings

• Access to healthy foods is the primary barrier.
• Health education is not providing an effective
  message.
• Toxic exposure and reproductive health are
  salient issues.
• Food is interesting.

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Access to healthy foods is the primary barrier.

• Students hate the food at school
• Students have little time for nutrition and
  family support is not widespread
• Family food traditions shape choices and society
  maintains barriers to change
• Healthy foods have yet to be thought of as
  normal

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access

• For lunch 87 use school resources
• 62 Buy a school meal,
• 15 Buy snacks (vending),
• 12 Skip lunch (lunch is free for almost
  everyone)
• At home 31 eat 2 or fewer meals with family
  (Central is higher)- this is consistent with
  national research
• N73

15

• sometimes I skip breakfast and I have to eat at
  school because I go to work after school and I
  dont come home until 9 and my mom tells me you
  gotta eat something, just eat a salad, eat
  something. dont be eating junk foodso I really
  try to eat good at school, but at school all they
  got is junk food. everything they got, even
  though thats all that you eat probably has a
  little bit of fat in it, but I try to avoid food
  from here, but what can I do? Im gonna have to
  eat it because Im hungry. my mom tells me, take
  lunch to school but I dont want to feel stupid
  bringing lunch from my house to school.
  -central

16
healthy food has class stigma

• its also kinda got like a shitty stereotype
  against it toopeople assume that if you go in
  (whole foods) you have to be a health nut or you
  have to be like, you know, a snobby WASP. and its
  just- its not like thattheres also like normal,
  well not normal, but like people who eat like not
  organic foods. like inorganic things.
  
  
• -classical

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Health education is not providing an effective
message.

• Nutritional information is not salient or clear
• Health class is the main source of nutrition
  information, but it is being undermined
• Students know that their interests are not
  driving policies

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on diets in general

• you hear a lot of people saying dont eat this,
  dont eat that, but when you dont eat those
  things like well, you need this, you need that,
  so what kinds of things you can eat? my question
  is like what is the right diet? what is it that
  youre supposed to eat?
• 
  -central

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where does nutrition info come from?

• 62 doctor/ nurse, 60 health class, 55 tv
  parents, 45 magazines, 33 internet
• TV includes commercials, infomercials
• internet information includes pop-ups
• nutrition education is a 7th grade topic- before
  students have control or interest

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who would you trust for nutrition information as
a young woman?

• 58 would trust woman over man, 34 either
• 59 nutritionist, 58 doctor, 20 parent, 12
  friend, only 3 said teacher
• only one female health teacher per school
• 34 rated health class as first choice for more
  nutrition information

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we know whats going on at school

• pepsi and coca-cola and all them companies are
  giving money into the schools and then thats
  their little trade-off. we give you money and
  youll put more of our product in your schools.
  and that way we win. so its like these large
  companies like pepsi and coca-cola, theyre not
  helping. lays chips, fritos- theyre not
  helping. cause theyre buying the schools in a
  way. theres a trade-off. oh well give you money
  and you just sell our products.
  
• 
  -central

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HS is the time and the place

• i just remember them teaching me the same thing
  every year since like seventh grade on
• its not in their control cause their parents
  cook their meals and stuff.
• -classical
• I dont know, once youre older you start
  looking at yourself and you care about your
  appearance.
• -central
• health teachers really need to talk about things
  that will affect us
  
  -classical

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health class is the place

• health teachers really need to talk about things
  that will affect us
  -classical

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Toxic exposure and reproductive health are
salient issues.

• Students are aware of toxins, particularly
  mercury and pesticides
• POPs are unknown but interest is high and health
  class should reflect this
• Most women were quick to relate to this risk
• Students realize how opaque and embedded in
  profits the toxic issue is
• Willingness to change

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reproductive interest, knowledge
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reproductive risks are a challenge

• central (re alcohol)
• they came out finebut to them they came out
  fine, why she getting a call from his teacher
  everyday talking about hes hyper. like did you
  ever think of that?

• classical (re toxics)
• I dont know, like my mom- my dadsll fish. He
  goes fishing a lot over the summerso thats
  what we really eat during the summer. And my mom
  when she was pregnant thats all she ate and we
  came out fine.

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its about money

• they not gonna stop making money because its bad
  for you. they thinking, oh its not gonna kill
  you now. thats the thing- the controversy over
  that. the government knows that. they know they
  are killing humans not right away, cause thatd
  be murder, but its like slowly so why dont they
  call that murder?
• -central
• yeah, ignorance- they depend on it.
  -classical

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Food is interesting.

• Food safety issues are familiar
• Vegetarianism is misunderstood
• Global food systems are of interest

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what do they think?
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a consistent message
I thought like money would be a factor. You know
you have to buy special food to eat, something
like that. by looking at the chart its like, well
no, these are all things we have around the
house. we just gotta let go of other things.
this, this is really easy. helpful too.
-central
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strong interests in food issues

• Which of the following topics would you/ other
  young women like you be interested to learn more
  about? The relationship between
• foods eaten by women and birth defects 88
• food eaten and disease risk 69
• food production and environmental damage 43
  
• food eaten in US poverty in other countries
  40
• food pesticides and field workers health
  27
• food production and animal cruelty 22
• foods bought and community prosperity 11

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central questions

• could framing healthy food as a reproductive
  justice issue increase saliency for young women?
• what are the barriers and opportunities  to young
  women choosing foods lower on the food chain?
• what are the barriers and opportunities to access
  to this information?
• what other issues might make the argument more
  salient?

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potential abounds

• school food environment does not allow for
  success
• health classes are vital connection for honest,
  timely information
• toxics dialogue has excellent potential to make
  current healthy eating message more salient
• healthy food has yet to be normalized
• students know their interests are being
  marginalized- outrage
• vegan diet offers no inconsistencies

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curricular recommendations for educators

• reinforce multiple and long-term reasons for
  health choices
• media awareness is key
• cover nutrition in depth in HS when students have
  autonomy, money, body image, and are
  differentiating from parents
• teach about food as transparent systems toxics,
  disease, environment, poverty, pesticides/
  agriculture, corporate interests
• teach veganism as a healthy option

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systemic recommendations for educators

• establish access to healthy, whole foods
• normalize healthy foods
• put students health interest first
• increase female health teachers

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health collective

• two hours after school per week
• based on students interest/ needs
• media, advocacy,resources, outreach component (ie
  blog)
• teach students to teach each other to be healthy
• program through student assistance counseling
  program

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further action

• continue meeting with principles, teachers
• plan recruitment
• research evaluative measures and networking
  experiences of other alternative high school
  programs