'Trying to make it all come together': structuration and employed mothers' experience of family food provisioning in Canada.

This research examined the aetiology of employed mothers' food choice and food provisioning decisions using a qualitative, grounded theory methodology. Semi-structured interviews using the Food Choice Map were conducted with eleven middle-income employed mothers of elementary school-age children. Results demonstrated that the women exhibited conflicting identities with respect to food choice and provisioning. As 'good mothers' they were the primary food and nutrition caregivers for the family, desiring to provide healthy, homemade foods their families preferred at shared family meals. They also sought to be independent selves, working outside the home, within the context of a busy modern family. Increased food autonomy of children, and lack of time due to working outside the home and children's involvement in extracurricular activities, were significant influences on their food choice and provisioning. This resulted in frequently being unable to live up to their expectations of consistently providing healthy homemade foods and having shared family meals. To cope, the women frequently relied on processed convenience and fast foods despite their acknowledged inferior nutritional status. Using Giddens' structuration theory, the dynamic relationships between the women's food choice and provisioning actions, their identities and larger structures including socio-cultural norms, conditions of work and the industrial food system were explored. The ensuing dietary pattern of the women and their families increases the risk of poor health outcomes, including obesity. These results have implications for public health responses to improve population health by shifting the focus from individual-level maternal influences to structural influences on diet.

The growing Canadian energy gap: more the can than the couch?

OBJECTIVE: The present study describes the trajectory of the energy gap (energy imbalance) in the Canadian population from 1976 to 2003, its temporal relationship to adult obesity, and estimates the relative contribution of energy availability and expenditure to the energy gap. It also assesses which foods contributed the most to changes in available energy over the study period. DESIGN: Annual estimates of the energy gap were derived by subtracting population-adjusted per capita daily estimated energy requirements (derived from Dietary Reference Intakes) from per capita daily estimated energy available (obtained from food balance sheets). Food balance sheets were used to assess which foods contributed to changes in energy availability. Adult obesity rates were derived from six national surveys. The relationship to the energy gap was assessed through regression analysis. RESULTS: Between 1976 and 2003, per capita daily estimated energy availability increased by 18 % (1744 kJ), and increased energy availability was the major driver of the increased energy gap. Salad oils, wheat flour, soft drinks and shortening accounted for the majority of the net increase in energy availability. Adult obesity was significantly correlated with the energy gap over the study period. CONCLUSIONS: The widening energy gap is being driven primarily by increased energy availability. The food commodities driving the widening energy gap are major ingredients in many energy-dense convenience foods, which are being consumed with increasing frequency in Canada. Policies to address population obesity must have a strong nutritional focus with the objective of decreasing energy consumption at the population level.