The Role of Food Selection in Swedish Home Economics: The Educational Visions and Cultural Meaning.

This article explores foods talked about and chosen in the education of Swedish Home Economics as a relationship between structural processes and agency. Three data sets from observations and focus group interviews with teachers and students were analyzed for food classifications. These were related to a culinary triangle of contradictions, showing factors of identity, convenience and responsibility. Results show that foods talked about and chosen by teachers and students were reflections of dominant cultural values. Results also indicate that teachers had more agency than students, but that the choices they made were framed by educational visions and cultural values.

Swedish students' interpretations of food symbols and their perceptions of healthy eating. An exploratory study.

This study used focus group discussions to investigate how a group of Swedish University students (24 women and five men) interpret symbols with claims about health and/or symbols with information about nutrition. The participants mostly talked about farming methods and food processes when asked about health and nutrition symbols. The Swedish Keyhole was the most familiar symbol to the participants but they had scant knowledge of its meaning. Symbols that were judged to be the most useful in guiding food choices were, according to the participants, symbols showing information about number of calories and/or nutrients. However, the most striking finding is still that the food experts' medical discourse, i.e. the focus on physical health and nutritional effects on the individual body, seems to be inconsistent with the participants' perceptions of healthy eating and risk. The participants rather used what we call an "inauthenticity discourse" where health and risks are judged in relation to farming methods, industrial food production, additives and other aspects of the food that are unknown to the individual. Despite limitations considering the number of participations and their relative homogeneity, these findings contribute to a further understanding of the gap between experts and the public when it comes to perceptions of healthy eating and risks. If this is a broader phenomenon, then we argue that this must be acknowledged if information about health and risk is to be communicated successfully.

Teachers' interaction with children in the school meal situation: the example of pedagogic meals in Sweden.

OBJECTIVE: School meals are also a teaching occasion in which children learn about food and meals, which is referred to as "pedagogic meals" in Sweden. The aim of the present article was to study how the pedagogic meal is practiced in preschool and school settings, with focus on how teachers acted when interacting with the children. DESIGN: Observations, interviews, and focus group interviews. SETTING: School canteens. PARTICIPANTS: Three schools. PHENOMENON OF INTEREST: Teaching in the school meal situation. ANALYSIS: Social constructionism, new social studies of childhood. RESULTS: The teachers took on 3 different roles. The sociable teacher role entailed turning the school lunch into a social occasion, the educating teacher role involved educating the children, and the evasive teacher role was not associated with the definition of a pedagogic meal. The teacher roles, which ranged from adult-oriented to child-oriented, and which varied in the level of interaction with the children, were summarized in a framework named the Adult- to Child-oriented Teacher Role Framework for School Meals (ACTS). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: To realize the potential of pedagogic meals, teachers must be educated and become aware of the effects of their behaviors. In this situation, the ACTS framework can constitute a useful tool.

Nordic adolescents' school lunch patterns and their suggestions for making healthy choices at school easier.

This article examines Nordic adolescents' school lunch patterns and their perceptions of how making healthy choices at school could be easier. Analysis is based on a quantitative data-set collected between 2006 and 2007 as part of a Nordic research project. The sample of 1539 respondents consisted of 14-17 year old adolescents from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. The number of adolescents regularly eating either a packed lunch or a hot school lunch differed between countries and statistically significant differences were found between girls' and boys' school lunch patterns in the Swedish and Finnish data. Results suggest that adolescents have an understanding of what is healthy, but that school resources do not always support their ability to make healthy choices. Adolescents' own suggestions for improvement imply that more attention should be paid to building a healthy school food environment. An important future challenge is trying to involve school health care personnel and aligning classroom activities more coherently with adolescents' eating patterns during the school day.

Social aspects of eating events among people with intellectual disability in community living.

BACKGROUND: In Sweden, a process involving the de-institutionalisation of services and the establishment of community-based settings for people with intellectual disability has meant changes in meal arrangements. In the present study, we focus on the social arrangements of meals in community-based settings. METHOD: Participant observations were used to study the meals as social events for 32 participants, 9 of whom lived in supported living and 23 in group homes. RESULTS: Breakfast and dinner were often eaten alone, while lunch at the daily activity centre and the food eaten between meals (snacks) were mostly shared with other people. Meals for participants in supported living were seldom social, and meals for participants in the group homes often hierarchical. CONCLUSION: The participants were often limited in choosing their company at meals, which typically consisted of other people with intellectual disability and staff. If they made such choices, they were dependent upon staff support to realise them.

Management of healthy eating in everyday life among senior Europeans.

The aim of the present study is to explore how older people reflect on, make sense of and express their views about healthy eating messages and how they narrate these responses in relation to managing their diets along with strategies adopted in terms of existing food and meal patterns. This qualitative study draws on data from 564 in depth interviews collected as part of the European Union (EU)-funded project Food in Later life - Choosing foods, eating meals: sustaining independency and quality of life in old age. The two major areas studied related to the connection between food and health and management of a healthy everyday life. Eating healthy was regarded as an investment to ensure independence was kept as the transition of old age approached, but old age could also be a reason for not bothering about it. Participants described different ways that they simplified and organized in order to manage "healthy eating". When trying to support senior Europeans, those working in health and community services should take into account the situational context of the older person and be aware of the variation in their conceptualization of "healthy eating".

To be a good food provider: an exploratory study among spouses of persons with Alzheimer's disease.

Large proportions of people with dementia live at home and need help from a relative. The aim of the current study was to examine how people living with persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) perceived everyday life aspects of food choices, cooking, and food-related work. The analyses are based on focus group interviews including women and men acting as caregivers to people with AD and living in Sweden. The main results identified from the data, were how cohabitants to persons with AD struggle with either taking on a new role as a food provider or extending it, but also how they tried to cope as carer, which entailed food being an important part of the treatment of the disease. Those expressing greatest concern were those perceiving themselves as inexperienced food providers and carers, which in this study were all men.

Observed dietary intake in adults with intellectual disability living in the community.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge is lacking about dietary habits among people with intellectual disability (ID) living in community residences under new living conditions. OBJECTIVE: To describe the dietary habits of individuals with ID living in community residences, focusing on intake of food, energy and nutrients as well as meal patterns. DESIGN: Assisted food records and physical activity records over a 3-day observation period for 32 subjects. RESULTS: Great variation was observed in daily energy intake (4.9-14 MJ) dispersed across several meals, with on average 26% of the energy coming from in-between-meal consumption. Main energy sources were milk products, bread, meat products, buns and cakes. The daily intake of fruit and vegetables (320+/-221 g) as well as dietary fiber (21+/-9.6 g) was generally low. For four vitamins and two minerals, 19-34% of subjects showed an intake below average requirement (AR). The physical activity level (PAL) was low for all individuals (1.4+/-0.1). CONCLUSION: A regular meal pattern with a relatively high proportion of energy from in-between-meal eating occasions and a low intake of especially fruits were typical of this group of people with ID. However, the total intake of energy and other food items varied a great deal between individuals. Thus, every adult with ID has to be treated as an individual with specific needs. A need for more knowledge about food in general and particularly how fruit and vegetables could be included in cooking as well as encouraged to be eaten as in-between-meals seems imperative in the new living conditions for adults with ID.

Older women's perceptions of independence versus dependence in food-related work.

This qualitative study aims to explore the cultural meaning of accomplishing food-related work by older women, when disease has diminished their abilities and threatens to make them dependent. Seventy-two women with stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, and Parkinson's disease, as well as women without those diseases, were interviewed. All were living at home. Results showed that older women valued independence and feared dependence when declining ability threatened performance of food-related work. They also had strong beliefs about living a "normal life," managing by oneself as long as possible, and becoming their own masters again. To remain independent, participants used three kinds of strategies: Public Health Service Support, self-managing, and adaptation. Their beliefs about dependence included not becoming a burden, retaining self-determination, and maintaining order in life. Implications for nursing include supporting independent cooking, developing care plans with the care recipient, and demonstrating respect for the women's self-determination.