Health Guide

Work Conditions Impact Parents' Food Choices

Since most parents in the US are employed, there are competing demands on their time that can compromise food choices for themselves and their children. How parents cope with these demands and how work conditions are related to food choice coping strategies are the subjects of a study in the September/October issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

Findings suggest that better work conditions may be associated with more positive strategies such as more home-prepared meals, eating with the family, keeping healthful food at work, and less meal skipping.

Researchers from Cornell University measured food choice coping strategies in low- to middle-income families in five categories: (1) food prepared at/away from home; (2) missing meals; (3) individualizing meals (family eats differently, separately, or together); (4) speeding up to save time; and (5) planning. A three-part telephone survey of 25 employed mothers and 25 employed fathers or guardians from 3 racial/ethnic groups was used to evaluate food choice strategies.

Half or more of respondents often/sometimes used 12 of 22 food choice coping strategies and there were gender differences in the use of these strategies. Fathers who worked long hours or had nonstandard hours and schedules were more likely to use take-out meals, miss family meals, purchase prepared entrees, and eat while working. Mothers purchased restaurant meals or prepared entrees or missed breakfast. Job security, satisfaction, and food access were also associated with gender-specific strategies. About a quarter of mothers and fathers said they did not have access to healthful, reasonably priced, and/or good-tasting food at or near work.

Writing in the article, Carol M. Devine, PhD, RD, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, and colleagues state, "This study examined how work conditions are related to the food choice coping strategies of low- and moderate-income parents. Study findings will enhance understanding of social and temporal employment constraints on adults' food choices and may inform workplace interventions and policies…The importance of work structure for employed parents' food choice strategies is seen in the associations between work hours and schedule and food choice coping strategies, such as meals away from home and missed family meals. Long work hours and irregular schedules mean more time away from family, less time for household food work, difficulty in maintaining a regular meal pattern, and less opportunity to participate in family meals; this situation may result in feelings of time scarcity, fatigue, and strain that leave parents with less personal energy for food and meals."

A balanced diet with a variety of healthy foods requires a combination of lean protein, good carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Choosing foods that are nutrient-dense (very nutritious relative to their number of calories), will provide you a high amount of nutrients at a low caloric cost (e.g., broccoli, spinach, greens, bell peppers, cantaloupe, papaya, brown rice, wheat bran, whole wheat bread, nonfat plain yogurt,  water packed and black beans). Low nutrient dense foods provide a small amount of nutrition relative to their number of calories (e.g., potato chips). Typcially, foods high in sugar, fat, or alcohol have a low nutrient density. A consistently healthy eating plan combined with moderate exercise will provide you with noticeable health improvements.

The freedom to make our own choices is a very important issue in our society. Every day, each of us chooses to do the things that we do, unless we are in a situation where we have been stripped of our freedom and then we must do as those who have control over us command us to do. This would be the case of those in prison or those who are enslaved by force in repressive societies. Even in these circumstances one still has freedom to make certain choices although they may be limited. For example, one can choose as to what kind of attitude and response one would have to his or her oppressors.  Those in prisons can still experience freedom when they have Christ, because true freedom is an act of the soul and therefore we each can make choices in our soul. Other men cannot force us to think wrongly unless we choose to agree with them.
 

There are other circumstances that can limit our choices because of the authority that exists in the world.  One of these would be the choices of school children that are limited to the authorities' decisions and rules. This is also true of the military. These are just two of many circumstances that can limit one's own personal choices.
However, no matter what our choices are today, they are ultimately creating our future because every choice that we make will either cause us to be blessed or cursed. Another way to put it is that things will get better or worse for us. All choices have consequences. These consequences will be for our betterment or will work to destroy us. We are also responsible for our choices. The Bible challenges us with this admonition in Deuteronomy 30:19: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live"

Source

ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2009)

AtoZ Health Guide Matthew E McLaren autor of The Miracle of Love