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Flavours of Thought: Towards A Phenomenology of Food-Related Experiences
... Phenomenology addresses intricacies of how individuals experience certain phenomena from their personal interpretations, perspectives, and contexts [23]. Phenomenological research sets aside the researchers preconceived ideas, biases, and experiences to fully engage with participant views [24], and phenomenological inquiry is relevant to investigating food-mood relationships from participants' perspectives [25]. ...
Epidemiological and intervention studies in nutritional psychiatry suggest that the risk of mood disorders is associated with what we eat. However, few studies use a person-centred approach to explore the food and mood relationship. In this qualitative study of 50 Australian participants, we explored individuals' experiences with food and mood as revealed during focus group discussions. Using a thematic template analysis, we identified three themes in the food and mood relationship: (i) social context: familial and cultural influences of food and mood, (ii) social economics: time, finance, and food security, and (iii) food nostalgia: unlocking memories that impact mood. Participants suggested that nutrients, food components or food patterns may not be the only way that food impacts mood. Rather, they described the social context of who, with, and where food is eaten, and that time, finances, and access to healthy fresh foods and bittersweet memories of foods shared with loved ones all impacted their mood. Findings suggest that quantitative studies examining the links between diet and mood should look beyond nutritional factors and give increased attention to the cultural, social, economic, and identity aspects of diet.
... Phenomenology addresses intricacies of how individuals experience certain phenomena from their personal interpretations, perspectives, and contexts [23]. Phenomenological research sets aside the researchers preconceived ideas, biases, and experiences to fully engage with participant views [24], and phenomenological inquiry is relevant to investigating food-mood relationships from participants' perspectives [25]. ...
Epidemiological and intervention studies in nutritional psychiatry suggest that the risk of mood disorders is associated with what we eat. However, few studies use a person-centred approach to explore the food and mood relationship. In this qualitative study of 50 Australian partici-pants, we explored individuals’ experiences with food and mood as revealed during focus group discussions. Using a thematic template analysis, we identified three themes in the food and mood relationship (i) social context: familial and cultural influences of food and mood, (ii) Social economics: time, finance and food security, and (iii) food nostalgia: unlocking memories that impact mood. Participants suggested that nutrients, food components or food patterns may not be the only way that food impacts mood. Rather, they described the social context of who, with, and where food is eaten, that time, finances and access to healthy fresh foods and bittersweet memories of foods shared with loved ones all impacted their mood. Findings suggest that quantitative stud-ies examining the links between diet and mood should look beyond nutritional factors and give increased attention to the cultural, social, economic, and identity aspects of diet.
... A phenomenological researcher aims to put aside their own experiences, preconceived ideas and biases about a phenomenon and embrace how the phenomenon appears to the participant [22]. The phenomenological inquiry in this study will act as a method and vehicle to explore food and mood related experiences [23]. ...
Current observational and intervention studies in nutritional psychiatry suggest that healthy dietary patterns rich in fresh whole foods could protect against depressive symptoms and that unhealthy dietary patterns high in ultra-processed and refined foods could contribute to depressive symptoms. However, no studies have explored detailed subjective accounts behind the food and mood relationship. This study aimed to uncover unknown factors in the human experience with food and mood. Using a phenomenological framework, this focus group study applied thematic template analysis to accounts of over 50 Australians aged between 18 and 72. Three themes were identified from the transcript of the focus groups (i) reactive and proactive relationships with food, (ii) acknowledgement of individual diversity relating to eating and mental health, and (iii) improving mood by removing food restriction and eating intuitively. The data highlights the complexity of the relationship between food and mood that extends beyond biological mechanisms which could be used to extend current epidemiological and intervention studies in the field of dietary patterns and depression.
... A phenomenological researcher aims to put aside their own experiences, preconceived ideas and biases about a phenomenon and embrace how the phenomenon appears to the participant [22]. The phenomenological inquiry in this study will act as a method and vehicle to explore food and mood related experiences [23]. ...
Current observational and interventional studies in nutritional psychiatry suggest that healthy dietary patterns rich in fresh whole foods could protect against depressive symptoms, and that unhealthy dietary patterns high in ultra-processed and refined foods could contribute to depressive symptoms. However, no studies have explored detailed subjective accounts behind the food and mood relationship. This study aimed to uncover unknown factors in the human experience with food and mood. Using a phenomenological framework, this focus group study applied thematic template analysis to accounts of over 50 Australians aged between 18 and 72. Three themes were identified from the transcript of the focus groups: (i) reactive and proactive relationships with food, (ii) acknowledgement of individual diversity relating to eating and mental health, and (iii) improving mood by removing food restriction and eating intuitively. The data highlights the complexity of the relationship between food and mood that extends beyond biological mechanisms which could be used to extend current epidemiological and intervention studies in the field of dietary patterns and depression.
... Here, one particularly interesting case contrasts the food artist with a very emotional approach towards food, where sudden shifts in mood would consistently signal the actual thought for food. For an extensive review please contact the author or consult her introductory paper on Flavours of Thought: Towards A Phenomenology of Food-Related Experiences (Tan F., 2013). home. ...
... Omnibus tests: 0.001; VIF: between 1.010 and 1.408; Nagelkerke R 2 = 0.52. experience that recalls memories and consequent implicit judgments connected to what was already experienced and lived (Dibsdall, Lambert, & Frewer, 2002;Hok-Eng Tan, 2013). Consumers pursue a process of recognition of the phenomenon, so to respect the way in which the fruit-eating experience naturally occurs respects the internal representation and is manifested in the reality. ...
The objective of the present report is to explore consumers’ perception of fruit and fruit product innovations, in particular nutritionally enriched/fortified fruit and laser-tattoo labeled fruit. These innovations may modify consumers’ visual representation of fruit, influencing their perceptions of fruit integrity. The research included 537 face-to-face interviews with shoppers at the point of sale and was analyzed with the use of factor analysis and multivariate logistic regression. Results show that the consumers pursue “nature integrity–oriented” innovation, for both health and environment-oriented innovation. The consumer is cautious toward innovation and accepts it if the final product keeps its original familiarity. Consumers are more inclined toward innovation if they have a higher education level, are young or middle age, or have a higher income. To conclude, innovation is positively perceived if it respects consumers’ perception of fruit as being intrinsically natural. Innovation in fruit and fruit products should be tested against consumers’ acceptance.
The healthfulness of the populations’ diets has long been a concern in Scotland. However, despite policies aimed at improving the healthfulness of people’s diet, it remains poor. The failure of these policies to bring about desired changes is partly because the relationship between dietary advice, understandings of it and the healthfulness of food practices is complex. The Scottish Government funded a phenomenological study of thirty-one adults to understand the populations’ food practices and, drawing on interviews and food diaries, this paper reports emergent findings that illustrate how some participants construct and maintain food practices they perceive to be healthful and appear to show consistency with dietary guidelines whilst others struggle. Research data were thematically analyzed and interviews revealed participants’ reported food rules that appeared to show consistencies with nutritional guidelines. Interviews and food diaries also revealed that participants broke their food rules which resulted in less healthful eating patterns. The results suggest that those participants who routinize rules for breaking food rules achieved eating patterns that they perceived to be healthier than those who did not.
Chapter 1 establishes the main aims of the book, and introduces what is meant by the term ‘food horror’, and how it has become prominent in a number of cultural forms, including film. The chapter highlights the characteristics of the ‘food horror’ movie; the term is addressed visually, conceptually, and metaphorically. I explain why the book focuses on the post-1980 era, and why it is important and timely to outline and analyse the concept of ‘food horror’ in film in our contemporary moment, especially in relation to recurrent preoccupations such as consumerism, disgust, abjection, cultural identity, and the experience of corporeality. The chapter discusses why it is important to address the relationship between food and horror in an interdisciplinary framework, and what this approach entails critically and contextually. Food is introduced as a liminal subject, one that breaks the seemingly fixed boundaries of the body, society, and culture. Finally, the chapter offers a brief description of the chapters that will follow.
Introduction and Method. A Comment to Suspend the Introspection Controversy. From Hypomania to Depression: A Slightly Hypomaniac Student. Normal Affect: A Medical Student with a Period of Dysphoria. A Graduate Student with Periods of Depression. A Depressed Resident of a Halfway House. Inner Experience from Hypomania to Depression. Bulimia: A Bulimic Operating Room Nurse. A Bulimic Teacher. Inner Experience in Bulimia. Anxiety: A Biology Student with Panic Attacks. A Graduate Student with Test Anxiety. Inner Experience in Anxiety. Borderline Personality: A Bank Teller with no Figure/Ground Phenomena in Perception. Postscript: Discussion. Index.
This brief commentary addresses a few issues relevant to the conceptualization and assessment of craving. It begins by suggesting the utility of the analogy between craving and hunger, another often-studied subjective experience with presumed motivational significance. It then proceeds to a discussion of procedures for assessing craving, highlighting the limitations of retrospective reports, and the potential utility of real-time measures. Finally, building upon the findings of such real-time measures, it suggests the need to differentiate tonic and phasic craving experiences.
This paper (1) sketches a phenomenological analysis of visual mental imagery; (2) applies this analysis to the mental imagery
debate in cognitive science; (3) briefly sketches a neurophenomenological approach to mental imagery; and (4) compares the
results of this discussion with Dennett’s heterophenomenology.
Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) is a method for exploring inner experience. DES subjects carry a random beeper in natural environments; when the beep sounds, they capture their inner experience, jot down notes about it, and report it to an investigator in a subsequent expositional interview. DES is a fundamentally idiographic method, describing faithfully the pristine inner experiences of persons. Subsequently, DES can be used in a nomothetic way to describe the characteristics of groups of people who share some common characteristic. This paper describes DES and compares it to Petitmengin’s [Phenomenol Cogn Sci, this issue] second-person interview method.
Obesogens are chemicals that directly or indirectly lead to increased fat accumulation and obesity. Obesogens have the potential to disrupt multiple metabolic signalling pathways in the developing organism that can result in permanent changes in adult physiology. Prenatal or perinatal exposure to obesogenic endocrine disrupting chemicals has been shown to predispose an organism to store more fat from the beginning of its life. For example, excess oestrogen or cortisol exposure in the womb or during early life resulted in an increased susceptibility to obesity and metabolic syndrome later in life. This review focuses on the effects of environmental chemicals, such as the model obesogen, tributyltin (TBT), on the development of obesity. We discuss evidence linking the obesogenic effects of TBT with its ability to activate the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma and stimulate adipogenesis. We also discuss how TBT and other environmental obesogens may lead to epigenetic changes that predispose exposed individuals to subsequent weight gain and obesity. This suggests that humans, who have been exposed to obesogenic chemicals during sensitive windows of development, might be pre-programmed to store increased amounts of fat, resulting in a lifelong struggle to maintain a healthy weight and exacerbating the deleterious effects of poor diet and inadequate exercise.
To test the hypothesis that some foods are eaten to alter mood, the relationship between mood and intake of chocolate was investigated in 40 women. Twenty self-identified chocolate 'addicts' and 20 controls rated hunger, mood, intensity of craving and amount of chocolate eaten in a diary for seven consecutive days. The 'addicts' reported a significantly greater number of eating episodes and consumed a larger amount of chocolate than controls. 'Addicts' also rated depression, guilt and craving higher and feeling content and relaxed as lower before eating than controls. However, eating chocolate resulted in increased feelings of guilt in the 'addicts' and no significant changes in feeling depressed or relaxed. On indices of disordered eating and depression, 'addicts' scored significantly higher than controls; however, eating chocolate did not improve mood. Although chocolate is a food which provides pleasure, for those who consider intake of this food to be excessive, any pleasure experienced is short lived and accompanied by feelings of guilt.
Serotonin in the brain, and perhaps elsewhere, is involved in mechanisms that affect macronutrient selection, generate feelings of satiety, and, if malfunctioning, predispose to obesity. Drugs which increase the quantities of serotonin present within synapses can cause weight reduction. Such drugs presently include those that release the neurotransmitter by a direct action on nerve terminals (e.g., dexfenfluramine’s metabolite dexnorfenfluramine) or by activating serotoninergic neurons (e.g., nicotine); by activating post-synaptic serotonin receptors (e.g., dexnorfenfluramine); or by prolonging serotonin’s existence within synapses by blocking its reuptake (e.g., dexfenfluramine; fluoxetine, sertraline; paroxetine). Additional ways are known by which intrasynaptic serotonin levels can be augmented (e.g. increasing its synthesis with tryptophan; inhibiting its destruction by monoamine oxidase), and it can be anticipated that drugs acting at these loci will also become candidates for treating obesity.
Serotoninergic drugs act in at least three ways to facilitate weight loss: They accelerate the onset of satiety (Blundell, 1986), and enhance basal metabolic rate by about 100 calories per day (Fernstrom, 1989). They also inhibit the “carbohydrate craving” manifested by many people who are overweight or are becoming so (c.f., Wurtman and Wurtman, 1989). There is reason to believe that this inappropriate eating behavior actually constitutes a “serotonin hunger” by the brain, perhaps related to the number or activity of raphe neurons, in which case giving the serotoninergic drug might constitute a specific therapy for the etiologic process causing the obesity.
The primary aim of this study was to develop and validate the Food-Craving Inventory (FCI), a self-report measure of specific food cravings.
In a preliminary study, participants (n = 474) completed the initial version of the FCI. The results from this study were used in developing the revised FCI. Participants (n = 379) completed the revised FCI in the primary study designed to develop a self-report measure of specific food cravings.
Common factor analysis yielded four conceptual factors (subscales) that were interpreted as high fats, sweets, carbohydrates/starches, and fast-food fats. Confirmatory factor analysis found that the four factors could be modeled as dimensions (or first-order factors) of a higher order construct-food craving. Test-retest and internal consistency analyses indicated good reliability for the total score and each of the subscales. Subscale scores were compared with scores on the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire and a conceptual measure of food craving. We found support for the content, concurrent, construct, and discriminant validity of the FCI.
The FCI was found to be a reliable and valid measure of general and specific food cravings. The FCI can be used in research related to overeating and binge eating. Also, it may be useful in treatment studies that target obesity and/or food cravings.
Cravings are hedonic responses to food, characterised by their intensity and their specificity. Food cravings are extremely common, reported by the majority of young adults. They are closely associated with liking but not synonymous with increased intake. Structured interviews and prospective incident accounts of food cravings have succeeded in revealing a richness of information about their character, their antecedents and their consequences. In addition, laboratory investigations are adding to what is being learned from field and clinical studies. Taking dieting as an example of an assumed influence on food craving, the outcomes of cross-sectional studies are mixed and unconvincing. Prospective and experimental research shows a clearer relationship. Dieting or restrained eating generally increase the likelihood of food craving while fasting makes craving, like hunger, diminish. Attempted restriction or deprivation of a particular food is associated with an increase in craving for the unavailable food. This relationship suggests a variety of underlying cognitive, conditioning and emotional processes, of which ironic cognitive processes, conditioned cue reactivity and dysphoric mood are prominent. Food cravings may also be self-attributions, accounting for why a highly-palatable but self-restricted food is (over-)consumed. Overall, the popularised account of cravings as elicited by specific nutritional need is having to give way to a more subtle and complex appreciation of human eating behaviour.
Environmental chemicals with hormone-like activity can disrupt the programming of endocrine signalling pathways that are established during perinatal life and result in adverse consequences that may not be apparent until much later in life. Increasing evidence implicates developmental exposure to environmental hormone mimics with a growing list of adverse health consequences in both males and females. Most recently, obesity has been proposed to be yet another adverse health effect of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) during critical stages of development. Obesity is quickly becoming a significant human health crisis because it is reaching epidemic proportions worldwide, and is associated with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In this review, we summarize the literature reporting an association of EDCs and the development of obesity, and further describe an animal model of exposure to diethylstilbestrol that has proven useful in studying mechanisms involved in abnormal programming of various oestrogen target tissues during differentiation. Together, these data suggest new targets (i.e. adipocyte differentiation and mechanisms involved in weight homeostasis) of abnormal programming by EDCs, and provide evidence that support the scientific term 'the developmental origins of adult disease'. The emerging idea of an association of EDCs and obesity expands the focus on obesity from intervention and treatment to include prevention and avoidance of these chemical modifiers.