Webinar #3 in our Webinar Series on Drivers of food choice in low- and middle-income countries: a synthesis of evidence

(learn more about the series here)

Cultural and personal values drive food choice decision-making and play a central role in the changing food choice behaviors of those experiencing the nutrition transition.  Rapid social and economic changes in LMICs (e.g., climate change-related impacts on both agrarian and non-agrarian livelihoods and public sectors; industrialization; urbanization) and their subsequent impacts on family and community structures, livelihoods, access to services, and living conditions and standards alter food environments and expose people in LMIC’s to new sources of influence that change demand for type (e.g, brand names, meats, soft drinks), quantity (e.g., larger portions of meat or sweets; larger portions overall), or quality of foods (e.g., ultra-processed versus fresh) and ways of eating (e.g. on the go, more meals, eating beyond satiety etc.), which can have negative consequences for diet quality and health. Understanding common categories of cultural and personal values and contextually relevant food choice behaviors provides necessary information for effective social marketing and behavior change communications campaigns designed to create or increase demand for healthier foods in LMIC contexts experiencing the nutrition transition.

This webinar will include 4 presentations:

• Christine E Blake, Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina:
  Changing values: Key learnings from Drivers of Food Choice program
• Valerie Flax, RTI International:
  Insights from Malawi: Body size perceptions and food preferences drive food choice among mothers and children
• Matty Demont, International Rice Research Institute:
  Insights from India: Nudging behavioral intentions of food choice towards healthier diets
• Salome R. A. Bukachi, University of Nairobi: 
  Insights from Kenya: Cultural values drive behaviors and decision making for animal source foods

Moderator: Edward Frongillo, Professor & Director, Global Health Initiatives at Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, and co-investigator for the Drivers of Food Choice Program.

Speaker profiles can be found below. Presentations will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A discussion session.

Note: To access this webinar, you will need to register and be logged in to your Zoom account. If you don't have a Zoom account, you can create one here for free.

About our Webinar Series on Drivers of food choice in low- and middle-income countries: a synthesis of evidence

(learn more about the series here)

Global food systems are altering local food environments that serve as the contexts of food choice, defined as the processes by which people consider, acquire, prepare, distribute, and consume foods and beverages. The purpose of the Drivers of Food Choice (DFC) Competitive Grants Program is to generate evidence to understand how people make food choices in local food environments, specifically what, how, and why people eat the way they do among low- and middle-income countries. The DFC program funded projects that applied multi-disciplinary perspectives and methods across highly diverse settings and populations in 10 LMICs. The webinar series will aim to disseminate important findings that have emerged from the DFC portfolio regarding drivers of individual and household food choice in changing food environments and foster discussion around next steps for scale-up and application of insights and innovations from the portfolio. The thematic areas of this webinar series articulate with prominent issues and questions currently confronting policy, practice, and research at the nexus of food environments, nutrition, and health. Webinars will showcase the critical contributions of the DFC portfolio in advancing discussions around these areas. 

Resources

• Presentation slides:
  • Christine E Blake: Changing values: Key learnings from Drivers of Food Choice program
  • Valerie Flax: Insights from Malawi: Body size perceptions and food preferences drive food choice among mothers and children
  • Matty Demont: Insights from India: Nudging behavioral intentions of food choice towards healthier diets
  • Salome R. A. Bukachi: Insights from Kenya: Cultural values drive behaviors and decision making for animal source foods

Join the conversation on social media

Share quotes from the speakers, reflections, screenshots and more on social media. Use these hashtags and handles on Twitter:

• #foodchoice
• Christine E Blake: @ceblakeRD
• Salome R. A. Bukachi: @sallybukachi1
• University of Nairobi Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies: @IAGAS_UON
• RTI International: @RTI_INTL_DEV and @RTI_Intl
• International Rice Research Institute: @IRRI
• Drivers of Food Choice program: @DFC_Program
• ANH Academy: @ANH_Academy