scholarly journals Identifying Opportunities for Strategic Policy Design to Address the Double Burden of Malnutrition through Healthier Retail Food: Protocol for South East Asia Obesogenic Food Environment (SEAOFE) Study

Author(s):  
Sirinya Phulkerd ◽  
Cut Novianti Rachmi ◽  
Mohd Jamil Sameeha ◽  
Elaine Q. Borazon ◽  
Anne-Marie Thow ◽  
...  

Effective policies that address both the supply and demand dimensions of access to affordable, healthy foods are required for tackling malnutrition in South East Asia. This paper presents the Protocol for the South East Asia Obesogenic Food Environment (SEAOFE) study, which is designed to analyze the retail food environment, consumers’ and retailers’ perspectives regarding the retail food environment, and existing policies influencing food retail in four countries in South East Asia in order to develop evidence-informed policy recommendations. This study was designed as a mixed-methods sequential explanatory approach. The country sites are Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The proposed study consists of four phases. Phase One describes the characteristics of the current retail food environment using literature and data review. Phase Two interprets consumer experience in the retail food environment in selected urban poor communities using a consumer-intercept survey. This phase also assesses the retail food environment by adapting an in-store audit tool previously validated in higher-income countries. Phase Three identifies factors influencing food retailer decisions, perceptions, and attitudes toward food retail policies using semi-structured interviews with selected retailers. Phase Four recommends changes in the retail food environment using policy analysis and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. For the analysis of the quantitative data, descriptive statistics and multiple regression will be used, and thematic analysis will be used to process the qualitative data. This study will engage stakeholders throughout the research process to ensure that the design and methods used are sensitive to the local context.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Jennifer Datiles ◽  
Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez

Abstract A. muricata is a small evergreen tree up to 9 m tall. It is native to tropical America but is widely planted in home gardens in South-East Asia. In Brazil, several small commercial plantations are in operation (about 2000 hectares are planted) with more planned. It was one of the earliest fruit trees introduced to the old world, brought to the Philippines by the Spanish. It is valued chiefly for its edible fruits, which are large (> 1 kg), heart-shaped and dark green in colour. The flesh is tart, desirable for ice creams and drinks, fruit jellies and sweetcakes. In the Philippines, young fruits with seeds still soft are used as a vegetable.


Author(s):  
Ting Zhang ◽  
Bo Huang

Outside of western countries, the study of the local food environment and evidence for its association with dietary behavior is limited. The aim of this paper was to examine the association between the local retail food environment and consumption of fruit and vegetables (FV) among adults in Hong Kong. Local retail food environment was measured by density of different types of retail food outlets (grocery stores, convenience stores, and fast food restaurants) within a 1000 m Euclidean buffer around individual’s homes using a geographic information system (GIS). The Retail Food Environment Index (RFEI) was calculated based on the relative density of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to grocery stores. Logistic regressions were performed to examine associations using cross-sectional data of 1977 adults (18 years or older). Overall, people living in an area with the highest RFEI (Q4, >5.76) had significantly greater odds of infrequent FV consumption (<7 days/week) after covariates adjustment (infrequent fruit consumption: OR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.04–1.78; infrequent vegetable consumption: OR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.11–2.68) in comparison to the lowest RFEI (Q1, <2.25). Highest density of fast food restaurants (Q4, >53) was also significantly associated with greater odds of infrequent fruit consumption (<7 days/week) (unadjusted model: OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.04–1.73), relative to lowest density of fast food restaurants (Q1, <13). No significant association of density of grocery stores or convenience stores was observed with infrequent FV consumption regardless of the covariates included in the model. Our results suggest that the ratio of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to grocery stores near people’s home is an important environmental factor in meeting fruit and vegetable consumption guidelines. “Food swamps” (areas with an abundance of unhealthy foods) rather than “food deserts” (areas where there is limited access to healthy foods) seems to be more of a problem in Hong Kong’s urban areas. We advanced international literature by providing evidence in a non-western setting.


Obesity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1063-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary T. Gorski Findling ◽  
Julia A. Wolfson ◽  
Eric B. Rimm ◽  
Sara N. Bleich

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Rose ◽  
Lauren Futrell Dunaway ◽  
Adriana Dornelles ◽  
Keelia O'Malley ◽  
J. Nicholas Bodor ◽  
...  

Significance Meanwhile, the Myanmar junta and the military-aligned Thai government are under pressure from opponents, and the Philippines is gearing up for elections. With COVID-19 vaccination rates varying greatly, some countries in the region are better placed than others to revive their pandemic-hit economies.


Author(s):  
Martyn Rady

From the 13th to the 20th centuries, Habsburgs ruled much of Central Europe, and for two centuries were rulers of Spain. Through Spain, they acquired lands around the Mediterranean and part of the New World, spreading eastwards to include the Philippines. Reaching from South-East Asia to what is now Ukraine, the Habsburg Empire was truly global. The Habsburg Empire: A Very Short Introduction looks at the history of the Habsburgs from their 10th-century origins in Switzerland, to the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire in 1918. It introduces the pantheon of Habsburg rulers and discusses the lands and kingdoms that made up the Empire and the moments that shaped their history.


Author(s):  
Lucia A. Leone ◽  
Sheila Fleischhacker ◽  
Betsy Anderson-Steeves ◽  
Kaitlyn Harper ◽  
Megan Winkler ◽  
...  

Disparities in dietary behaviors have been directly linked to the food environment, including access to retail food outlets. The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to major changes in the distribution, sale, purchase, preparation, and consumption of food in the United States (US). This paper reflects on those changes and provides recommendations for research to understand the impact of the pandemic on the retail food environment (RFE) and consumer behavior. Using the Retail Food Environment and Customer Interaction Model, we describe the impact of COVID-19 in four key areas: (1) community, state, tribal, and federal policy; (2) retail actors, business models, and sources; (3) customer experiences; and (4) dietary intake. We discuss how previously existing vulnerabilities and inequalities based on race, ethnicity, class, and geographic location were worsened by the pandemic. We recommend approaches for building a more just and equitable RFE, including understanding the impacts of changing shopping behaviors and adaptations to federal nutrition assistance as well as how small food business can be made more sustainable. By better understanding the RFE adaptations that have characterized the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope to gain greater insight into how our food system can become more resilient in the future.


Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 3349
Author(s):  
Hannah Yang Han ◽  
Catherine Paquet ◽  
Laurette Dubé ◽  
Daiva E Nielsen

The role of the retail food environment in obesity risk is unclear, which may be due in part to the lack of consideration of individual differences in the responsivity to food cues. This cross-sectional investigation geo-temporally linked the CARTaGENE biobank (including genetic, dietary, lifestyle, and anthropometric data) with in-store retail food environment data to examine interactions between a polygenic risk score (PRS) for obesity and (1) diet quality (n = 6807) and (2) in-store retail food measures (n = 3718). The outcomes included adiposity-related measures and diet quality assessed using the 2010 Canadian-adapted Healthy Eating Index. A vegetable:soft drink ratio was constructed for each retail measure to assess the relative healthfulness of exposures. Generalized linear models adjusted for individual and neighborhood socio-demographic factors were used to evaluate main and interactive effects. Diet quality significantly modified the association between polygenic risk of obesity and body mass index, waist circumference, and body fat percent. A significant interaction was also observed between PRS and regular price of vegetables in relation to soft drinks on waist circumference. These results replicate previous reports of diet moderating polygenic risk of obesity and suggest that prices of low vs. high-energy density foods are an intervention target to address population obesity rates.


2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2

The collection of papers in this issue of Organised Sound results from a call for material focused on the theme of music technology in Australasia (New Zealand, Australia and neighbouring Islands of the South Pacific) and South East Asia (Brunei, Burma, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam).


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