Cultural Influences on Food and Dietary Diversity

Ecology of Food and Nutrition (EFN) promotes scholarly discussion and engagement on the holistic and cross-cultural dimensions of food and nutrition. Articles published in this journal focus on foods and food systems in terms of their utilization to satisfy human nutritional needs and improve health and well-being. The journal also publishes articles that examine how ecological, social, and cultural factors influence food availability, choices, and consumption, food cultures, and nutrition. Only a handful of journals publish articles that explicitly address the intersections of food and nutrition, biology and culture, and policy and practice from a holistic and global perspective. It is this kind of scholarship that EFN seeks to promote. The current issue of EFN includes seven articles based on studies conducted in Belgium, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and the United States. These articles focus on a range of topics, maternal and child nutrition, food consumption and dietary diversity, and cultural consonance and food consumption. The article by Decorte and colleagues explores the targeting of emerging adults (18–25 years) by the food media and its impact on food-related habits and consumption. The authors used semi-structured interviews to collect data on thirty-seven Belgian participants. The emergent themes include hedonism, ability, and information. The authors also discuss the research and practice implications of their study. In their article, Sameera and colleagues examine the predictors of dietary diversity and their association with anemia among non-pregnant women of reproductive age in rural India. The authors used baseline data from the Reductions in Anemia through Normative Innovations (RANI) project and included 980 non-pregnant women (15–49 years) from Odisha, India in their study. Their investigation focused on examining the relationship between dietary diversity and anemia. The authors conclude that dietary diversity is inversely associated with mild anemia in non-pregnant women of reproductive age in India. The article by Ginting and colleagues focuses on household food access, consumption, and nutritional status of children living in a volcanic eruptionsprone area in Indonesia. The authors used cross-sectional household and anthropometric data on a sample of 368 households (158 farmers only and 228 famers plus farm laborers). The authors report different food consumption patterns in the two groups of households. As compared to farmers only households, the farmers plus farm laborers had slightly better variety of food because they could collect fruits and vegetables as farm laborers. ECOLOGY OF FOOD AND NUTRITION 2022, VOL. 61, NO. 3, 271–272 https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2022.2071263