Background: Menstruation is a natural and physiologic process that is managed based on various socio-cultural habits and behaviors. Cultural beliefs about menstruation can improve or worsen menstrual health behavior. The present study aimed to explore the cultural beliefs about menstrual health in Bam city, Iran. Materials and Methods: This is a qualitative study with Directed Content Analysis...

The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying reasons for parents’ decisions about their children’s diets. This study used the projective methodologies of picture response and third-person techniques (projective questioning), which are designed to elicit people’s underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes and concerns, particularly those beliefs which people find hard to articulate. W...

Family, peers and other environmental factors are likely to influence children's dietary behavior but few measures of these phenomena exist. Questionnaires to measure family and peer influences on children's fruit, juice and vegetable (FJV) consumption were developed and pilot tested with an ethnically diverse group of Grade 4-6 children. Principal components analyses revealed subscales with ac...

Studies have shown that smokers rationalize smoking by self-exempting beliefs. This study explored lay beliefs about smoking in Kelantan, Malaysia, using focus groups among outpatients, medical students and staff, and a questionnaire survey of 193 male smokers. In focus groups, patients said they could do something to make smoking safe. When asked, 'Do you think there are any safe ways to smoke...

OBJECTIVE Obesity is often attributed to an addiction to food, and many people believe themselves to be "food addicts." However, little is known about how such beliefs may affect dietary control and weight management. The current research examined the impact of experimentally manipulating participants' personal food addiction beliefs on eating behavior. METHODS In two studies, female particip...

In the debates surrounding biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) food, data from consumer polls are often presented as evidence for precaution and labeling. But how much do consumers actually know about the issue? New data collected from a nationwide U.S. survey reveal low levels of knowledge and numerous misperceptions about GM food. Nearly equal numbers of consumers prefer mandatory lab...

The papers in the session "Food Culture and Consumer Response," show how important people's values, beliefs, aspirations and social context are to their dietary health. They also reveal several tensions that shape consumer responses to healthy food. This essay discusses the paradoxical nature of eating habits in general, and describes three paradoxes related specifically to the challenges of pr...

This study describes Asian Indian immigrant perspectives surrounding dietary beliefs and practices to identify intervention targets for diabetes and heart disease prevention. Participants were asked about conceptualizations of relationships between culture, food, and health during 4 focus groups (n = 38). Findings reveal influences of beliefs from respondents' native India, preservation of cult...