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An experiment of food education in France: family, diet and health, from discourses to acts
Anne Lhuissier, . Cheese. Contemporary History of European Economic And Social Experiences
To cite this version:
Anne Lhuissier, . Cheese. Contemporary History of European Economic And Social Experiences. An experiment of food education in France: family, diet and health, from discourses to acts. Colloque franco-japonais :Évolution des pratiques alimentaires dans les sociétés développées : faits et facteurs, Oct 2006, Tokyo, Japan. 17 p. �hal-02817261�
An experiment of food education in France : family, diet and health,
from discourses to acts
Anne Lhuissier
Tokyo, MFJ, 8 octobre 2006
How can we change food habits?
The French National Nutritional Health Program (2001- 2005/2006-2010 )
A case study in Northern France : obese and poor women
The last step of a national program
organisers and participants : which meaning related to their participation in this action?
How do they receive of the messages?
context of the action (interactions between organisers/participants)
context of domestic life (interactions between family members)
Plan
1. The fieldwork
2. Nutritional prevention or familial education?
3. Conjugal life and culinary habits
4. Conclusion
Fieldwork
Precepts of the action : to be autonomous when starting a diet
nutritional education (dietician)
physical activity
fight against cognitive restriction (psychologist)
Free participation, but with a compensation : a questionnaire on the health of the participants
The action takes place in a community centre which
recruits most of the participants
Fieldwork
Participant observation
all the meetings of the action during 9 months
all the meetings between organisers (both as an expert and as a sociologist)
23 in-depth interviews
participants of the action
other women
Fieldwork
Conjugal status
lonely women 9
lonely women with children 5
couple without child 5
couple with children 4
Women’s job situation
working 2
retired 5
disablement pension 6
other allowances 8
allowance to bring up child 2 Men’s job situation
unemployed 3
temping 2
working 4
Conjugal and Job status of the interviewed persons
First part :
Nutritional prevention or
familial education ?
Nutritional prevention or familial education ?
To prevent obesity or child obesity ?
Individual diet prescriptions or familial food norms?
major incomprehension of the
participants
Nutritional prevention or familial education ?
1 st meeting : 3 main messages which never meet participant’s expectations
To eat without moderation (some products)
to eat when hungry
to listen to the body
run up against both :
their representations of their own food behaviour
their expectations in term of advice
related to
health education
familial education
Nutritional prevention or familial education?
Health education since the 80’s
Until the 70’s, food hygiene = rules, norms, forbidden or allowed products
Since the 80’s : new conception of health and health education
To reinforce healthy habits
To reinforce individual and collective responsibility on
health
Nutritional prevention or familial education?
Discourse which intends for women considered less in their social status than as housewives
preventive message at a familial level
seems to give up any objective of individual diet
main objective : change the food habits (instead of weight-loss)
Very general messages linked to the objective of obesity prevention
food hygiene
home economics
Examples of some topics of the meetings
-
To learn reading labels in order to buy products correctly
-
I cook for me or for my family
-
What do we put on the cupboard?
Nutritional prevention or familial education?
normative vision of conjugal structure
Gap between organisers and participants : the former are married and mother of 4 children, the later are divorced, separated or widow.
The fight against child obesity as organisers think it suggests to reinforce familial interactions during the meals
conjugal life and culinary habits
Second part :
Conjugal life and culinary
habits
Conjugal life and culinary habits
Food provisioning, cooking and meal consumption are linked to :
conjugal structure
life cycle
social environment
Example : elderly people whose diet gets less varied when becoming older and alone
Major phenomenon in poverty situations :
one-parent families
lack of professional and social networks
tend to modify food habits
Conjugal life and culinary habits
The fail of conjugal life discourages cooking …
The interviewed women say not to cook anymore whereas
they have time (they don’t work)
they know how to cook (most are the eldest of large families).
Two key elements : conjugal life and family trajectory
They used to cook a lot for the whole family and they progressively stopped with the family break down
Conjugal disorganisation as a synonymous of food
disorganisation
Conjugal life and culinary habits
… but not meal consumption
Doesn’t cook but shares the meal
Confusion between cook and meal
Cooks but doesn’t share the meal
