Category Archives: appetite

by | January 4, 2023 · 8:26 pm

What’s Cooking, January 2023

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

 

First and foremost, happy new year! It seems an opportune moment to re-introduce the cluster, which spans three broad areas:

  • Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society (CHEFS) focuses on the socio-cultural dimensions of food and drink markets and consumption, and is led by Jennifer Smith Maguire;
  • Surplus Waste and Excess Food in Society (SWEFS) focuses on drivers and potential interventions to address food waste, and is led by Pallavi Singh;
  • Sheffield Hallam Appetite Research (SHARe) focuses on appetite regulation and eating behaviour, and is co-led by Jenny Paxmanand Jordan Beaumont.

Please get in touch if you’d like to get involved, and email Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) if you’d like details added (or refreshed) on our Members Page.

Research England have recently launched round 2 of the Expanding Excellence in England (E3) fund. The E3 fund is focused on the strategic and sustainable expansion of small, excellent research units that push the frontiers of human knowledge and deliver transformative impacts and enhancing, and enhance the skills base and diversify talent in any given disciplines. E3 funds are thus typically directed at staff recruitment (staff contracts and developing a talent pipeline), activities related to conducting research and creating a conducive research environment, and capital investment. We’d like to explore a potential CHEFS/SWEFS/SHARe bid, with our truly inter-disciplinary focus on food and society as the USP. The internal SHU deadline for expressions of interest is 20 January. If you’d like to be involved in this discussion, please let Jen know by Monday 9 January (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) so that you are included in the planning meeting (date/time TBC).

Mark your calendars for the following upcoming CHEFS events:

  • 26 January, 5.30-8pm, on campus: Barbara Bray MBE will deliver a BTE Talk (for the College of Business, Technology and Engineering) on ‘Consolidating the population, planet and people: Food industry solutions.’ Registration and details here.
  • 9 February, 4-5.30pm, on Zoom: CHEFS online research talk on ‘Food, Wine and Discourse’ featuring paired papers from Meg Maker (on the potential for a more inclusive wine lexicon) and Joanne Hollows (archival media research on WWII cookery columns). Titles and abstracts to come; for now, you can find details and joining link here, or email me (smith1@shu.ac.uk) for an Outlook invite.
  • 8 March, 1-3pm, on campus: SHARe is hosting a ‘Complete and Finish’ writing event. Email event organizer Jenny Paxman if you have questions/would like to receive an Outlook invite.
  • 14 March, 1.15-5.30pm, on campus (followed by refreshments and networking, 5.30-6.30): CHEFS is hosting theEnglish and Welsh Wine Symposium, a half-day event that explores the current context and future directions of the English and Welsh wine industry, with keynotes from Simon Thorpe MW, CEO of WineGB, and Professor Steve Charters MW, as well as a tutored tasting of English and Welsh wines, and a panel discussion featuring a cross-section of industry perspectives. More information and the Eventbrite registration link available here.  Any questions, please email event lead organiser, John Dunning (dunning@shu.ac.uk).

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (a recap of 2022 activities; a novel online wine tasting; a new publication on wine value claims);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (including a call for involvement in one of five working groups that ShefFood is organising, as part of their Bronze to Silver Award bid for Sustainable food places);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the March 2023 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

A quick recap of our 2022 CHEFS activities, which included:

  • 11 online research presentations, on craft, authenticity, beer, pubs, children, food, storytelling…and more! (recordings available here, including our final session of 2022 featuring Maria Touri’s research on digital storytelling and bridging the food producer/consumer gap);
  • 5 research roundtables;
  • 4 new GTA/PhD students: Megan, Ufuoma, Nikita, and Gareth (intros to their research here and here);
  • 3 research blog posts (about plant-based foods, South African wine farmworkers, and the PhD by Publication route);
  • a new, recurring PhD blog from Gareth Roberts, as he develops his PhD on food events, and sustainability.

photo of the wine tasting, with participants (visible in the Sheffield Hallam classroom and on the screen, attending from Puerto Rico via Zoom), raising their glasses John Dunning and David Graham hosted a novel wine tasting in November, with Nanette López and Zoe Santiago-Font of UAGM (Universidad Ana G. Méndez) and students in Puerto Rico. This was a live, simultaneous tutored wine tasting of 6 wines, with the same wines sourced both in Puerto Rico and in Sheffield. They are gearing up for future tastings—rum, perhaps!

A new publication from Jennifer Smith Maguire and Nikita-Marie Bridgeman, with co-authors Sharron Marco-Thyse (Centre for Rural Legal Studies, South Africa) and Charles Erasmus (Wine Industry Value Chain Round Table, South Africa): Wine farmworkers, provenance stories and ethical value claims, in the Journal of Wine Research, extends past research on ethical value claims in two ways. First, research often centres on certifications as mechanisms of ethical claims-making; in contrast, we focus on provenance stories as devices of wine brand differentiation and ethical value creation. Second, while value claims are broadly understood as co-creative outcomes involving producers, intermediaries, and consumers, we focus on manual farmworkers, who are largely absent, as story subjects and storytellers, in agri-food provenance stories and value claims. Focusing on the South African wine industry, the article analyses a comparative sample of South African, French, Italian and Australian winery websites, identifying provenance as the dominant frame for ethical value claims, family as a primary anchor for provenance, and South Africa’s distinctive prevalence of representations of farmworkers in winery communications. The article then reports on data from two ‘storytelling workshops’ with Cape Wineland farmworkers, which generated resonant themes – community and familiness; expertise and pride – that align with extant winery brand stories, and dominant market expectations and credence cues, suggesting potential for farmworkers to contribute to and be more securely included and recognized within premium wine value chains.

Finally: CHEFS is delighted to welcome Samantha McCormick, our latest food-focused GTA to Sheffield Business School! Sam is a SHU grad (BSc Hons Nutrition, Diet & Lifestyle) and will be starting her PhD journey in February; watch this space for an introduction in the next edition of What’s Cooking.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

ShefFood, the food partnership for Sheffield, has launched a brand-new food charter for Sheffield as part of their Bronze to Silver Award bid for Sustainable food places. Over the next couple of months, ShefFood is bringing together food-based organisations from across Sheffield in five working groups to write a multi-stakeholder Action Plan for the city. The working groups (Food Ladders; Compost and Growing; Food Health and Obesity; Good Food Economy and Procurement; Good Food Movement—open meetings) have a series of workshops scheduled over January-March. Dates, locations, and details on how to get involved are available here; to confirm your place at any of the meetings, or for more information, please email <info@sheffood.org.uk>.

Call for papers: Third International Conference on Food and Communication. Deadline 15 February.
The third conference on Food and Communication will be held in Örebro, Sweden, 13 – 15th September 2023, with the theme “Communication ‘good’ foods.” By studying topics at the intersection of communication and food, the conference welcomes scientific contributions covering all geographic areas, historical periods, and methods, including, but not limited to food and: health; sustainability; ethics; science; branding/marketing; media; advice and cookbooks; governmental discourse; corporate discourse; professional communication (chefs, restaurants); politics; religion. Full information and abstract submission point available here.

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be March 2023. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 27 February.

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

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by | June 13, 2022 · 7:56 am

Plant-Based Convenience Foods: Consumer Perceptions, Nutrient Profile and Satiety

Sheffield Business School and the Business, Technology, and Engineering College of Sheffield Hallam University recently hosted a PGR and ECR Conference on the theme ‘Does Impact Matter?‘ Congratulations to Megan Flint, who was joint winner of the conference prize for the best e-poster presentation!

Megan’s poster, ‘Plant-based convenience foods: Consumer perceptions, nutrient profile and satiety‘ sets out a clear case for investigating consumers’ perceptions, drivers and barriers with regard to plant-based convenience foods. Plant-based convenience foods sit at a complex junction: on the one hand, plant-based foods may offer a route to improved population health and environmental sustainability; on the other, there are potentially negative health consequences attached to the ultra-processing often underpinning plant-based convenience food safety and palatability.

Megan’s research explores consumers’ health valuation of plant-based convenience foods versus their actual nutritional profile and satiating potential. Doing so offers the potential to assess and improve consumer literacy of plant-based food products, whilst also potentially contributing to new product development and the design of more effective marketing strategies.

Research Questions:

  • What key drivers and barriers are associated with readiness and intent to engage with PB convenience foods in different consumer segments?
  • How does the nutritional profile of PB convenience foods compare with meat-based equivalents?
  • How do PB convenience compare to meat-based equivalents regarding satiating properties?

Research Objectives:

  • To measure current consumer understanding, engagement and health-related motivations to consume PB convenience foods through a cross- sectional survey.
  • To explore consumer experience of PB convenience foods through semi-structured interviews.
  • To analyse and evaluate the nutritional profile of PB convenience foods against suitable meat-based equivalents.
  • To investigate the satiating efficacy of PB convenience foods against a suitable meat-based comparator through an acute feeding study design.

The research design spans three studies: a quantitative cross-sectional design with consumers, complemented by semi-structured interviews;  a comparative analysis of the health value of plant-based convenience foods and meat-based equivalents; and a single-blinded randomised, two-way crossover study will analyse the outcome of plant-based and meat-based test meals on participant appetite and satiety.

Check out Megan’s full award-winning poster here: Megan Flint Poster Presentation 2022

Megan Flint is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and PhD student in the Department of Service Sector Management, Sheffield Business School, working with supervisors Jenny Paxman, Tony Lynn and Simon Bowles.

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by | September 30, 2021 · 6:23 am

Electric Currents and Eating Behaviour

A person wearing a cap with wires emerging from it

Photo credit: Jordan Beaumont

Have you ever caught a whiff of freshly baked bread, or spotted a gooey chocolate brownie, and instantly been hit with a craving?

Do you run to the shops to buy yourself a treat, or just walk away and carry on with life?

Your response to food is a key part of eating behaviour, and your brain is an important hub for controlling these responses. By interpreting signals from our body, our brain directs us to eat (or stop eating) to maintain our energy needs. But eating goes beyond mere energy requirements – eating is often a social activity, and foods are a source of pleasure and reward. Our brain is able to incorporate these different factors to drive and control our eating behaviours. However, in the current environment, where we are constantly bombarded by food cues (such as the smell and sight of tempting food), it can be difficult to control our eating behaviour.

Data suggests that for some individuals, there is reduced activity within certain areas of the brain that are important for controlling eating behaviour and particularly for preventing impulsive actions associated with overconsumption (e.g. binge eating). This means it is even more difficult to control the response to food and related cues, and we know that people respond differently to the rewarding components of food with some individuals experiencing heightened reward sensitivity. This means these individuals find it particularly difficult to walk away from tempting foods, which often leads to the consumption (or overconsumption) of these highly rewarding, high-calorie foods.

That’s where our research comes in!

Our research looks to change how people respond to food and food-related cues. Specifically, we are looking to alter eating-related measures (e.g. in-the-moment food craving) using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a form of non-invasive brain stimulation where a weak electrical current is passed through the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp.

You want to do what, to my what?!

Electric currents + your brain = nasty One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest vibes, but it’s not what you think.

The electric current is very weak, usually up to 2.0 milliampere (mA). To give some context, electroconvulsive therapy (as seen in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) uses electric currents of up to 900 mA. At 2.0 mA, you’re likely to feel a little tingling or itching, but research on the safety of tDCS shows no damage to either the skin or brain tissue, and the technique is widely considered safe for children and adults, as well as healthy individuals and patient populations. (However, do note the ‘do not try this at home’ message at the end of the blog!)

a picture of the study equipment

Photo credit: Jordan Beaumont

While the technique may seem a little elaborate, the equipment is relatively simple – it involves two conductive rubber plates (electrodes), housed inside saline-soaked sponge pads, which are connected to a stimulation device powered using 2x AA batteries. To hold the electrodes in place, you wear a (very flattering) elasticated cap – modelled by yours truly above. That is as exciting as the equipment gets. During stimulation, you’re usually asked to remain seated and relaxed, but can also be asked to complete a computer-based task or watch a short video.

But, what does it actually do?

The brain is like a packed room, with people (neurons, or nerve cells) constantly chatting to each other (sending chemical signals called neurotransmitters). This chatting, or the passing of neurotransmitters from one neuron to the next, is how the brain tells our body to perform certain functions, and is important for driving our behaviour. Through tDCS, we are able to increase or decrease the amount of chatting that occurs, and as such the level of activity within certain parts of the room.

This becomes important where we see low activity in some areas of the brain, such as those that help control our eating behaviours, which contributes to “problematic” behaviour. Through tDCS, we are able to alter brain activity, learning, task performance and behaviour.

The miracle cure for obesity!

Well, not quite. Obesity and eating behaviour are incredibly complex – although the techniques show promise for altering our response to food and food-related cues in some populations (such as those with binge eating behaviour), we’re a long way from testing the efficacy as a tool for obesity treatment. To fully determine the role tDCS may play in altering eating behaviours, and the potential use of this technique for weight management, we need to carry out many (many) more studies. As such, we’re in constant need of participants…

We need your help!

Share your views on non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques.

Whether you’re a tDCS pro, or just hearing about brain stimulation for the first time, we’re looking for individuals over the age of 18 to share their thoughts of these techniques. Simply fill out this short survey around the perceptions of tDCS and other forms of NIBS.

On completion of the survey, you have the opportunity to be entered into a free prize draw to win one of three £50 vouchers.

If you would like to find out more about our research, or you would like to participate in one of our other studies, you can email me via j.beaumont@shu.ac.uk.

An important note…

Please do not try this at home. tDCS procedures within research and clinical settings are rigorously controlled and meticulously monitored to ensure the protocols are safe and ethical. Do-it-yourself (DIY) tDCS can lead to some worrying side effects (e.g. headaches, skin burns, persistent metallic taste) due to the use of unregulated devices and settings beyond safe limits. tDCS should always be delivered by a trained professional.

 

About the author

Jordan Beaumont (@JordanDBeaumont) is a Registered Nutritionist and Associate Lecturer in Food and Nutrition at Sheffield Hallam University. He is also a PhD candidate and Visiting Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University. The research discussed in this blog was conducted at Leeds Trinity University, under the supervision of Dr Martin Barwood, Dr Danielle Davis, Dr Michelle Dalton and Professor Mark Russell.

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by | April 27, 2021 · 12:56 pm

Introducing SHARe: Sheffield Hallam Appetite REsearch

As a Registered Nutritionist and appetite researcher at Sheffield Hallam University, the food and nutrition impact of the ongoing COVID pandemic has resonated with me.  We are only just beginning to understand the socio-cultural dimensions of the crisis; the emergent inequalities, challenges and opportunities for change and how broadly this impacts on food security, appetite, nutrition, and food behaviours.  In this blog I set out some of my thoughts and reflect on the relevance of our collective research expertise, as members of SHARe (Sheffield Hallam Appetite REsearch), a new CHEFS (Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society) sub-cluster, as we move into ‘the new normal’.

The coronavirus pandemic that spread across the world throughout 2020 has shone a light on human behaviour, social injustice, inequality, and the fragility each person’s own world construct.  Researchers globally are still working through the science and social science lessons learnt so far and what this means for the future: the so-called ‘new-normal’.  The pandemic has laid bare the glaring inequities in food security between and within all nations, whilst also highlighting the link between overweight/ obesity and ill-health, both chronic and acute.  It is well recognised that higher BMIs present a significant risk factor with overall poorer COVID prognosis compared to when equivalent patients contract the disease at a ‘healthy weight’.

The world-wide high prevalence of obesity and overweight continues to represent a significant global public health challenge.  BMIs have risen steadily over recent decades and according to the most recent WHO statistics 39% of the world’s adult population and 18% of those aged 5-19 years are obese.  How to support individuals and populations to lose weight, or even maintain a healthy weight, has been at matter of much debate.  In July 2020 the UK Government launched its most recent obesity strategy to address the issue.  As, with my colleague Lucie Nield, I argued at the time, the strategy is both under-developed and likely ineffective in eliciting wholescale change such as is needed.

Energy balance lies at the heart of our understanding of obesity and, in turn, weight management.  But for appetite researchers such as myself, the pandemic has re-emphasised that biological need is rarely what drives food and drink consumption.  We eat because its lunchtime, because we’re celebrating, because cake tastes good or out of habit.  Ubiquitously there are hedonic, social, habitual, environmental and other drivers, alongside biological ‘hunger’, that lead us to ingest specific food and drink items at particular times in certain quantities.  I still eat Christmas pudding, even after the turkey!

In COVID-times, we’ve seen the Banana Bread Renaissance. Vogue magazine framed this as a way to make the most out of ‘the circumstances’ of the pandemic, resurrecting a ‘make do and mend’ war-mentality; it is also part of a wider rise in home-baking during COVID. In addition, the home-baking trend is likely driven by a range of reasons, from running out of staples as certain items disappeared from our supermarket shelves, to increased time at home and furlough, to the need, for many, to occupy children suddenly out of school and learning from home.

By the end of November 2020 take-home alcohol sales had increased in Britain by 18.1% (that’s half a billion litres) but this was reportedly off-set by an overall reduction in alcohol sales due to hospitality closures and lockdowns.  In line with fears voiced about the potential health implications of increased home drinking in lockdown, WHO Europe produced an alcohol and COVID factsheet  that highlighted that alcoholic products neither prevent nor treat COVID-19, and alcohol consumption comes with other COVID-relevant risks including impeding good decision-making and, with heavy use, weakening of the immune system.  It remains to be seen whether the new levels of home drinking remain as the hospitality sector opens up over 2021, in line with the Government’s roadmap, and if so, what the longer term health implications could be.

The Government’s ill-conceived ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme has been shown to have had limited effect on the UK’s restaurants and cafés. It was met with opposition from leading health experts who feared it would drive less healthy choices being associated widely with fast food options in particular, and has been shown to have contributed to the second COVID wave.

The academic COVID literature emerging around eating behaviours and COVID suggests that emotional distress and poor quality of life during lockdown led to increased emotional eating and more frequent binge eating.  It has also been found that motivation to pay for and expend effort obtaining food (across categories) was highest in those with higher COVID-related stress and highly processed and sweet foods had high motivating value across a range of measures of motivation.  The lockdown effect has also been shown to be highly individualised.  The ZOE COVID Symptom Study app allowed researchers insight into the lockdown effect on healthy behaviours.  Findings have shown that for many with the unhealthiest lifestyles pre-lockdown, the gains and improvements made in diet, physical activity levels and sleep were greater than those who were healthier to start with.

So, what is the ‘new normal’ for appetite research?  A recent BNF guest blog captures the outcomes from an MRC-funded workshop I was fortunate enough to attend.  It outlines opportunities for reformulation and innovation for health, ‘Big data’ to improve our understanding of appetite, variability in response to obesity services and support for behaviour change.  The take away message: “Cross-discipline, collaborative research is key to driving change in this area.”

This is precisely the approach that characterises the SHARe (Sheffield Hallam Appetite REsearch) cluster, which has members from across SHU: psychologists; registered nutritionists; dieticians; exercise scientists; biomedical scientists; nurses; pharmacologists and more. The diversity of discipline of appetite research is well recognised and the wide range of research methods used has been subject to recent review authored by some of the discipline’s most significant contributors. As SHARe is reimagined as a new sub-cluster within CHEFS, the  Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster, we have a unique opportunity to enhance our contribution, furthering and expanding the cross-disciplinary and collaborative work being undertaken to examine the socio-cultural dimensions of food and drink.  We’re so excited to move forward working together.

If you’d like to know more about SHARe, or get involved, please contact SHARe lead, Jenny Paxman j.r.paxman@shu.ac.uk.  For regular updates from SHARe and CHEFS and to hear more about events and funding opportunities join our JISC-mail list, subscribe to the Blog and follow us on Twitter @SHU_CHEFS.

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