Why people eat in a traditional or modern way: A cross-country study
Final Report Abstract
Countries across the world are experiencing a transition towards modern eating behavior. This transition accompanied an increase in chronic diseases, whereas traditional eating has been linked to health. Surprisingly, little research has asked the question why people eat in a traditional or modern way, and this research was impeded by different conceptualizations of traditional and modern eating. The current project (TEP10 project) filled in this gap by (a) developing a comprehensive systematization and assessment tool for the different dimensions and facets of traditional and modern eating behavior that can be applied across ten different countries; and (b) comprehensively demonstrating how traditional and modern eating is related to both eating motives and health outcomes across a broad range of countries. Investigated countries were Ghana, India, China, Turkey, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, France, Germany, and the USA. The most important results of the TEP10 project are: 1) A comprehensive compilation and systematization of the various facets of traditional and modern eating, which resulted in the TEP10 framework, including the two major dimensions what and how people eat, and twelve subdimensions. The TEP10 framework indicates that traditional and modern eating is a complex and multifaceted set of behaviors that extends far beyond the often-portrayed dichotomy. Moreover, it implies that generic statements about the relationship between traditional/modern eating and health outcomes are difficult to support. Rather, statements about the relationship between certain facets of traditional/modern eating and health are possible. 2) A questionnaire to assess traditional and modern eating (TradEat tool), that allows both a country-specific assessment and a comparative assessment of traditional and modern eating across ten countries. Interestingly, the meaning of traditional eating appeared much more heterogeneous across countries than the meaning of modern eating. For instance, only seven facets were universally rated as traditional in all countries, but 23 facets were universally rated as modern. This implies that statements about the relationship between certain facets of traditional eating and health need to be related to the specific country. 3) Questionnaires to assess traditional/modern eating and eating motives were valid across different countries. Specifically, the TradEat tool successfully discriminated between urban younger and rural older Indians, in line with the prediction that urban younger Indians engage in more modern and less traditional eating than rural older Indians. Moreover, model fit for the 15 motive factors included in The Eating Motivation Survey (TEMS) was generally reasonable across Brazil, India, the USA, and Germany. This result provides important evidence regarding the consistency and generalizability of the 15 basic eating motives included in TEMS across countries with greatly differing eating environments. 4) A large 10-country study and a more specific German study uncovered how eating motives are related to traditional and modern eating facets. For instance, eating because of natural concerns, health concerns, and traditions were related to the most traditional eating facet (eating food that has been prepared in grandmother’s way), whereas eating because of negative emotions, visual appeal, and convenience were related to the most modern eating facet (eating fast food) in the 10-country study. Moreover, the German study extended these findings by highlighting the impact of moderator variables with regard to the relationship between eating motives and traditional/modern eating. 5) We found that not every traditional eating facet is related to health, and that modern eating facets can even have positive associations with health. More precisely, a preference for intuitive eating, a traditional eating facet, was generally unrelated to objective health parameters, whereas a preference for deliberate eating, a modern eating facet, was positively related to objective health parameters. Results of the TEP10 project were well received by the scientific community and featured in public media, such as in newspapers and on the radio. Overall, the TEP10 project made an important contribution to a better understanding of what constitutes traditional and modern eating, its assessment, and underlying psychological factors across a great variety of different countries.
Publications
- (2018). What constitutes traditional and modern eating? The case of Japan. Nutrients, 10, 118
Sproesser, G., Imada, S., Furumitsu, I., Rozin, P., Ruby, M., Arbit, N., Fischler, C., Schupp, H.T., & Renner, B.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10020118) - (2019). The Eating Motivation Survey in Brazil. Results from a sample of the general adult population. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1–9
Sproesser, G., Moraes, J., Renner, B., & Alvarenga, M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02334) - (2019). Understanding traditional and modern eating: The TEP10 framework. BMC Public Health, 19, 1606
Sproesser, G., Ruby, M. B., Arbit, N., Akotia, C. S., Alvarenga, M., Bhangaokar, R., Furumitsu, I., Hu, X., Imada, S., Kaptan, G., Kaufer, M., Menon, U., Fischler, C., Rozin, P., Schupp, H. T., & Renner, B.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7844-4) - (2020). The relationship between healthy eating motivation and protein intake in community-dwelling older adults with varying functional status. Nutrients, 12, 662
Rempe, H. M., Sproesser, G., Hannink, A., Skurk, T., Brandl, B., Hauner, H., Renner, B., Volkert, D., Sieber, C. C., Freiberger, E., & Kiesswetter, E.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12030662) - (2021). Preference for Intuition and Deliberation in eating decision making: Scale validation and association with health. British Journal of Health Psychology, 26, 109–131
König, L. M., Sproesser, G., Schupp, H. T., & Renner, B.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12460)
