December 5, 2022—On this Huge 3 Q&A, Cindy Leung, assistant professor of public well being diet at Harvard TH Chan College of Public Well being, discusses a latest paper she co-authored linking meals insecurity and meals dependancy, in addition to her different analysis efforts.
Q: Inform us about your latest research and the fascinating findings round meals insecurity.
A: Meals insecurity is a socioeconomic situation of restricted entry to inexpensive and wholesome meals. In my prior analysis, I discovered that folks experiencing meals insecurity usually tend to have poorer high quality diets and are at a better threat for continual situations. Meals dependancy is a more recent paradigm during which we’re seeing experiences of withdrawal and different signs much like these, for instance, of alcohol abuse, because of consuming extremely processed meals. Figuring out that extremely processed meals are considerable in low-income neighborhoods, we puzzled if people who find themselves meals insecure could be extra susceptible to meals dependancy.
In two completely different samples—one in every of low-income pregnant ladies within the San Francisco Bay space, and one other of moms of preadolescent youngsters in southeast Michigan—we discovered a constant and vital optimistic affiliation between meals insecurity and meals dependancy, even after adjusting for sociodemographics components like training, race/ethnicity, and earnings degree.
In our research, we could not tease aside the mechanisms behind this hyperlink, however I imagine that stress and ubiquitous entry to extremely processed meals are large elements. Meals insecurity is a supply of continual stress—a relentless cognitive course of to handle one’s meals sources in relation to the household’s meals wants. This continual stress might alter the reward system to overconsume extremely processed meals, growing the danger of meals dependancy over time. The mix of excessive stress and quick access to extremely palatable meals may additionally clarify the upper dangers of different continual ailments that we have seen in relation to meals insecurity.
Q: What different analysis questions are you ?
A: Once we speak about interventions for meals insecurity, we robotically go to our federal meals applications. In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen swift expansions of our largest diet applications, exhibiting that they’re necessary levers to scale back meals insecurity throughout nationwide emergencies. My colleagues and I are evaluating a few of these latest insurance policies. I’m additionally actually keen on seeing how poverty alleviation applications may cut back meals insecurity. Packages and insurance policies that handle the minimal wage or cut back unemployment may have secondary impacts on stopping meals insecurity, which is so intimately tied to poverty.
Other than this, I’m keen on testing and evaluating environmental interventions to enhance dietary consumption. I’ve been concerned in some large-scale interventions to scale back sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. Presently, I’m working with a workforce on the College of Michigan to check numerous eating corridor adjustments to scale back pink meat consumption, which is a crucial purpose for each well being and sustainability causes.
Q: What does that imply to you as an alumna to be again on the College as a college member?
I’m excited and humbled to be again at Harvard Chan College, the place I acquired my foundational coaching and launched my profession. Now, ten years later, I believe I’ve a extra holistic perspective on how I can take my work to the following stage. I additionally really feel very privileged to work alongside my former mentors and colleagues, and the more and more gifted pool of scholars that now we have.
Total, I’m actually optimistic about rising my analysis program on the College, specializing in the intersection of diet and well being fairness. I’m deeply dedicated to serving the general public well being neighborhood in that area.
—Amy Roeder