Looking Beyond What We Eat: What if it’s not just what we eat that matters, but how, when, where, why, and with whom we eat?
A considerable body of research has focused on the relationship between what people eat and health outcomes; however, relatively little work has focused on the broader contexts of eating and health. Working with colleagues at US and international institutions, we explored these “contexts of consumption” across three sites: Ethiopia, Brazil, and Haiti. In this work, we propose that if the contexts in which individuals must acquire, prepare, and consume foods are chronically stressful, this may, in part, explain disparities in health outcomes. To learn more, check out our feature publication: Context Matters for Food Security (Owens et al. 2021).
Unpacking the “Black Box” of Food Insecurity & Mental Health
A black box opens up to reveal mental health
Could the contexts in which we acquire, prepare, and consume food underlie the relationship between food insecurity and ill health?
Building on our previous work, we explored whether the enactment of non-normative “contexts of consumption” (for instance, having little dietary variety, cooking without oil or spices, or being unable to send food for ritual occasions) mediated the relationship between food insecurity and mental health in Ethiopia and Brazil. To learn more, check out our feature publication: Unpacking the Black Box(Weaver et al. 2021).
Medically-Tailored Meals & Health Outcomes
What programs may ameliorate the prevalent relationship between food insecurity and cardiometabolic diseases, particularly for individuals living with limited access to nutritious foods?
Working with colleagues at Grady Health System, we evaluated whether a Medically Tailored Meal pilot program improved diet and health outcomes for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our work applied difference-in-differences analysis using a matched cohort to estimate the effect of the intervention. To learn more, check out our feature publication: The Impact of Medically Tailored Meals and Nutrition Therapy (Belak et al. 2021).
ONGOING PROJECTS
Food Insecurity & Cardiometabolic Diseases
How does the experience of living with food insecurity “get under the skin and out again” to manifest in health and socioeconomic outcomes?
An apple accompanies an electronic health record for a patient.
Working with healthcare providers in the US South, we apply mixed-methods approaches that integrate ethnographic data and clinical outcomes data to better understand the proximate mechanisms underlying food insecurity and cardiometabolic diseases and to elucidate potential syndemic, cyclical relationships between inequality, insecurity, and adverse health.
We combine these insights with secondary data to tell stories about inequality and health across the United States. See our StoryMap, Consuming Inequality, for one example.
Food is Medicine Programs in the US South
Pill bottle containing tomatoes
What are the promises and perils of “Food is Medicine” programs implemented to alleviate food insecurity and adverse health outcomes? Can these programs break cycles of insecurity and disease, and if so, how can we apply anthropological insights to advocate for coverage and implementation of these programs?
Wealth, Socioeconomic Status, and Well-Being
A graph featuring icons of currency, a roof, a car, and cattle conveys a few ways to measure wealth.
Does wealthy always equal healthy? How might our current definitions and metrics of wealth limit our ability to understand the often complex relationships between wealth, status, and well-being?
Working with my colleague Craig Hadley, we’ve begun to explore this question using longitudinal data from Jimma Ethiopia. To learn more, check out our feature publication Subjective social status and mental health (Owens et al. 2023), and stay tuned for more related work!
FUTURE PROJECTS
Exciting projects are underway at the HEAR lab! Check in with us regularly for updates on future project proposals.
