BACKGROUND Food taboos are known from virtually all human societies and pregnant women have often been targeted. We qualitatively assessed food taboos during pregnancy, its motivating factors, and enforcement mechanisms in the Upper Manya Krobo district of Ghana. METHODS This was an exploratory cross sectional study using qualitative focus group discussions (FGDs). Sixteen FGDs were conducted...

Hypotheses about the persistence and resistance of attitudes and beliefs formed by individuals scoring high or low in Need for Cognition (NC; Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) were derived from the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). In Study 1, both high-NC and low-NC individuals formed evaluatively similar attitudes toward an unfamiliar attitude object (a new product) a...

General illiteracy, superstitions, and a lack of dietary education are major problems in India. Specifically, mothers' beliefs about infant and child feeding may lead to the malnutrition of many infants and children in India. Mothers sometimes unnecessarily restrict the provision of food to their children during illness. The authors investigated the prevalent maternal beliefs in Kutumba, Aur...

OBJECTIVE Although Asians demonstrate elevated levels of type 2 diabetes, little attention has been directed to their unique cultural beliefs and practices regarding diabetes. We describe cultural and family challenges to illness management in foreign-born Chinese American patients with type 2 diabetes and their spouses. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This was an interpretive comparative intervi...

Many cultures hold on to different beliefs and retain community-defined restrictions for menstruating women. The Igbo society of southeast Nigeria is rich in culture, myths and superstitions but, surprisingly no documentation exists on menstrual beliefs and practices among the population. This questionnaire-based cross sectional study supplemented with in-depth interviews evaluated the beliefs,...

In the social sciences there has been much exciting and informative work on farmers' markets and this paper contributes to this literature by considering how the place of farmers' markets affects the way consumers understand the taste of food. I draw on the difficulty faced by many consumers in articulating the taste of food, especially when food is perceived to taste good. I explore how consum...

BACKGROUND Understanding food beliefs and practices is critical to the development of dietary recommendations, nutritional programmes, and educational messages. This study aimed to understand the pregnancy food beliefs and practices and the underlying reasons for these among the contemporary rural Kalenjin communities of Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. METHODS Through semi-structured interviews, d...