Table of Contents

Purpose: Healthy eating during early childhood is important for growth and development. Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide (CFG) provides dietary recommendations. We investigated patterns of food consumption among preschool children and attempted to determine whether these children's intakes met nutrition recommendations. Methods: Between 2005 and 2007, four- and five-year-old children (n=2015) attending 12 Edmonton-region public health units for immunization were recruited for a longitudinal study on determinants of childhood obesity. The children's dietary intake at baseline was assessed using parental reports. Results: Overall, 29.6%, 23.5%, 90.9%, and 94.2% of the children met recommendations for vegetables and fruit, grain products, milk and alternatives, and meat and alternatives, respectively. In addition, 79.5% consumed at least one weekly serving of foods in the “choose least often” group. Significant differences existed in consumption of food groups across socioeconomic and demographic groups. For example, 82.9%, 84.7%, and 75.9% of preschool children from neighbourhoods of low, medium, and high socioeconomic status, respectively, consumed at least one food in the “choose least often” group (χ² =16.2, p<0.001). Conclusions: Consumption of vegetables and fruit and grain products was low among participants, and intake of “choose least often” foods was high. Consumption of foods also differed among socioeconomic and demographic groups. To encourage healthy eating among children, public health professionals should target groups who do not meet the CFG recommendations.

Purpose: Eating behaviours were assessed among pregnant women in a mid-sized Canadian city. Methods: As part of the Prenatal Health Project, we interviewed 2313 pregnant women in London, Ontario. Subjects also completed a food frequency questionnaire. Recruitment took place in ultrasound clinics at 10 to 22 weeks of gestation. The main outcome measures were number of daily servings for each food group, measured against the minimum number recommended by the 2007 Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide (CFG), the proportion of women consuming the recommended number of servings for each and all of the four food groups, and factors associated with adequate consumption. We also determined the number of servings of “other foods.” Analysis included descriptive statistics and logistic regression, all at p<0.05. Results: A total of 3.5% of women consumed the recommended number of servings for all four food groups; 15.3% did not consume the minimum number of servings of foods for any of the four food groups. Women for whom this was their first pregnancy were less likely to consume the recommended number of servings from all four food groups (odds ratio=0.41; confidence interval=0.23, 0.74). Conclusions: Very few pregnant women consumed food group servings consistent with the 2007 recommendations. Strategies to improve dietary behaviours must focus on the establishment of healthy eating behaviours among women of reproductive age.

Purpose: Associations were examined between body image and body mass index (BMI) in comparison with body composition in healthy weight, overweight, and obese young adults. Methods: Weight and height were determined, and the percentage of fat mass (%FM) and percentage of fat-free mass (%FFM) were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry in 75 male and 87 female young adults (21.1 ± 1.9 years; 25.2 ± 4.4 kg/m² [mean ± standard deviation]). Body image was measured using the three subscales Weight Esteem, Appearance Esteem, and External Attribution of the Body-Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA). Results: Body mass index and %FM were highly correlated (r for males = 0.74, r for females = 0.82; both p<0.001), and were inversely associated with body image, particularly Weight Esteem. After adjustment for physical activity, BMI and %FM (and %FFM, although in the opposite direction) were associated with each BESAA subscale: %FM, %FFM, and BMI explained 12% to14% of the variance in Appearance Esteem for both sexes, 33% to 41% in Weight Esteem in women and 16% to 18% in men, and 8% to 10% in External Attribution in women (all p<0.05) and <5% for men (NS). Conclusions: Clinicians should be aware that as their clients’ BMI and %FM increase, body image decreases, particularly in women.

Purpose: We examined the demographic characteristics of applicants who applied and were unsuccessful in securing an internship position, what these applicants did afterward in their efforts to obtain an internship position, and which career paths they pursued. We also searched for any differences in eligibility between applicants who had not obtained an internship position and those who eventually were successful. Methods: A 68-item online survey was administered. Results: The study sample (n=84) was relatively homogeneous: female (99%), heterosexual (98%), Caucasian (70%), Canadian-born (75%), having English as a first language (73%), multilingual (40%), and having completed a previous degree (29%). Mean self-reported cumulative grade point average (3.35) exceeded the minimum (3.0) required by most Ontario internship programs. Over 25% eventually secured an internship position. Applicants who rated their packages strong in community nutrition were less successful in attaining an internship. Little difference in qualification was found between those who were eventually successful and not-yet-successful applicants. Conclusions: Unsuccessful applicants met academic and other requirements for admission to dietetic internship programs in Ontario. Insufficient training opportunities, costs associated with internship, and competition may be contributing to a loss of human potential in dietetics.

A team of researchers undertook a collaborative qualitative study to explore beginning dietitians’ life experiences and the meaning ascribed to those experiences in the context of dietetic practice. Data were collected using Seidman's three-step in-depth phenomenological interviewing method with 12 beginning dietitians who were graduates of the three participating dietetic programs. We outline the collaborative research process and highlight a writing and data analysis technique described as the collaborative retreat, a face-to-face, two-day gathering that facilitated the researchers’ collective decision-making and organization, discussion, and analysis of this complex qualitative data set. Use of a listening guide aided researchers’ understanding and interpretation of participant voices. Researchers concluded that the overall collaborative qualitative research process was positive and self-fulfilling, and that it resulted in multiple benefits for them individually and the research project collectively. Researchers were able to work through methodological and theoretical issues as these arose, with the assistance of technology, writing, listening, and dialogue. Relationship building and relationship maintenance emerged as factors critical to the success of the research process. Collaborative research teams that are committed to listening, writing, and dialogue will find that the collaborative retreat can be a productive site of knowledge generation and mentorship.