Publisher's Synopsis
This manual provides practical advice for small-scale surveys on how to collect information on food habits and food consumption, and is primarily intended for field staff of food and nutrition programmes in Third World communities, such as nutritionists, community health staff, home-economics and agricultural extension officers. Many of them may feel the need to collect some information on food habits and food consumption during their work in order to throw light on a nutritional problem in their community and to find ways of solving it. Some may not have the necessary experience in connducting nutrition-oriented social surveys.;The aim of the field guide is to outline how to collect information on food habits and food consumption. Such information may be collected for two, but interrelated objectives: for a general reconnaissance of the social context of food and nutrition of a community; and for a more specific problem-oriented approach on food habits and food consumpition.;In the instance of the first objective, this can be done by means of a food ethnography which gives a descriptive analysis of the food system and food habits of a population. In essence, a food ethnography is concerned with the question of how people deal their food. Food ethnography is needed, as in most communities knowledge and insight on the social context of food and nutrition is limited, incomplete or hardly available. When planning a nutrition intervention or nutrition research, it is essential to carry out a food ethnography. There is some evidence that even in long-established food and nutrition programmes much basic information is lacking.;In the instance of the second objective, information may be used for anthropometric, clinical or biochemical assessment of the nutritional status of a population, as an indication of who is malnourished and why. Specific information on food habits and food consumption may be needed during planning, inplementation and evaluation of food and nutrition programmes.;The user of the guide should bear in mind that a survey only makes sense if one carefully defines its purpose: the goals of the inquiry, why and what one wants to know. So suggestions and questions, questionnaires and worksheets provided by the manuals should be adapted to the specific aims and needs of the user. One cannot prepare a standard questionnaire on food habits and consumption for every situation.;This publication is intended as a guide and not as a set of rules on food habits and food consumption. It may contain questions neither relevanct nor applicable to a specific population and nutritional problems. It is not intended as an introduction on how to carry out sociological and epidemiological studies, which are beyond its scope.
