Exploring food and eating patterns using food‐maps

Improvement in dietary intake is seen as a key way to make a positive impact on children's current and future health. Yet food and eating are more complex than purely imbibing one's nutritional requirements. In order to gain a fuller picture of an individual's food and eating patterns, it is also important to consider the social dimension within which food and eating takes place. This paper aim to address this issue.

The paper outlines the development of a tool – “food‐mapping”, which is used to explore two children's current food and eating patterns.

Results show that the food‐mapping tool may offer a useful visual representation of an individual's food and eating patterns. This can help, at a glance, to pin‐point areas to develop, such as high levels of sweet‐eating, as well as highlighting key individuals and organizations in providing food for the child.

The paper outlines two cases, from which generalizations cannot be made. In addition, the food‐mapping tool may be limited in that it provides a snap‐shot in time as food and eating patterns do change. This said, it could be used to track changes over time – something not detailed in this paper.

Food‐mapping may be a useful tool for all professionals involved in making a positive impact on people's diet.

The paper focuses on a new tool and its possible application, which takes into account the social dimension to food and eating as well as what is eaten.