{"id":1111,"date":"2024-01-16T10:12:48","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T10:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/food-systems-equality\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2024-01-16T10:25:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T10:25:20","slug":"tower-hamlets-community-researchers-how-food-diary-research-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/food-systems-equality\/tower-hamlets-community-researchers-how-food-diary-research-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Tower Hamlets Community Researchers: How Food Diary Research Works"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOOD DIARIES \u2013 LEARNING HOW THE FOOD SYSTEM AND<\/strong><\/h1>\n

POLICY SHAPES WHAT AND HOW WE EAT<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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Our researchers are currently using two research methods \u2013 food shopalongs and food diaries. Here we explore how the food diaries research works.<\/p>\n

By Julia Kidd, Research Administrator at the University of Sussex, and Shazna Hussain and Sajna Miah, Community Researchers with Wen in Tower Hamlets.<\/em><\/p>\n

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FOOD DIARIES<\/strong><\/h1>\n

What do local people think about what they eat and cook?<\/h2>\n

Our food diaries record how our research participants, mostly women, from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets make decisions about what to prepare, cook, and eat; the range of influences on those decisions; and the skills women in particular have in feeding their families.<\/p>\n

Our research approach is participatory, meaning our participants have more control over what they tell us.<\/p>\n

Through this research we aim to understand how the food system and policy landscape shapes what and how we eat. Once we have a better understanding, we have the potential to transform these systems to improve our food lives.<\/p>\n

How the Food Diaries research works<\/h2>\n

We asked volunteers to take a photograph of everything they ate and drank, where they ate or bought it from, and who they were with, over a 1-3 day period. We asked questions such as: what are you eating? where are you? And who are you with?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some of the photographs of food shared by our food diary participants:<\/p>\n

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Snack<\/p>\n

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Street party cake<\/p>\n

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Breakfast crunchy nut clusters<\/p>\n

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Chicken wings with cucumber<\/p>\n

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Hosting a meal<\/p>\n

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Rice, daal, potato borta, broccoli borta & tomato chutney, jojobi chutney, zara lembu & green chilli<\/p>\n

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Side salad<\/p>\n

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Eating out<\/p>\n

Some of the key things we\u2019ve learned:<\/h2>\n