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DTSTART:20251026T030000
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UID:calendar.105155.field_date.0@www.iast.fr
DTSTAMP:20260515T142239Z
CREATED:20260123T092003Z
DESCRIPTION:Luseadra Joy McKerracher (Aarhus University)\, “Food insecurity
  and changing food preferences in times of compounding crisis: A new evalu
 ation of the insurance hypothesis”\, IAST General Seminar\, Toulouse: IAST
 \, May 26\, 2026\, 11:30–12:30\, room Auditorium 5 (Second Floor - TSE Bui
 lding).\n\nHousehold food insecurity refers to experiencing or worrying ab
 out lacking sufficient money to buy safe\, nutritious\, socially- and cult
 urally-appropriate foods for all members of a household. It may function a
 s an indicator of perceived and real environmental uncertainty. Evolutiona
 ry life history theory holds that exposure to increased environmental unce
 rtainty will be associated with changes in time and energy allocations in 
 physiology (e.g. fat storage)\, psychology (e.g. food preferences)\, and b
 ehaviour (e.g. eating behaviours). Specifically\, the so-called “insurance
  hypothesis” predicts that uncertain conditions\, especially regarding the
  nutritional environment\, will drive increased investment in tissues\, th
 ought patterns\, and behaviours that will increase chances of survival and
  reproduction in the face of a sudden\, unanticipated energy shortfall. In
  practice\, this means: an increased tendency to store energy in adipose t
 issue\, an increased tendency to worry about food shortages and increased 
 preferences for energy-dense foods (e.g. sugar)\, and an increased tendenc
 y to consume energy-dense foods. The evidence regarding the insurance hypo
 thesis in contemporary human populations\, however\, is mixed.\nThis talk 
 presents new\, cross-national comparative analyses (mixed effects trend an
 alysis regressions) pertaining to the insurance hypothesis\, using publicl
 y-available data on observation years 2016-2023 from 42 high income countr
 ies . The simplest models show that: 1) changes in household food insecuri
 ty prevalence are temporally related to external sources of uncertainty (e
 .g. economic and geopolitical shocks)\, supporting the idea that food inse
 curity serves as an indicator of environmental uncertainty\; and 2) change
 s in annual consumption of an energy-dense\, shelf-stable foodstuff (candy
 / confection) is temporally associated with changes in household food inse
 curity prevalence. However\, more complex modelling approaches which take 
 account of phylogenetic and geographic distance among countries are needed
  before we can claim that there are grounds to reject a null or stochastic
  relationship between changes in dietary behaviours and changes in environ
 mental uncertainty as measured via household food insecurity.   
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20260526T123000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20260526T133000
LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T002001Z
LOCATION:Toulouse: IAST\, May 26\, 2026\, 11:30–12:30\, room Auditorium 5 (
 Second Floor - TSE Building)
SUMMARY:IAST General Seminar
URL;TYPE=URI:https://www.iast.fr/seminars/2026-food-insecurity-and-changing
 -food-preferences-times-compounding-crisis-new-evaluation-insurance
END:VEVENT
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