The Multifaceted Nature of Food and Nutrition Insecurity around the World and Foodservice Business

The international concept of food security is a situation where all people have physical, social, and economic access at all times to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. All four parameters (availability, access, utilization, and stability) should therefore be measured to determine food security status.Taking into account these premises, this book aims to present original research articles and reviews concerning the following: Agriculture and food security; Agri-tourism and its potential to assist with food security; Business–science cooperation to advance food security; Competing demands and tradeoffs for land and water resources; Consumer behavior, nutritional security and food assistance programs; Food and health; Global and local analyses of food security and its drivers; Global governance and food security; Infectious and non-infectious diseases and food security; Reducing food loss and waste; Reducing risks to food production and distribution from climate change; Supply chains and food security; Technological breakthroughs to help feed the globe; Tourism food security relationship; Urbanization, food value chains, and the sustainable, secure sourcing of food; Food and service quality at food catering establishments; Consumer behavior at foodservice operations (restaurants, cafés, hotels)

Effects of gratitude and cognitive load on delay discounting: replication failures in two experiments

Delay discounting is the phenomenon whereby the value of future rewards is discounted as a function of time. Individual differences in discounting rate have been linked to a range of correlates and research has suggested a lower discounting rate to be more adaptive. One mechanism that may reduce discounting rate involves effortful self-regulation achieved through the engagement of executive function processes. This mechanism, however, is reliant on a limited-capacity cognitive system. Cognitively demanding contexts and low baseline capacity therefore create vulnerability to higher discounting rates and the associated negative sequelae. The affective state of gratitude has been proposed as an alternative mechanism to reduce discounting rate. It has been described as independent of effortful self-regulation with the implication that it is not demanding of limited cognitive resources. However, this had not been tested experimentally. The current research program comprised two experiments. The primary aims were as follows: (1) to replicate previous findings showing the effects of gratitude and cognitive load on discounting rate, and (2) to extend previous findings by investigating whether the effect of one of these predictors depends on the level of the other. [...

The effect of cognitive challenge on delay discounting

Recent findings suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a region consistently associated with impulse control, is vulnerable to transient suppression of its activity and attendant functions by excessive stress and/or cognitive demand. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that a capacity-exceeding cognitive challenge induced decreased DLPFC activity and correlated increases in the preference for immediately available rewards. Consistent with growing evidence of a link between working memory capacity and delay discounting, the effect was inversely proportional to baseline performance on a working memory task. Subjects who performed well on the working memory task had unchanged, or even decreased, delay discounting rates, suggesting that working memory ability may protect cognitive control from cognitive challenge