Categories of Food Identity Evident in the Process of Identity Maintenance and Change
| Food Identity . | Meaning of Food Activities . | Focus of Participation and Engagement . | Supporting Data . | Participant Pseudonyms . |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food lover (n = 18) | Love food | Spending time and money | “I’m a foodie, really; I love food.” (Maisy) | Maisy, Bettie, Jack, Sarah, Patricia, Carol, Saul, William, Sharon, Robert, Dorothy, Jill, Jean, Peter, Daphne, Gloria, Mary, Martha |
| Lifelong pleasure | Cooking together | “I’m greedy and I love my breakfast; that’s my reason for getting up.” (Dorothy) | ||
| Important | Resisting temptation | “We just like growing and cooking things.” (Jill) | ||
| “Basically, we cook because we’re obsessed.” (Peter) | ||||
| Nonfoodie (n = 10) | Uninterested in food | Spending as little time as possible | “I wouldn’t say I’m a foodie at all.” (Linda) | Margaret, Wanda, Linda, Fred, Victoria, Eileen, Sue, Nancy, Ethel, Rupert |
| Lack of pleasure | “I’m no cook. . . . All I do is warm up what somebody else cooked.” (Fred) | |||
| Not important | “I’m a lousy cook. I don’t want to cook. Also, I can’t stand . . . the cooker.” (Victoria) | |||
| “I’d be quite happy not to eat but enjoy life in other ways.” (Rupert) | ||||
| Not bothered (n = 11) | Less pleasurable | Spending as little time as possible | “You get that you can’t really be bothered [with cooking].” (Edna) | Edna, Ruth, Marjory, Howard, Barbara, Anne, Judith, Helen, Mary, Sally, Phyllis |
| Less important | “I used to quite enjoy cooking, but I just can’t be bothered these days.” (Marjory) | |||
| Too much effort | “[The importance of eating] comes and goes. . . . It depends on my feelings. . . . I enjoyed eating when I was working, so it does go socially, really, but on your own. . . .” (Sally) | |||
| “[Cooking] used to be [important] when I had a family to cook for. . . . [Now] my daughter moans at me.” (Judith) | ||||
| “Well, I suppose it [food] becomes much more mundane, doesn’t it? It becomes something you know you have to do because you have to eat.” (Barbara) |
| Food Identity . | Meaning of Food Activities . | Focus of Participation and Engagement . | Supporting Data . | Participant Pseudonyms . |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food lover (n = 18) | Love food | Spending time and money | “I’m a foodie, really; I love food.” (Maisy) | Maisy, Bettie, Jack, Sarah, Patricia, Carol, Saul, William, Sharon, Robert, Dorothy, Jill, Jean, Peter, Daphne, Gloria, Mary, Martha |
| Lifelong pleasure | Cooking together | “I’m greedy and I love my breakfast; that’s my reason for getting up.” (Dorothy) | ||
| Important | Resisting temptation | “We just like growing and cooking things.” (Jill) | ||
| “Basically, we cook because we’re obsessed.” (Peter) | ||||
| Nonfoodie (n = 10) | Uninterested in food | Spending as little time as possible | “I wouldn’t say I’m a foodie at all.” (Linda) | Margaret, Wanda, Linda, Fred, Victoria, Eileen, Sue, Nancy, Ethel, Rupert |
| Lack of pleasure | “I’m no cook. . . . All I do is warm up what somebody else cooked.” (Fred) | |||
| Not important | “I’m a lousy cook. I don’t want to cook. Also, I can’t stand . . . the cooker.” (Victoria) | |||
| “I’d be quite happy not to eat but enjoy life in other ways.” (Rupert) | ||||
| Not bothered (n = 11) | Less pleasurable | Spending as little time as possible | “You get that you can’t really be bothered [with cooking].” (Edna) | Edna, Ruth, Marjory, Howard, Barbara, Anne, Judith, Helen, Mary, Sally, Phyllis |
| Less important | “I used to quite enjoy cooking, but I just can’t be bothered these days.” (Marjory) | |||
| Too much effort | “[The importance of eating] comes and goes. . . . It depends on my feelings. . . . I enjoyed eating when I was working, so it does go socially, really, but on your own. . . .” (Sally) | |||
| “[Cooking] used to be [important] when I had a family to cook for. . . . [Now] my daughter moans at me.” (Judith) | ||||
| “Well, I suppose it [food] becomes much more mundane, doesn’t it? It becomes something you know you have to do because you have to eat.” (Barbara) |