Food security is a real term, and it has to do with people’s access to food, and specifically healthy food. People with low food security have reduced dietary quality, variety or desirability, in other words, they tend to eat unhealthy foods because that’s what they can afford. Those with very low food security have reduced food intake because food is not available. They may be dependent on food from shelters, for instance. I’m teaching a Human Nutrition course and was reading student posts about food security today. This made me think of a parallel in the diabetes world. Because I in no way want to discount the critical nature of the situations I just described, I have decided to call the phenomenon I’m thinking of in people with diabetes, food insecurity.
For my purposes, food insecurity refers to situations where people with diabetes feel stressed because they don’t have control over their food (amount, type, source, etc.). Some examples are eating at someone else’s house, visiting a foreign country, staying in a place where meals are served cafeteria style (at certain times with no access to food in between), taking a standardized test where food is not allowed in the room, and I’m sure many others.
My observation is that in these cases of food insecurity, we have a tendency to get a little panicky and either overeat when we have access to food, or hoard food for later. I was recently in NYC, and I stayed in a residence hall room on a university campus. As a result, I did not have access to my kitchen! I found myself buying food at the local market and keeping it in my room – random things like bananas and dark chocolate. I also visited the dorm vending machine on one occasion. Talk about desperation!
The place I’ve observed this phenomenon the most is at diabetes camp. As much as I adore camp and my experiences there, I was always very sad to see staff members leaving camp every chance they got, and heading for Dunkin Donuts or Friendly’s or the nearest convenience store. It’s not necessarily because they are hungry – there is plenty to eat in the camp dining hall and the food is not all that bad. I feel strongly that the reason this happens is because there is a feeling of not being in control.
Have you experienced food insecurity? How did you handle it (or not)?