Meals synchronization. A cross-cultural comparison of eating times in Santiago (Chile) and Paris (France)
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27 septembre 2018
- handle: 10670/1.d8mohg
- hal: hal-02788581
- PRODINRA: 442076
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Anne Lhuissier et al., « Meals synchronization. A cross-cultural comparison of eating times in Santiago (Chile) and Paris (France) », Archive Ouverte d'INRAE, ID : 10670/1.d8mohg
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This paper focuses on the temporal dimension of meals and aims to compare meals schedules and their social determinants in two capital cities, Santiago (Chile) and Paris (France). Our material is drawn from two sets of data. The first source of data was the Encuesta de Comensalidad en Adultos de la Región Metropolitana, survey applied to adult (≥18) population in the Santiago metropolitan region from Chile. The second source of data was the SIRS (acronym for “health, inequalities and social ruptures”) cohort study, a representative socioepidemiological survey of the French-speaking adult (≥18) population conducted in the Paris metropolitan area. We focused on two dependent variables: 1) the meal synchronization during the whole day - i.e. the number of meals eaten in narrow and homogeneous timeslots - and 2) whether people had any, one, two or three meals within these time slots. The peaks throughout the day were defined according to the frequency of cases that declared to be starting a meal in the same 30-minute slot. This research allowed us to highlight cross-national similarities and disparities between Santiago and Paris with regard meal times and meal synchronization. Our data seem to confirm that meals are still highly structured events. Both cities shared a similar and marked three meal pattern. Three major peaks distributed throughout the day correspond to breakfast, lunch and dinner, like in other numerous countries. However, Santiago and Paris differ with regard their meal schedule, the amplitude of synchronization, and the sociodemographic variables. Further research is needed to explore what is at stake in these food events in terms of meal content and socio-demographic variables. One of the contributions of this comparative approach is to highlight, by contrast, national specificities beyond internal differences. This result can’t be seen without a comparative study.