The modern gut-hammer: Understanding the eating habits of loggers through Photovoice

Give Us Your Best Shot is a Photovoice project designed to shed a light on loggers' food choices, attitudes toward and challenges around eating. This research focused on answering the question: What do you typically eat on a workday and where do you get it (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and drinks)? Consider: What makes it hard to eat healthier? If you feel you eat healthy, how do you do it? Participants were asked to take a photo to answer our research question at least once a week for a six-week period in autumn 2019. Photos and comments were exported from REDCap and imported into NVivo 12, a qualitative analysis software. Two members of the research team analyzed these data. In total, six male Maine loggers, ages 33 to 64, took part in the Photovoice project. Several themes emerged from these data including, but not limited to, the conflict between stated feelings about diet and health and actual consumption habits, the priority of health among many demands, and perceived healthfulness. Data analysis revealed time and family to be significant influential factors affecting loggers' attitudes and ability to eat healthfully. Modern trends toward processed and pre-made food resulting in less home cooking, impacts how and what loggers eat. This project served to show that food choice and diet are modulated by complex outside forces and that improving diet is not a straightforward task. Maine loggers are coping with the same struggles that many workers face, with the added hardship of dealing with extremely long work hours and commutes, leaving little time for anything else. These factors should be taken into consideration when planning any nutrition related interventions with logging workers.

Automated summary

The Photovoice project aimed to investigate loggers' food choices, attitudes, and challenges around eating. The research found that family and time were significant influential factors affecting loggers' diet, and the trend towards processed food impacted their eating habits. This study highlights the complexity of improving diet and the need to consider external factors when planning interventions for logging workers.