Melissa Fuster
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 639638 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Melissa Fuster |
| NOMBRES | Melissa |
| APELLIDO | Fuster |
| FIRMA | FUSTER M |
| AFILIACIONES | Tulane University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6357-9986 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 31 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 9 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 31 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2013 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
The gendered nature of disasters
Gender plays a crucial role in shaping how individuals are exposed to, experience, and recover from floods, operating as a social determinant that intersects with broader inequalities. This study examines how gendered dynamics influence flood-related impacts across diverse socio-economic contexts, using a structured comparison between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries to analyse their mechanisms and consequences. Drawing …
Mapping the Relationship between Neighborhood-Level Factors and Nutrition Environments of Restaurants Offering Children’s Menus
This study examined the nutritional environments of restaurants offering children's menus and their association with neighborhood-level factors in a southern United States city with disproportionately high childhood obesity rates. On-site assessments were conducted to generate nutrition environment scores for restaurants offering children's menus in New Orleans, Louisiana (n = 191). Restaurants were geocoded and linked to neighborhood characteris…
The Duality of Food
The articles in this issue of Gastronomica shed light on the multifaceted nature of food, portraying it not just as a source of sustenance and pleasure, but also a vehicle of oppression. They encapsulate stories of coloniality, structural hierarchies, and acts of resistance, providing a space to question these structures and facilitate more equitable food systems. These tensions have been front and center in my own work. I currently think and wri…
Madrid immigrants’ perceptions of urban food environments and their dietary behaviours
Large cities are home to several groups of immigrants who undergo important changes in their environmental conditions and lifestyles that significantly modify their risk of chronic diseases. Quantitative evidence indicates that both their health and diet worsen over time; much less is known about the qualitative mechanisms that cause these changes. The aim of this article is to understand how immigrants in the city of Madrid perceive the relation…
Evaluating the outcomes and implementation determinants of interventions co-developed using human-centered design to promote healthy eating in restaurants
Background Restaurants are an emerging yet underutilized setting to facilitate healthier eating, particularly among minoritized communities that disproportionately experience health inequities. The present study aimed to examine outcomes from interventions co-developed using Human-Centered Design (HCD) in two Latin American restaurants, including sales of healthier menu items (HMI) and the consumer nutrition environment. In addition, we aimed to …
Furthering nutrition equity through innovative and empathetic collaborations with the restaurant sector
Dietary factors are one of the leading causes of preventable death and disability (1). Successful dietary interventions to address this problem can only be successful when food environments support healthy food choices (2,3). This realization has driven increased interventions and regulation of the retail food environment, which, while mostly focused on markets and outlets for at-home food consumption, has started to target restaurants as sites f…
Remembering Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra
Up in the mountains of Cayey, at the center of the island of Puerto Rico, a feast was in the making. Friends and family, including renowned local chefs—a collection of James Beard Award nominees, among them, Natalia Vallejo, the first Puerto Rican Best Chef winner, as well as others with multiple national and international recognitions who have been placing the culinary delicacies of our island on the map. The smokiness of firewood burning in the…
The association between language use and food insecurity among Hispanic adults residing in the USA depends on nativity
Objective: To examine the association between language use – predominantly English, English and Spanish equally and predominantly Spanish – and food insecurity among Hispanic adults residing in the USA, 1999–2018. Design: Pooled cross-sectional study design. Setting: United States. Participants: 15 073 Hispanic adults. Results: Compared with Hispanic adults who predominantly spoke English and after adjusting for age, sex, family income-to-poverty…
Emergency food distribution efforts in New Orleans, LA after Hurricane Ida
Background The provision of food aid after a natural disaster is necessary to prevent hunger, particularly in low-resourced and low-income communities. Little is known about the operational challenges associated with ensuring equitable distribution of emergency food resources to communities in need following a disaster. To address this gap, this study assessed emergency food distribution efforts in New Orleans, LA during the 2 weeks following Hur…
Digesting Tensions and Change
It has been way too long since we entered the so-called “new normal” life under a global pandemic. At Gastronomica, our editorial letters have documented the inevitable influence of these transitions, with each new issue chronicling how our worlds continue to be transformed. This editorial letter, alas, maintains what seems to be now a tradition. COVID-19 continues to be an ongoing presence in our lives, even as we seek to return to our “old” nor…
Across Time, Space, and Matter
On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center (KJCC) at New York University, the Center was interested in organizing a series of programs and events to reflect on food as a nexus for discussions about philanthropy, social justice, and cultural exchange across the global Hispanophone. We at the KJCC were especially interested in thinking about how food (discourse and matter) could be an occasion to study…
Promoting healthy eating in Latin American restaurants
LARs can positively influence eating behaviors but doing so requires balancing public health goals and business profitability. LARs also faced various constraints that require different levels of assistance and resources, underscoring the need for innovative engagement approaches, including incentives, to promote these changes
Area Characteristics and Consumer Nutrition Environments in Restaurants
Hispanics in the USA, particularly those of Caribbean descent, experience high levels of diet-related diseases and dietary risk factors. Restaurants are an increasingly important yet understudied source of food and may present opportunities to positively influence urban food environments. We sought to explore food environments further, by examining the association between neighborhood characteristics and restaurant consumer nutrition environments…
Community Health Research, Restaurants, and Adjusting amid Uncertainty
Research Article| August 01 2020 Community Health Research, Restaurants, and Adjusting amid Uncertainty Melissa Fuster Melissa Fuster Melissa Fuster is Assistant Professor at the City University of New York Brooklyn College and a member of the Gastronomica collective, researching and teaching at the intersection of policy, social sciences, and community nutrition. Her book under contract (with University of North Carolina Press) examines how cult…
Ethnic Restaurant Nutrition Environments and Cardiovascular Health
Our application of the NEMS-R to HC restaurants in NYC revealed areas for potential future interventions to improve food offerings and environmental cues to encourage healthful choices
Engaging Ethnic Restaurants to Improve Community Nutrition Environments
This study used interviews with New York City Hispanic Caribbean (HC) restaurant owners, managers, and cooks/chefs (n=19) to examine perceptions concerning the healthfulness of the HC diet and diet-related disparities in the HC community, and document factors potentially influencing their engagement in community nutrition interventions. The interviews revealed high awareness of diet-related issues. Respondents had mixed notions concerning their r…
It’s Sort Of, Like, in My Family’s Blood”
This study examined the perceived connections between culture and food practices among Latino pre-adolescents (n = 17) and their parents (n = 15) through semi-structured interviews. Results show that pre-adolescents have formed perceptions concerning the association between their eating behaviors and cultural background that coincide with their parent's notions. Participants associated culture to both healthy and unhealthy food practices. Latin A…
Traditional diets in everyday life
We utilized key informant interviews to examine traditional diet (TD) perceptions among members of the Hispanic Caribbean (HC) community in New York City (Dominicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans, n = 23). While the cuisines share many similarities, the interviews revealed differences in how the TDs were evaluated. Cubans emphasized the unhealthiness of their TD, while Dominicans and Puerto Ricans emphasized the importance of their TD in daily life. …
Black Immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean Have Similar Rates of Diabetes but Africans Are Less Obese
Foreign-Born Blacks Experience Lower Odds of Obesity but Higher Odds of Diabetes than US-Born Blacks in New York City
The weight of obesity
The weight of obesity is a thoughtful and well researched anthropological examination of the growing concerns over obesity and the ‘diseases of modernity’ in Xela, Guatemala. The city, like many ot
Changing Places, Changing Plates? A Binational Comparison of Barriers and Facilitators to Healthful Eating Among Central American Communities
We like Fried Things”
The study was conducted to understand fried-food (FF) consumption among Hispanic Caribbean (HC) communities in New York City. Data were collected through qualitative interviews with 23 adults self-identified as Cuban, Dominican, or Puerto Rican. Most informants considered FFs an important part of their traditional diet. Potential explanations included taste, cost, convenience, and the emotive values attached to FF. FF consumption was contextualiz…
Comparative analysis of dietary guidelines in the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean
Objective Dietary guidelines are important education and policy tools to address local nutrition concerns. The current paper presents a comparative analysis of nutrition messages from three Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries (Cuba, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic) to explore how these dietary guidelines address common public health nutrition concerns, contextualized in different changing food environments and food culture similarities. Desig…
The social significance of dining out
The social significance of dining out: astudy of continuity and change." Food, Culture & Society, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2
Black Immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean Have Similar Rates of Diabetes but Africans Are Less Obese
The social significance of dining out
The social significance of dining out: astudy of continuity and change." Food, Culture & Society, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2
Writing Cuisine in the Spanish Caribbean
Puerto Rico and Cuba, linked by a common colonial history, culture, and tropical environments, have similar cuisines. The islands’ shared historical trajectories have been increasingly divergent in the last century, especially since the 1959 Cuban Revolution. This paper analyzes the concurrent social changes since the 1950s in these two contexts, through the work of two iconic cookbook writers, Carmen Valldejuli (Puerto Rico) and Nitza Villapol (…
Madrid immigrants’ perceptions of urban food environments and their dietary behaviours
Large cities are home to several groups of immigrants who undergo important changes in their environmental conditions and lifestyles that significantly modify their risk of chronic diseases. Quantitative evidence indicates that both their health and diet worsen over time; much less is known about the qualitative mechanisms that cause these changes. The aim of this article is to understand how immigrants in the city of Madrid perceive the relation…
Traditional diets in everyday life
We utilized key informant interviews to examine traditional diet (TD) perceptions among members of the Hispanic Caribbean (HC) community in New York City (Dominicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans, n = 23). While the cuisines share many similarities, the interviews revealed differences in how the TDs were evaluated. Cubans emphasized the unhealthiness of their TD, while Dominicans and Puerto Ricans emphasized the importance of their TD in daily life. …
Local Notions of Healthy Eating and National Dietary Guidelines
This study presents an assessment of local definitions and perceptions concerning healthy eating through a study in four resource-poor border communities in El Salvador. The study included focus groups, key-informant interviews, and observations of the food environment. Local definitions of healthy eating elicited through focus groups were compared to the national Salvadoran dietary guidelines recommendations. The comparison revealed several area…
A Systematic Review of Stakeholder Engagement in Comparative Effectiveness and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research
Eating right in America
Household-level dietary quality indicator for countries in nutritional transition
Objective To develop a household-level diet quality indicator (HDQI) using the Salvadorian dietary guidelines to assess the dietary quality of households in vulnerable communities in El Salvador. Design The Salvadorian dietary guidelines were reviewed and eighteen HDQI components were identified (nine foods and nine nutrients). The components were evaluated using a proportional scoring system from 0 to 1, penalizing over- and under-consumption, w…
Eating Puerto Rico
Writing Cuisine in the Spanish Caribbean
Puerto Rico and Cuba, linked by a common colonial history, culture, and tropical environments, have similar cuisines. The islands’ shared historical trajectories have been increasingly divergent in the last century, especially since the 1959 Cuban Revolution. This paper analyzes the concurrent social changes since the 1950s in these two contexts, through the work of two iconic cookbook writers, Carmen Valldejuli (Puerto Rico) and Nitza Villapol (…
Comparative analysis of dietary guidelines in the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean
Objective Dietary guidelines are important education and policy tools to address local nutrition concerns. The current paper presents a comparative analysis of nutrition messages from three Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries (Cuba, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic) to explore how these dietary guidelines address common public health nutrition concerns, contextualized in different changing food environments and food culture similarities. Desig…
The weight of obesity
The weight of obesity is a thoughtful and well researched anthropological examination of the growing concerns over obesity and the ‘diseases of modernity’ in Xela, Guatemala. The city, like many ot
Changing Places, Changing Plates? A Binational Comparison of Barriers and Facilitators to Healthful Eating Among Central American Communities
We like Fried Things”
The study was conducted to understand fried-food (FF) consumption among Hispanic Caribbean (HC) communities in New York City. Data were collected through qualitative interviews with 23 adults self-identified as Cuban, Dominican, or Puerto Rican. Most informants considered FFs an important part of their traditional diet. Potential explanations included taste, cost, convenience, and the emotive values attached to FF. FF consumption was contextualiz…
Foreign-Born Blacks Experience Lower Odds of Obesity but Higher Odds of Diabetes than US-Born Blacks in New York City
It’s Sort Of, Like, in My Family’s Blood”
This study examined the perceived connections between culture and food practices among Latino pre-adolescents (n = 17) and their parents (n = 15) through semi-structured interviews. Results show that pre-adolescents have formed perceptions concerning the association between their eating behaviors and cultural background that coincide with their parent's notions. Participants associated culture to both healthy and unhealthy food practices. Latin A…
Traditional diets in everyday life
We utilized key informant interviews to examine traditional diet (TD) perceptions among members of the Hispanic Caribbean (HC) community in New York City (Dominicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans, n = 23). While the cuisines share many similarities, the interviews revealed differences in how the TDs were evaluated. Cubans emphasized the unhealthiness of their TD, while Dominicans and Puerto Ricans emphasized the importance of their TD in daily life. …
Black Immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean Have Similar Rates of Diabetes but Africans Are Less Obese
Community Health Research, Restaurants, and Adjusting amid Uncertainty
Research Article| August 01 2020 Community Health Research, Restaurants, and Adjusting amid Uncertainty Melissa Fuster Melissa Fuster Melissa Fuster is Assistant Professor at the City University of New York Brooklyn College and a member of the Gastronomica collective, researching and teaching at the intersection of policy, social sciences, and community nutrition. Her book under contract (with University of North Carolina Press) examines how cult…
Ethnic Restaurant Nutrition Environments and Cardiovascular Health
Our application of the NEMS-R to HC restaurants in NYC revealed areas for potential future interventions to improve food offerings and environmental cues to encourage healthful choices
Engaging Ethnic Restaurants to Improve Community Nutrition Environments
This study used interviews with New York City Hispanic Caribbean (HC) restaurant owners, managers, and cooks/chefs (n=19) to examine perceptions concerning the healthfulness of the HC diet and diet-related disparities in the HC community, and document factors potentially influencing their engagement in community nutrition interventions. The interviews revealed high awareness of diet-related issues. Respondents had mixed notions concerning their r…
Area Characteristics and Consumer Nutrition Environments in Restaurants
Hispanics in the USA, particularly those of Caribbean descent, experience high levels of diet-related diseases and dietary risk factors. Restaurants are an increasingly important yet understudied source of food and may present opportunities to positively influence urban food environments. We sought to explore food environments further, by examining the association between neighborhood characteristics and restaurant consumer nutrition environments…
Emergency food distribution efforts in New Orleans, LA after Hurricane Ida
Background The provision of food aid after a natural disaster is necessary to prevent hunger, particularly in low-resourced and low-income communities. Little is known about the operational challenges associated with ensuring equitable distribution of emergency food resources to communities in need following a disaster. To address this gap, this study assessed emergency food distribution efforts in New Orleans, LA during the 2 weeks following Hur…
Digesting Tensions and Change
It has been way too long since we entered the so-called “new normal” life under a global pandemic. At Gastronomica, our editorial letters have documented the inevitable influence of these transitions, with each new issue chronicling how our worlds continue to be transformed. This editorial letter, alas, maintains what seems to be now a tradition. COVID-19 continues to be an ongoing presence in our lives, even as we seek to return to our “old” nor…
Across Time, Space, and Matter
On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center (KJCC) at New York University, the Center was interested in organizing a series of programs and events to reflect on food as a nexus for discussions about philanthropy, social justice, and cultural exchange across the global Hispanophone. We at the KJCC were especially interested in thinking about how food (discourse and matter) could be an occasion to study…
Promoting healthy eating in Latin American restaurants
LARs can positively influence eating behaviors but doing so requires balancing public health goals and business profitability. LARs also faced various constraints that require different levels of assistance and resources, underscoring the need for innovative engagement approaches, including incentives, to promote these changes
Evaluating the outcomes and implementation determinants of interventions co-developed using human-centered design to promote healthy eating in restaurants
Background Restaurants are an emerging yet underutilized setting to facilitate healthier eating, particularly among minoritized communities that disproportionately experience health inequities. The present study aimed to examine outcomes from interventions co-developed using Human-Centered Design (HCD) in two Latin American restaurants, including sales of healthier menu items (HMI) and the consumer nutrition environment. In addition, we aimed to …
Furthering nutrition equity through innovative and empathetic collaborations with the restaurant sector
Dietary factors are one of the leading causes of preventable death and disability (1). Successful dietary interventions to address this problem can only be successful when food environments support healthy food choices (2,3). This realization has driven increased interventions and regulation of the retail food environment, which, while mostly focused on markets and outlets for at-home food consumption, has started to target restaurants as sites f…
Remembering Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra
Up in the mountains of Cayey, at the center of the island of Puerto Rico, a feast was in the making. Friends and family, including renowned local chefs—a collection of James Beard Award nominees, among them, Natalia Vallejo, the first Puerto Rican Best Chef winner, as well as others with multiple national and international recognitions who have been placing the culinary delicacies of our island on the map. The smokiness of firewood burning in the…
Medicine (21 obras) · Environmental health (18 obras) · Sociology (16 obras) · Geography (14 obras) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (13 obras) · Culinary Culture and Tourism (12 obras) · Gerontology (12 obras) · Political science (11 obras) · Business (10 obras) · Psychology (10 obras)