Fetal Protection: The Roles of Social Learning and Innate Food Aversions in South India

By Caitlyn D. Placek and Edward H. Hagen

Human Nature 26(3), 2015.Doi: to be added.

Electronic Supplementary Materials (ESM)

Appendix. Structured Interview Questions for Pregnant Women

  1. How old are you?
  2. What is the highest level of education you have completed?
  3. What is the average monthly income of your family?
  4. How many people (including you) live in your household?
  5. How many children do you have?
  6. What is the date of the first day of your last menstrual period? (If unknown, then ask how many months pregnant)
  7. Have you experienced any unusual cravings for foods? What foods have you craved?
  8. How often do you consume each substance (daily, more than once a week, once a week, Every 2 weeks, monthly, a few times a year, never)? And how much of each item do you consume at each time? (show her measuring container)
  1. When did these cravings begin?
  2. Do you still experience these cravings?
  3. Are there foods you avoid during pregnancy? If so, please list them and give a reason why you avoid each.

Kessler-6 Measure for Psychological Distress (Kessler et al. 2010)

  1. During the last 30 days, about how often did you feel so depressed that nothing could cheer you up?

a)Most of the time

b)Some of the time

c)A little of the time

d)None of the time

  1. During the last 30 days, about how often did you feel hopeless?

a)Most of the time

b)Some of the time

c)A little of the time

d)None of the time

  1. During the last 30 days, about how often did you feel restless or fidgety?

a)Most of the time

b)Some of the time

c)A little of the time

d)None of the time

  1. During the last 30 days, about how often did you feel that everything was an effort?

a)Most of the time

b)Some of the time

c)A little of the time

d)None of the time

  1. During the last 30 days, about how often did you feel that you were worthless?

a)Most of the time

b)Some of the time

c)A little of the time

d)None of the time

  1. During the last 30 days, about how often did you feel nervous?

a)Most of the time

b)Some of the time

c)A little of the time

d)None of the time

Short-Form Food Insecurity Scale (Blumberg et al. 1999)

1. In the last 12 months, since [date 12 months ago], did you (or other adults in your household) ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there wasn't enough money for food?

2. [Ask only if YES] How often did this happen?

a. Almost every month

b. Some months but not every month (OR)

c. In only 1 or 2 months?

3. In the last 12 months, did you ever eat less than you felt you should because there wasn't enough money to buy food?

4. In the last 12 months, since [date 12 months ago], were you ever hungry but didn't eat because you couldn't afford enough food?

(Instructions: Now I'm going to read you 2 statements that people have made about their food situation. For these statements, please tell me whether the statement was often, sometimes, or never true for you [or the other members of your household] in the last 12 months.)

5. The first statement is “The food that [I/we] bought just didn't last, and [I/we] didn't have money to get more.”

Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?

A. Often

B. Sometimes

C. Never

6. “[I/we] couldn't afford to eat balanced meals.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?

  1. Often
  2. Sometimes
  3. Never

Table S1. Number of participants that craved and avoided each food (total participants: 94). See text for more details. ess: ethnic strong and spicy

Food / Craved.by.n / Avoided.by.n / Etic.category / Emic.category
Unripe.banana / 0 / 1 / bitter
Bitter.foods / 1 / 2 / bitter
rasam / 2 / 0 / ess
biryani / 4 / 0 / ess
mango.pickle / 1 / 0 / ess
Sambar / 2 / 1 / ess
Veg.meat.rice / 0 / 1 / ess
tam.sauce / 0 / 1 / ess
spicy.sauce / 1 / 1 / ess
oranges / 1 / 0 / fruit
green.grapes / 1 / 0 / fruit
vilam / 1 / 0 / fruit
pomegranite / 2 / 0 / fruit
guava / 1 / 0 / fruit
Apple / 3 / 0 / fruit
kala / 0 / 1 / fruit / black
Naval / 0 / 2 / fruit / black
jack.fruit / 0 / 3 / fruit
palm.kilangu / 0 / 4 / fruit / hot
Mango / 5 / 5 / fruit / hot
Papaya / 0 / 7 / fruit / hot
Pinneapple / 0 / 7 / fruit / hot
Eggplant / 0 / 8 / fruit / hot
Manga / 0 / 9 / fruit / hot
Black.grapes / 0 / 10 / fruit / black
tam.rice / 6 / 0 / grains
lemon.rice / 1 / 0 / grains
Coconut.rice / 1 / 0 / grains
tomato.rice / 2 / 0 / grains
mango.rice / 3 / 0 / grains
curd.rice / 1 / 0 / grains
Poori / 1 / 1 / grains
Chapathi / 1 / 1 / grains
Porotha / 1 / 1 / grains
old.rice / 0 / 1 / grains
arisi / 0 / 2 / grains
Meat / 0 / 2 / meat
Egg / 1 / 2 / meat
fish / 2 / 3 / meat / hot
Chicken / 3 / 5 / meat / hot
ice.cream / 1 / 0 / sweets
Seempal / 1 / 0 / sweets
honey / 1 / 0 / sweets
cake / 1 / 0 / sweets
custard.apple / 0 / 1 / sweets
Sugar.cane / 0 / 2 / sweets
Sweets / 1 / 5 / sweets
Salt / 0 / 1 / unclassified
oily.foods / 0 / 1 / unclassified
Sour / 1 / 1 / unclassified / hot
leftovers / 0 / 1 / unclassified
Sesame / 0 / 2 / unclassified
Spice / 0 / 2 / unclassified
Black / 0 / 9 / unclassified / black
carrots / 1 / 0 / veg
Corn / 0 / 1 / veg
Sweet.potato / 0 / 1 / veg
greens / 11 / 1 / veg

Table S2. AIC (corrected) ranking of meat aversion models.

Modnames / K / AICc / Delta_AICc / ModelLik / AICcWt / LL / Cum.Wt
Exploratory / 3 / 58.25 / 0.00 / 1.00 / 0.81 / -25.99 / 0.81
Pathogen-specific / 4 / 61.66 / 3.41 / 0.18 / 0.15 / -26.60 / 0.96
Protection / 6 / 64.31 / 6.07 / 0.05 / 0.04 / -25.67 / 1.00
Psychological distress / 2 / 71.98 / 13.74 / 0.00 / 0.00 / -33.93 / 1.00
Resource scarcity / 5 / 73.49 / 15.24 / 0.00 / 0.00 / -31.41 / 1.00
Demography / 4 / 75.67 / 17.42 / 0.00 / 0.00 / -33.61 / 1.00

Table S3. AIC (corrected) ranking of fruit aversion models.

Modnames / K / AICc / Delta_AICc / ModelLik / AICcWt / LL / Cum.Wt
Psychological distress / 2 / 126.39 / 0.00 / 1.00 / 0.52 / -61.13 / 0.52
Demography / 4 / 127.47 / 1.08 / 0.58 / 0.30 / -59.51 / 0.83
Exploratory / 3 / 129.31 / 2.92 / 0.23 / 0.12 / -61.52 / 0.95
Pathogen-specific / 4 / 132.02 / 5.63 / 0.06 / 0.03 / -61.79 / 0.98
Resource scarcity / 5 / 133.62 / 7.23 / 0.03 / 0.01 / -61.47 / 1.00
Protection / 6 / 135.98 / 9.59 / 0.01 / 0.00 / -61.51 / 1.00

Table S4. AIC (corrected) ranking of "hot" food aversion models.

Modnames / K / AICc / Delta_AICc / ModelLik / AICcWt / LL / Cum.Wt
Psychological distress / 2 / 122.38 / 0.00 / 1.00 / 0.47 / -59.12 / 0.47
Exploratory / 3 / 122.59 / 0.21 / 0.90 / 0.42 / -58.16 / 0.89
Pathogen-specific / 4 / 126.43 / 4.05 / 0.13 / 0.06 / -58.99 / 0.95
Resource scarcity / 5 / 128.39 / 6.01 / 0.05 / 0.02 / -58.85 / 0.97
Demography / 4 / 128.92 / 6.54 / 0.04 / 0.02 / -60.24 / 0.99
Protection / 6 / 130.71 / 8.33 / 0.02 / 0.01 / -58.87 / 1.00

Table S5. AIC (corrected) ranking of black food aversion models.

Modnames / K / AICc / Delta_AICc / ModelLik / AICcWt / LL / Cum.Wt
Exploratory / 3 / 91.06 / 0.00 / 1.00 / 0.47 / -42.40 / 0.47
Psychological distress / 2 / 92.54 / 1.48 / 0.48 / 0.23 / -44.20 / 0.70
Pathogen-specific / 4 / 92.99 / 1.93 / 0.38 / 0.18 / -42.27 / 0.88
Demography / 4 / 94.93 / 3.87 / 0.14 / 0.07 / -43.24 / 0.94
Resource scarcity / 5 / 96.47 / 5.41 / 0.07 / 0.03 / -42.89 / 0.98
Protection / 6 / 97.05 / 5.99 / 0.05 / 0.02 / -42.04 / 1.00

Table S6. Logistic regression models of aversions to fruit and "black" foods.

Type of Aversion
Fruit / “Black” foods
ktotal / 0.16 (−0.01, 0.32) / 0.07 (−0.13, 0.26)
Constant / −2.01 (−3.70, −0.32) / −2.19 (−4.24, −0.14)
χ2 / 3.77 / 0.455
p / 0.052 / 0.5
AUC (bias corrected) / 0.61 / 0.51
Observations / 94 / 94
Log likelihood / −61.13 / −44.20
Akaike inf. Crit. / 126.26 / 92.41
Residual deviance (df = 92) / 122.26 / 88.41
Null deviance (df = 93) / 126.02 / 88.86

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