title: The importance of stories in understanding people's relationship to food: narrative inquiry methodology has much to offer the public health nutrition researcher and practitioner.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite the usefulness of quantitative research, qualitative research methodologies are equally needed to allow researchers to better understand the important social and environmental factors affecting food choice and eating habits. The present paper contributes insights from narrative inquiry, a well-established qualitative methodology, to a food-related doctoral research study. The connections between food shoppers and the producer, family, friends and others in the food system, between eaters and the earth, and how these connections affect people's meaning-making of food and pathways to food citizenship, were explored in the research.
  
  
  METHODS
  The research used narrative inquiry methodology and focus groups for data collection.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five different food-ways in the Canberra region of Australia were selected for the present research; that is, community gardens, community-supported agriculture, farmers' markets, fresh food markets and supermarkets.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-two people voluntarily attended eight focus groups with four to nine participants in each.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From a practical perspective, the present paper offers a guide to the way in which narrative inquiry has been applied to one research project. The paper describes the application of narrative inquiry methodology, revealing the important place of narratives in generating new knowledge. The paper further outlines how phased narrative analysis can lead to a defensible and rigorous interpretive framework grounded in the data generated from people's stories and meaning-making.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We argue that individual, social and system change will not be possible without further rigorous qualitative studies to inform and complement the empirical basis of public health nutrition practice.
authors.affiliation: 1Discipline of Nutrition & Dietetics, Faculty of Health,University of Canberra,Room 1C128,Bruce,ACT 2601,Australia.
authors.forename: Gabrielle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: O'Kane
authors.affiliation: 2Faculty of Education,Science,Technology and Mathematics,University of Canberra,Bruce,ACT,Australia.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pamphilon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003132:Commerce; D003142:Communication; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D004032:Diet; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D052756:Nutritional Sciences; D011634:Public Health; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012107:Research Design; D012108:Research Personnel; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012931:Social Environment
keywords: Focus groups; Food culture; Narrative inquiry methodology; Qualitative research