Promoting healthy food practices is a central goal for policy makers and health professionals in many high-income countries. In Scotland a number of strategies have been used to improve healthy eating habits. In 2018 a Scottish health survey suggested that more work is necessary to change food habits.
Trying to understand the relationship between dietary guidelines and healthy eating practises is complex. Research from the Rowett explored how to understand these food practises by interviewing adults across Scotland. The work showed that eating habits are ingrained from childhood and can persist throughout life, though they could change due to a personal circumstance.
Further results from this study show that consumers understand healthy dietary guidelines even though they do not always stick to them, consequently, it is important to limit the degree to which people deviate from their desired food practices. This could involve targeting individuals at certain stages of their life or raising awareness of occasions when people are more likely to break healthy eating habits.
This research will be developed further by investigating a more objective way of investigating the complex relationship between understanding dietary guidelines and eating practices.
Would you like to read more? Our full blog was originally post here
This work was conducted by Dr David Watts and Dr John McKenzie.
Research funded by the Scottish Government as part of the Strategic Research Programme.