Exploring the visual appeal of food guide graphics

Abstract

Purpose Food guides are graphic representations of food-based dietary guidelines that support national health policies and programming. They are visual aids simplifying complex nutritional messaging for the public. While pyramid and circle formats are the most common shapes in use worldwide, the dinner plate format is increasing in use due to its perceived effectiveness. However, research examining visual attributes of food guide graphics, and the dinner plate model specifically, is limited. The purpose of this paper is to systematically compare and analyse key visual attributes of plate food guide graphics (across multiple examples) to assess their potential for effective visual communication of nutrition messaging. Design/methodology/approach This study engages in a qualitative analysis of compositional elements of food guide graphics. Data collection and analysis are grounded in the methods of compositional interpretation, which includes a qualitative, descriptive approach to establishing a thematic survey of the data. Findings Unique visual attributes of the plate food guide (including image content, spatial organisation and expressive content) present challenges in the communication of key nutritional messaging regarding proportionality, moderation and overall usability. Practical implications A better understanding of the visual attributes of the plate food guide model will contribute to improved design and development of this key public health tool by researchers, educators and health practitioners. Additionally, the examination of visual attributes has implications for the study of food guide understanding and use. Originality/value This study highlights the need for critical visual skills in qualitative health research, and to address gaps in health education more broadly.

Improving Communication of the UK Sustainable Healthy Dietary Guidelines the Eatwell Guide: A Rapid Review

“…Visual elements such as colourful graphics and text boxes, dark bullet points, bold print and borders are typically more appealing [76]. The majority of national FBDG use illustrations of food rather than more realistic images or photographs [81]. This was also implemented in the Eatwell Guide, following consumer research [19].…”

“…The ability of plate model FBDG to portray the variety, proportionality and moderation of food groups, as well as their usability, has been recently reviewed [81]. Overall, the plate model was viewed as effective; however, key considerations are the lack of portion size guidance, how to portray non-core foods and the importance of emphasising that the plate proportions represent the overall diet and not every meal [81].…”

“…The ability of plate model FBDG to portray the variety, proportionality and moderation of food groups, as well as their usability, has been recently reviewed [81]. Overall, the plate model was viewed as effective; however, key considerations are the lack of portion size guidance, how to portray non-core foods and the importance of emphasising that the plate proportions represent the overall diet and not every meal [81]. Consumer testing of the Eatwell Guide, carried out by Define Research and Insight, indicated a good understanding and usability of the visual style across socio-economic groups and the layout and messaging makes clear that the plate represents the diet as a whole [19].…”

Sustainability in food-based dietary guidelines: a review of recommendations around meat and dairy consumption and their visual representation

“…However, visual representations have been scarcely explored within dietary guidelines. Some research has examined food guides (i.e., the visual representation of guidelines), categorising the types of visual food guides, e.g., pyramids and plates (Herforth et al, 2019;Truman, 2018), investigating citizen preferences for different types of visual food guides (Talati et al, 2017), or analysing imagery in guidelines from a sociocultural perspective (Oliveira et al, 2019). Some of this research identified the proportionality of images within food guides as a dimension of interest.…”

“…Some of this research identified the proportionality of images within food guides as a dimension of interest. Specifically, proportionality has been studied through analysis of plate format food guides (Truman, 2018) and the representation of normative portion sizes and daily intake (Oliveira et al, 2019). In the current review, we build upon previous research to specifically investigate the proportion of meat and dairy images to other images within a country's food guide, both within a food group (e.g.…”