Food literacy, healthy eating barriers and household diet

Abstract

PurposeFood literacy is an emerging concept associated with the skills, capabilities and knowledge to prepare a healthy diet and make healthy food choices. This study aims to examine how a dietary gatekeeper’s intentions to prepare a healthy diet for their family, and the subsequent satisfaction that a healthy diet is achieved, is influenced by their food literacy and by barriers to healthy eating.Design/methodology/approachA two-stage cross-sectional study was undertaken with 756 dietary gatekeepers who completed a baseline (time 1) and a three-month follow-up (time 2) questionnaire. Partial least square-structural equation modeling was used to estimate relationships between gatekeeper food literacy, their demographic characteristics, socio-cognitive factors, time 1 satisfaction with the healthiness of the household diet and intention to provide a healthy family diet. The follow-up survey assessed subsequent satisfaction with the healthiness of the household diet and barriers to achieving it.FindingsThe results highlight the significance of the dietary gatekeeper’s food literacy in overcoming barriers to healthy eating and fostering increased satisfaction with the healthiness of the family diet. The research further highlights the influence of past satisfaction, attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. Several demographics factors are also highlighted as influential.Research limitations/implicationsThe research offers new insights into the role of food literacy in the home environment including its influence on the dietary gatekeeper’s satisfaction with the family diet. The current model also provides strong evidence that food literacy can reduce the impact of barriers to healthy eating experienced by gatekeepers. The research has limitations associated with the socio-economic status of respondents and thus offers scope for research into different populations and their food literacy, younger and early formed cohabiting and the negotiation of food and dietary responsibility and on intergenerational food literacy.Practical implicationsThe current findings regarding the impact of food literacy have significant implications for government agencies, non-profit agencies, educational institutions and other related stakeholders in their effort to curb obesity. Implications exist for micro-level programmes and actions designed to influence gatekeepers, family members and households and at the macro level for policies and programmes designed to influence the obesogenicity of the food environments.Originality/valueThe current study is one of the first to offer evidence on the role of food literacy in the home environment and its ability to overcome barriers to healthy eating. The research provides social marketers and public policymakers with novel insights regarding the need for increased food literacy and for developing interventions to improve food literacy in dietary gatekeepers.

Identifying Participants Who Would Benefit the Most from an Adult Food-literacy Program

“…Secondary analysis of the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that most women and men reported sharing meal planning, preparing and food shopping activities (meal planning and preparation: women 54% and men 56%, food shopping: women 60% and men 57%), but women had a higher likelihood of reporting having the main responsibility for meal planning and food shopping [41]. Research with well-educated dietary gatekeepers in Australia who were recruited through market research demonstrated the role of food literacy for overcoming barriers to healthy eating and positive intentions for healthy food preparation [56]. Efforts to improve food literacy in dietary gatekeepers will have positive effects on diet quality for other household members [57].…”

What should governments be doing to prevent diabetes throughout the life course?

“…To enhance diabetes awareness both in the general population and in at-risk groups (e.g. individuals with impaired glucose tolerance or those with low literacy), governments should employ communication strategies based on targeting, the use of multiple media channels [42] and the involvement of an individual's support network, such as family and friends, as well as physicians [92][93][94][95]. Government strategies aiming to decrease the prevalence of risk factors for GDM should employ a broad spectrum of media channels to increase awareness rather than relying solely on the effectiveness of prepregnancy care [50,51].…”

FOODLIT-PRO: Food Literacy Domains, Influential Factors and Determinants—A Qualitative Study

“…Despite being an increasingly recognised term, there is not yet a shared understanding of the construct's meaning and its components, resulting in a lack of theoretical consensus [8,9]. Most acknowledged empirical conceptualisations of food literacy include (i) the framework of Vidgen and Gallegos from Australia [3,7,10,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and (ii) the work of Desjardins and colleagues from Canada [21], which was later on revised by Thomas and coauthors [12,13,15]. Also from Canada, conceptualisations from (iii) Slater and coauthors [7,15,18] and from (iv) Cullen and colleagues [7,15,18,22,23] are considerably mentioned within the literature.…”