Nutrition and Food Literacy in the MENA Region: A Review to Inform Nutrition Research and Policy Makers

Abstract

Background: Improving food and nutrition literacy is fundamental to tackling the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s enormous challenges, including malnutrition and food insecurity. To direct initiatives, it is crucial to assess the region’s food and nutrition literacy. Thus, we aimed to review studies on food/nutrition literacy status in the MENA countries and illuminate the region’s research gaps in these areas, in terms of assessment, policy, and program implementation. Methods: PubMed and Google Scholar databases were searched between 18 December and 8 May 2022, to identify relevant articles published up to 2022 in the MENA region. Results: Twelve studies were included in this review. Lebanon, Palestine, and Iran are the only three MENA countries where nutrition and/or food literacy were assessed. People in these countries mostly had inadequate food and/or nutrition literacy levels, especially in the skills rather than the cognitive domain. Food and/or nutrition literacy showed associations with food habits, food-label use, food-consumption patterns, school performance, food security, dietary diversity, and nutrient adequacy. The MENA countries developed no policies or programs to address food and nutrition literacy. Conclusion: This review is a wake-up call for researchers and policymakers to develop a robust approach to combat food and nutrition literacy concerns in the MENA region.

Parent’s food literacy and adolescents nutrition literacy influence household’s food security and adolescent’s malnutrition and anemia: Findings from a national representative cross sectional study

“…In Lebanon, only one preliminary study was conducted to assess the NL of adolescents and observed a lower percentage of poor NL (21.2%) than that currently reported (28). Moreover, our findings with regards to adolescents' NL is similar to that reported among Chinese (27), and Turkish adolescents (29,30). Our findings are warrantable and could be partially explained by the fact that almost all (91.0%) of the adolescents reported not receiving nutrition education in their schools' curriculum in the current study.…”

“…In the MENA region, the studies addressing NL and FL status are scant so far. This is evident in a recent review (27) on the FL and NL status, which warns regional researchers to start taking incremental steps to address these concepts in the MENA region. In Lebanon, only one preliminary study was conducted to assess the NL of adolescents and observed a lower percentage of poor NL (21.2%) than that currently reported (28).…”

Development and psychometric analysis of a new tool to assess food literacy in diabetic patients

“…The second, third, and fifth dimensions, under the heading "The ability to operationally group foods", "the ability to calculate food serve sizes", and "the ability to prepare healthy food "refer to the understanding and use of information that, according to previous studies [1,[20][21][22] fall into the functional literacy category. The ability to operationally group foods measures a person's food literacy on the type of food groups and the principles of diversity and balance in the diet.…”

“…Author details 1 Nutritional Health Research Center, School of Health, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran. 2 Department of Nutrition, Nutritional Health Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran.…”

“…Food literacy is a combination of knowledge, skills, and needed behaviors for planning, managing, choosing, preparing, and consuming food in order to satisfy nutritional needs and to make correct nutritional choices. Improving food literacy is acknowledged as being a key component of choosing healthy foods and sustaining a healthy nutritional lifestyle and thus prevention of non-contagious diseases [ 1 ].…”