The link between diet and health: an exploratory study of adolescents in Northern Ireland using foodmaps

Abstract

A significant proportion of consumers in the UK continue to adopt a diet consisting largely of nutritionally unbalanced foods. The adolescent period has been identified as being formative in the development of long-term eating habits as the individual achieves greater control over their food choice. By examining the current eating behaviour of a sample of adolescents, the aim of this study was to establish why they are not utilizing their knowledge to choose nutritionally balanced foods. A two-stage data collecting procedure was adopted. In stage 1, respondents (n = 136) completed a questionnaire that measured demographic and social factors, knowledge, attitudes, pre-existing behaviour with respect to food and the influence of family, peers, the media and government campaigns on their eating behaviour. In stage 2, a subsection of the respondents (n = 20) completed a foodmap, which revealed the network of relationships involved in the adolescents' decision-making process by identifying the links among the foods consumed, the people they eat with and the places they eat in. Results emphasized the importance of the home environment and the continuing influence of parents on adolescents' eating behaviour despite the greater independence related to this stage of the life cycle. A proportion of the sample was found to have recognized the need to change their eating behaviour in order to lose weight, because of their sporting commitments or to improve their health. Recommendations from this study include the need for the various agencies involved in the promotion of balanced dietary behaviour to attend to the link among adult, family and adolescent, and the need for greater progress in enabling consumers to translate the theory of nutritional education into practice.

Consumers' experiences of cold chain food packaging: A qualitative study among women in South Africa

“…This study was conducted in the urban and suburban areas of Potchefstroom, North West Province, South Africa, excluding townships and informal settlements. Because women are mainly responsible for household shopping and purchasing decisions (Silayoi and Speece, 2004;van der Merwe et al, 2012) and tend to have more nutritional knowledge than men (Walsh and Nelson, 2010), the researcher selected female participants older than 18 years who bought cold chain food regularly. The same methods of sampling, data collection and data analysis were used as described by Venter et al (2011).…”

Nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices among urban primary school children in Nairobi City, Kenya: a KAP study

“…Family environment has the potential to influence and enhance good dietary practices as children are likely to mimic their parents' practices [37]. Recent research conducted with Irish children indicated that parents were major influencers in their children's diets and that frequency of shared meals has a positive effect on children's food knowledge [38].…”

Consumer acceptance of innovations in food: A survey among Polish consumers

“…Consumer beliefs concerning health-promoting food products may influence their choice during purchase decisions. Attitudes toward food and the ability to classify food as "healthy" or "unhealthy" are developed at an early age (Mattsson & Helmersson, 2007), but such classification could be misleading due to differing levels of nutritional knowledge and food-related skills (Walsh & Nelson, 2010). Therefore, proper communication is a crucial process through which consumers gain knowledge about food innovations (Ronteltap, van Trijp, Renes, & Frewer, 2007).…”