Barriers in Achieving Healthy Eating

            Governments around the world are recognizing the need for tougher policies to help improve public health through good food. In England, the food and health action plan ‘choosing a better diet’ sets out the wide range of action needed by all sectors to improve the nutrition and diet of population.

            Set against the changing food supply where cheap food of relatively poor nutritional quality food is widely available, achieving permanent beneficial change in an individual’s dietary habits is considerable challenge. For successful change, the many influences on dietary behavior have to be considered and the barriers to change explored. The use of behavioral approaches can enable and empower people to eat more healthily.

            The Institute of European Food Studies (IEFS 1997) pan- European survey on consumer attitudes to food, nutrition and health showed that people are aware to healthy eating messages. ‘Trying to eat healthily’ was cited as one of the five main influences on food choice, along with the quality, price, taste and family constraints. The benefit of healthy eating in terms of fitness, weight control and prevention of disease were well understood.  There are many barriers to dietary change still exist for example lack of perception of the need to change, negative attitude towards healthy eating and lack of time.

            The factor lack of perception among people maybe caused  they already regard their diet as healthy and not in need of further change and made some attempt to, for example eat more fruit and vegetables or fewer fatty food and regarded this measures as being sufficient. On the other hand, there still having negative attitude towards healthy eating for example they believe that healthy foods were just another fashion or expensive. Lack of time also contribute for this problem which busy lifestyles and irregular work patterns were often cited as barriers to healthy eating, especially among young people and those with a higher level of education.  

            The many factors affecting food choice are complex, interrelated and highly individual. Helping people achieve healthy eating therefore requires far more than the simple provision of information and advice about food. Identifying and helping people overcome their own personal barriers to change is essential.