Understanding fruit and vegetable consumption in children and adolescents. The contributions of affect, self-concept and habit strength.

Affective processes and the role of automaticity are increasingly recognised as critical in determining food choice. This study investigated the association of affective attitude, self-identity and habit with fruit and vegetable (FV) intentions and intake in children. Previous studies have not fully explored their implications for children of different age groups and have not considered their independent contribution as part of a coherent model of behaviour that also controls for other psychosocial and environmental determinants of intake.

Fruit and vegetable intake: change with age across childhood and adolescence.

Eating fruit and vegetables (FV) offers important health benefits for children and adolescents, but their average intake is low. To explore if negative trends with age exist as children grow, this study modelled differences in FV consumption from childhood to young adulthood. A pseudo-panel was constructed using years 1-4 (combined) of the Rolling Programme of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) (2008/2009-2011/2012).

What is the public appetite for healthy eating policies? Evidence from a cross-European survey.

World Health Organization estimates that obesity accounts for 2-8% of health care costs in different parts of Europe, and highlights a key role for national policymaking in curbing the epidemic. A variety of healthy-eating policy instruments are available, ranging from more paternalistic policies to those less intrusive. Our aim is to measure and explain the level of public support for different types of healthy eating policy in Europe, based on data from a probabilistic sample of 3003 respondents in five European countries.

Importance of government policies and other influences in transforming global diets.

The Second International Conference on Nutrition, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, will take place in November 2014. In 1992, the First International Conference on Nutrition declared, "Hunger and malnutrition are unacceptable." Twenty-two years later, it is timely to revisit the state of global nutrition and examine the forces that have brought change to diets worldwide.

European consumers' perceived seriousness of their eating habits relative to other personal health risks.

Objective: Poor eating habits are a key priority on the European public health agenda due to their large health and economic implications. Healthy eating interventions may be more effective if consumers perceive their eating habits as a more serious personal health risk. This study investigates European consumers' perceived seriousness of their eating habits, its determinants and relative importance among other potential personal health risks including weight, stress and pollution.

Sociodemographic determinants of diet quality of the EU elderly: a comparative analysis in four countries.

Objective: To investigate the sociodemographic determinants of diet quality of the elderly in four EU countries.

Design: Cross-sectional study. For each country, a regression was performed of a multidimensional index of dietary quality v.

Policy interventions to promote healthy eating: a review of what works, what does not, and what is promising.

Unhealthy diets can lead to various diseases, which in turn can translate into a bigger burden for the state in the form of health services and lost production. Obesity alone has enormous costs and claims thousands of lives every year. Although diet quality in the European Union has improved across countries, it still falls well short of conformity with the World Health Organization dietary guidelines.

Policies to promote healthy eating in Europe: a structured review of policies and their effectiveness.

This review provides a classification of public policies to promote healthier eating as well as a structured mapping of existing measures in Europe. Complete coverage of alternative policy types was ensured by complementing the review with a selection of major interventions from outside Europe. Under the auspices of the Seventh Framework Programme's Eatwell Project, funded by the European Commission, researchers from five countries reviewed a representative selection of policy actions based on scientific papers, policy documents, grey literature, government websites, other policy reviews, and interviews with policy-makers.

Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe: a review within the EATWELL Project.

Objective: To identify and assess healthy eating policies at national level which have been evaluated in terms of their impact on awareness of healthy eating, food consumption, health outcome or cost/benefit.

Design: Review of policy documents and their evaluations when available.

Setting: European Member States.

Attitudinal and demographic determinants of diet quality and implications for policy targeting.

Background: Poor diet quality is a major public health concern that has prompted governments to introduce a range of measures to promote healthy eating. For these measures to be effective, they should target segments of the population with messages relevant to their needs, aspirations and circumstances. The present study investigates the extent to which attitudes and constraints influence healthy eating, as well as how these vary by demographic characteristics of the UK population.

Economic instruments for obesity prevention: results of a scoping review and modified Delphi survey.

Background: Comprehensive, multi-level approaches are required to address obesity. One important target for intervention is the economic domain. The purpose of this study was to synthesize existing evidence regarding the impact of economic policies targeting obesity and its causal behaviours (diet, physical activity), and to make specific recommendations for the Canadian context.

What the UK public believes causes obesity, and what they want to do about it: a cross-sectional study.

Increases in the prevalence of obesity have led to calls for policy interventions in the United Kingdom. Little is known, however, about how the public explains overweight, or their support for interventions. Our research team recruited 500 adults (≥18 years of age) across the United Kingdom to complete a cross-sectional survey asking about beliefs concerning the causes of excess weight, and support for particular policy interventions.

An RCT study to evaluate a targeted, theory driven healthy eating leaflet.

A theory based healthy eating leaflet was evaluated against an existing publicly available standard leaflet. The intervention leaflet was designed to encourage healthy eating in 18-30 year olds and was developed by modifying an existing British Nutrition Foundation leaflet. The intervention leaflet targeted attitudes and self-efficacy.

Interventions to promote healthy eating habits: evaluation and recommendations.

Although in several EU Member States many public interventions have been running for the prevention and/or management of obesity and other nutrition-related health conditions, few have yet been formally evaluated. The multidisciplinary team of the EATWELL project will gather benchmark data on healthy eating interventions in EU Member States and review existing information on the effectiveness of interventions using a three-stage procedure (i) Assessment of the intervention's impact on consumer attitudes, consumer behaviour and diets; (ii) The impact of the change in diets on obesity and health and (iii) The value attached by society to these changes, measured in life years gained, cost savings and quality-adjusted life years. Where evaluations have been inadequate, EATWELL will gather secondary data and analyse them with a multidisciplinary approach incorporating models from the psychology and economics disciplines.

Local, national and imported foods: a qualitative study.

The UK government is currently attempting to encourage consumers to buy more locally produced food. It is hoped that this will provide economic, environmental and social benefits to local areas, leading to more sustainable patterns of consumption. This qualitative study looks at the views and behaviour of consumers towards local foods with a particular focus on the barriers that prevent greater uptake of local produce.

The changing structure of diets in the European Union in relation to healthy eating guidelines.

Objective: Our objective in this paper is to assess diets in the European Union (EU) in relation to the recommendations of the recent World Health Organization/Food and Agriculture Organization expert consultation and to show how diets have changed between 1961 and 2001.

Data And Methods: Computations make use of FAOSTAT data on food availability at country level linked to a food composition database to convert foods to nutrients. We further explore the growing similarity of diets in the EU by making use of a consumption similarity index.