Consumer involvement in nutritional issues: the role of information

Abstract

Finding a strategy to improve-diets is a concern of many politicians and health promoters. Distribution of information is one strategy, but seems to be relatively unsuccessful. There is public awareness of the role of diet in health, but this awareness has not led to sufficiently improved eating habits. What people buy and eat depends not only on individual but also on social, cultural, economic, and environmental factors. These factors are interrelated and food choice is a complex process, which explains why information supply on its own is insufficient as a strategy to promote healthy eating. Public health professionals in eight European cities therefore decided to use the health promotion approach as an alternative strategy to promote healthy eating. The essence of this approach is community action in which participation and multisectoral collaboration are key elements. Each of the sectors, such as consumers, supermarket managers, social workers, school teachers, restaurant keepers, and health workers, try to undertake actions that support positive individual behavior change. This so-called SUPER project has been running for 5 y and results to date are promising. Nutrition is emphasized in several places in the community. In this way people are involved in the process and become interested in and curious about healthy eating. Experiences of working with this strategy and opportunities for primary care physicians to apply this approach are presented.