Despite diet, health and nutrition appearing in the news almost every day, many consumers do not believe the headlines apply to them, according to a survey by food and grocery think tank IGD.
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IGD’s Consumer Watch Nutrition and Health survey found that many people do not accept that current health advice applies to them because they believe they are eating a healthy diet already. Almost two-thirds (61%) believe their diet is always healthy and only 11% think they are not eating healthily.
Most people believe that a healthy lifestyle is not just about diet and should encompass a range of different activities, but they also believe that as long as they choose to implement some of them it will be enough to be healthy. Half of the people IGD spoke to believe that the major factor determining diet is eating five portions of fruit and vegetables each day. However, many also believe that if they eat five-a-day they are eating a healthy diet, no matter how much additional fat, sugar or salt they eat. Only 11% think balance is important and 12% simply do not think about the nutritional value of the food they buy.
Weight loss or preventing weight gain is one of the main catalysts driving people to try to eat a healthy diet (34%). However some believe that a person can still be overweight and if they eat what they perceive to be a healthy diet, it will compensate for the problems attributed to being overweight. Only 9% said they would eat healthily to prevent the onset of health problems.
According to the survey, the main barrier preventing people from changing their diets is that they don’t understand what constitutes overweight or obese. IGD found that the most common way of deciding whether they were overweight was to compare themselves with the people around them. If they were smaller then they were fine (30%). A further 26% judge their weight by how their clothes fit and only 18% would refer to a weight/height chart.
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By GlobalData“We have found that most people do not realise or do not want to accept that the headlines of an increasingly overweight nation apply to them and therefore their motivations to change are very low,” said IGD chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch.
“The majority of the people we spoke to think their diet is healthy enough already and would not seek to change it unless they feel that they are overweight. The concern, and therefore the key barrier to changing behaviour, is that many underestimate what constitutes overweight or obese. Many actually tolerate being overweight and measure themselves against their peers. They believe that as long as they are under the average size of the population then they are okay. However, as the population gets bigger the size deemed acceptable may grow,” she added.
