Susan Jebb, University of Oxford, discusses how improved monitoring and evaluation could improve societal interventions towards dietary change in Interventions to accelerate change towards a healthier diet.
‘Poor diets are a significant contributor to non-communicable diseases and obesity. Despite years of health promotion, change in dietary habits is slow and there is growing recognition of the need to provide greater support to individuals and to complement individual efforts with changes in the food environment to shift the default towards healthier diets. The present paper summarises opportunities for intervention at the individual and population level. It discusses the role of voluntary or mandatory approaches to drive change in the food industry and the need for improved methods to monitor and evaluate progress. It concludes with a call to action from all stakeholders to accelerate change towards a healthier diet.’
Topics covered include how human behaviour impacts food choices and also how external environmental factors can also affect change. The report also looks at innovative health promotion and marketing campaigns, and how they can be optimized to achieve more concrete outcomes.
The paper concludes that no single initiative or change will be able to achieve significant dietary change across the global population. The report suggests a varied approach of interventions which target both individuals as well as those that focus on the wider food environment.
“no single initiative or change will be able to achieve significant dietary change across the global population”.