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Why is healthy eating not equally attainable for all?
Our Dutch partners in Wageningen University are the first to have published their findings from the Group Model Building workshops in WP1. Ireland, Poland and Belgium will also publish papers within the next few months with their results and a four-country comparison paper will follow.
The Dutch study yielded insights into the complex system that complicates healthy eating for people on a low income, based on perspectives of citizens and professionals with expertise in the field of food, nutrition, health, and social support. The system map revealed three core dynamics:
1. Scarcity & reduced mental wellbeing
Living in conditions of scarcity limits financial resources for healthy food and may lead individuals to skip meals. Scarcity is also associated with chronic stress and reduced mental bandwidth, leading to less thinking space and ability to act for making conscious healthy food choices. Policies and support services often fail to align with lived realities, partly due to limited understanding of the effects of living in scarcity.
2. The unhealthy food environment
The unhealthy food environment makes healthy eating difficult, particularly for people with limited income. High exposure to unhealthy food options and persuasive marketing increases vulnerability to unhealthy choices, especially when mental and physical wellbeing is reduced. These dynamics are reinforced by commercial priorities of the food industry and the lack of structural food environment policies.
3. Social and societal barriers
Social and societal influences can reinforce and normalise unhealthy eating patterns. Parenting practices, socio‑cultural food norms, and the influence of social media shape how eating behaviours develop and how much priority is given to healthy eating.
Citizens and professionals proposed 30 actions at different system levels to facilitate healthy dietary behaviour among people on a low income. In this, it is essential to involve professionals as well as citizens with experiential knowledge in the development of policy and support services.
We thank all citizens, professionals, and partners who contributed their time, knowledge and experience.
The full paper can be found here
This work is part of the EU funded project FOOD Systems Policy PATHways for equal population nutrition in Europe (FOODPATH Research Consortium), under the umbrella of the Partnership Fostering a European Research Area for Health (ERA4Health): https://lnkd.in/eJE6pDuU. This work is funded by ZonMw