We Don't Need No Nutrition Education - Health Habits

As a big fitness/nutrition geek, I am constantly consuming the latest information on how to improve the health of our overweight & inactive society.

And when it comes to improving public health, the experts are forever saying that it all comes down to education.

If only ?they? could teach ?us? how to?

• Eat healthier
• Move healthier
• Live healthier

?we would all take that knowledge?and stop eating junk food while watching re-runs of ?Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

Too bad they?re wrong.

In this new study, researchers presented 124 test with a fake food buffet consisting of 55 replica food items.

• Participants in the control group were instructed to serve themselves a meal, as they would normally eat from the given selections.
• Participants in the instruction group were asked to select a healthy, balanced meal.
• People in the instruction + information?group were also instructed to select a healthy meal, but in addition, they received nutrition information based on the Swiss Food Guide Pyramid.

The results?

• Both the instruction group AND the?instruction + information group reduced their consumption of sweets & desserts.
• Both the instruction group AND the instruction + information group increased their consumption of fruit.
• No other food categories (including vegetables) were significantly altered.
• There was very little caloric difference between the meals of all 3 groups
• Both the instruction group AND the instruction + information group perceived their meals as healthy
• The control group perceived their meal as less healthy
• All 3 groups considered their chosen meals equally tasty

Their Conclusions

• When people aim to compose a healthy meal, they replace the dessert with a fruit.
• Nutritional information on portion sizes fails to increase the amount of vegetables in a meal
• People, who were asked to choose a healthy meal, chose meals that they perceived as similarly tasty.

My Conclusions

1. We like to eat tasty food?and we?re not willing to abandon yummy to get healthy
2. We already know which foods are healthy and which are unhealthy
3. We need more nutrition motivation and less nutrition education.

So, where do we go from here?

• How do we motivate ourselves to eat healthier???

That?s the billion dollar question.

Reference

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Source: http://www.healthhabits.ca/2012/10/16/we-dont-need-no-nutrition-education/

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