We’ve all heard a thousand times: the best diet is the one that works for you…
The point here is - how to start it and maintain it. One thing we know:
➡️ Nutrition education alone is insufficient to drive nutritional behaviour change, but it is fundamental for longer term healthier choices
So, how can people start and keep eating healthy?
(scroll to the end for the summary)
🧑🏽⚕️ Supervision by a Professional
Nutritional interventions guided by an experienced and science-informed professional seem to yield better initial and long term results than without one
⏰ Interventions that lasted ≥ 5 months
Nutritional education programs which last longer tend have better success rates
🥇 Having ≤ 3 focused objectives
Interventions with a few focused objectives showed a higher chance of achieving their intent
🍽️ Less time between follow-ups
this has shown to assure accountability and provide faster feedback; in medicine per se it might not mean better results, but in nutritional interventions, it grants greater adherence
🥝 Total diet and overall pattern
This is far more important than labelling individual foods as good or bad, which is highly unhelpful
🏷️ Using food labels
Understanding and reading them is positively linked with healthy food choices
📚 Educating is more effective than trying to change behaviour alone
Even though the evidence is not completely robust, using a theory-based intervention seems to yield better initial and longer term results in health outcomes than just a behaviour intervention alone.
🙏🏽 Behaviour Intervention + Nutritional Education seems to be most effective
Especially the ones which address self-efficacy-related constructs, like motivation and competence.
These are linked to maintenance of long-term increase in ingestion of fruits and vegetables or decrease in consumption of fat. Social Cognitive Theory is ****the most common one.
💰 Financial Investment
It seems to be of help for initiating good health choices, considering the accountability it might provide
Summary:
9 most effective interventions at the individual level.
🧑🏽⚕️ Supervision by a Professional
⏰ Interventions that lasted ≥ 5 months
🥇 Having ≤ 3 focused objectives
🍽️ Less time between follow-ups
🥝 Total diet and overall pattern
🏷️ Using food labels
📚 Educational interventions are more effective than behaviour interventions alone
🙏🏽 Behaviour Intervention + Nutritional Education seems to be most effective
💰 Financial Investment
Note: Workplace and societal measures were not the scope of this post.
(Mass education initiatives, allowing time for exercise and other environmental interventions yield great results)
PMID: 27814976
PMID: 34454642
PMID: 34836417
PMID: 29191745
PMID: 33272230
PMID: 30202295