Abstract
To effectively promote and support healthy eating among Canadians, there needs to be a better understanding of the factors that influence eating behaviours. Perceptions of healthy eating can be considered as one of the many factors influencing people’s eating habits. For this review, “perceptions of healthy eating” are defined as the public’s and health professionals’ meanings, understandings, views, attitudes and beliefs about healthy eating, eating for health, and healthy foods.
This article’s aim is to review and summarize the literature on the perceptions of healthy eating and to identify the current state of knowledge and key knowledge gaps. Databases, the worldwide web, selected journals and reference lists were searched for relevant papers from the last 20 years.
Reviewed articles suggest relative homogeneity in the perceptions of healthy eating despite the studies being conducted in different countries and involving different age groups, sexes and socio-economic status. Perceptions of healthy eating were generally based on food choice. Fruits and vegetables were consistently recognized as part of healthy eating. Characteristics of food such as naturalness, and fat, sugar and salt contents were also important in people’s perceptions of healthy eating. Concepts related to healthy eating, such as balance, variety and moderation, were often mentioned, but they were found to be polysemous, conveying multiple meanings.
The main gap identified in this review concerns the lack of knowledge available on perceptions of healthy eating. More data are needed on the perceptions of healthy eating in general, on the influence on perceptions of messages from diverse sources such as food companies, and, most important, on the role of perceptions of healthy eating as a determinant of food choice.
Electronic Supplementary Material
Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.1007/BF03405196 and is accessible for authorized users.
MeSH terms: Eating, perceptions, diet, attitude, food habits
Résumé
De façon à promouvoir efficacement la saine alimentation auprès des Canadiens et des Canadiennes et à la favoriser, il importe de mieux comprendre les facteurs qui influencent les comportements alimentaires. Les perceptions de la saine alimentation peuvent être vues comme l’un des nombreux facteurs qui influencent les habitudes alimentaires. Dans le cadre du présent examen, on entend par perceptions de la saine alimentation «l’interprétation, la compréhension, les points de vue, les attitudes et les croyances du grand public et des professionnels de la santé à l’égard de la saine alimentation, des aliments à consommer pour rester en santé et des aliments sains».
Le présent article a pour but d’examiner et de synthétiser la documentation scientifique entourant les perceptions de la saine alimentation et de faire ressortir l’état actuel des connaissances ainsi que les principales lacunes à cet égard. Nous avons identifié la documentation pertinente des dernières vingt années en consultant des banques de données, l’Internet, des articles publiés dans des journaux scientifiques choisis ainsi que leurs listes de référence.
Les articles retenus pour cet examen suggèrent une certaine homogénéité quant aux perceptions de la saine alimentation en dépit du fait que les études aient été menées dans différents pays, auprès de personnes des deux sexes, de divers groupes d’âge et de statuts socio-économiques différents. On constate que les perceptions de la saine alimentation sont généralement fondées sur les choix alimentaires. Ainsi, les fruits et les légumes étaient immanquablement reconnus en tant que composantes d’une saine alimentation. Certaines caractéristiques des aliments, telles que la connotation «naturel» et la teneur en matières grasses, en sucre et en sel, jouaient aussi un rôle important au niveau des perceptions de la saine alimentation. Bien que certains concepts reliés à la saine alimentation, tels que l’équilibre, la variété et la modération, aient souvent été mentionnés, on observait de la polysémie à leur égard, c’est-à-dire qu’ils pouvaient revêtir différentes significations en fonction des personnes.
Le manque de connaissances relatives aux perceptions de la saine alimentation représente la principale lacune identifiée lors du présent examen des connaissances. Plus de recherches sont nécessaires pour se procurer des données additionnelles sur les perceptions de la saine alimentation en général et sur l’influence sur les perceptions de messages provenant de diverses sources, telles que les entreprises agroalimentaire, et surtout sur le rôle des perceptions de la saine alimentation en tant que déterminants des choix alimentaires.
Mots clés: manger, perceptions, alimentation, attitudes, habitudes alimentaires
French language version/Version en Français
Perceptions de la saine alimentation: État actuel des connaissances et lacunes au niveau de la recherche
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