3.4 Improving understanding about what we eat

As mentioned previously, obesity is in part the result of consuming more than the body needs. This can be because of unhealthy food choices, such as eating food and consuming drinks high in energy, fat and/or sugar, as well as drinking too much alcohol. But in order to reach and maintain a healthy weight, most people need some assistance to bring about positive behavioural changes. In part, this requires education, so government, industry and individuals need to work together to tackle the issue of obesity.

People can find it difficult to estimate how much they have eaten. Education is therefore central in ensuring people eat well and adopt healthier lifestyles. But what strategies need to be deployed to ensure that people are sufficiently educated? You will explore factors related to diet, nutrition and education, and some of the policies focused on this later in this learning guide. < would need to remove this sentence entirely to edit out the reference to LG... but does this paragraph then stand alone well enough without it? or can anything more be added here?

Some people think that industry has little to do with obesity, but the food industry has been increasing portion sizes substantially over many years. As our exposure to larger portions has become more and more common, these sizes have come to be seen as appropriate, with consumption then increasing (Marteau et al., 2015; Robinson et al., 2023).

Understanding what we eat is one issue. Another is generating the right kind of behavioural change – and that is what you will look at next as this course comes to a close.