Eating an enjoyable and balanced diet
- 30.03.2021
- English Articles
- Felix Zastrow
- Katrin Neher
- Carola Pentner
- Holger Hassel
Peer-reviewed / Manuscript (original) submitted: 09 June 2020 / Revision accepted: 29 September 2020
Food literacy among older adults
Introduction
Given that nutrition is central to healthy aging and the prevention of chronic diseases, understanding how dietary behavior is shaped is crucial. Food literacy is the ability to organize everyday eating and nutrition in an autonomous, responsible and enjoyable way that supports balanced dietary behavior [1-5]. However, the definition of food literacy differs in terms of what particular aspects—what factual and practical nutritional knowledge and what habits and skills—actually contribute to a balanced diet, and in terms of how these abilities and skills should be measured [6–12]. It appears that practical food literacy (for example knowing how to prepare a balanced meal), is more important in shaping dietary behavior than factual food literacy (for example knowing that pasta is high in carbohydrates) [13].
According to the model proposed by Vidgen and Gallegos [10], food literacy is composed of four core skills:
1. Planning and management
2. Selection
3. Preparation
4. Eating
Poelman et al. [6] developed an instrument based on these skills to measure food literacy in adults. To do this, they created a scale with eight domains designed to cover the spectrum of food literacy (⇒ methods section).
From a scientific point of view, food literacy is a specific form of health literacy [4]. The fact that food literacy is closely linked to the comprehensive concept of health literacy is also reflected by the measurement instruments used for food literacy [7, 8], since these are based on health literacy models—especially those proposed by Nutbeam [14] and Sørensen et al. [15].
Abstract
The term food literacy is used to describe people’s ability to meet the complex requirements of a balanced diet. To date, there has been little research into the relationships between food literacy in older adults, their health literacy and their dietary behavior. These three aspects are the subject of a study on the promotion of food literacy in older adults. The baseline data of 119 study participants were used for this analysis. Daily fruit and vegetable consumption and daily fluid intake were used as a proxy for dietary behavior. The food literacy score according to Poelman et al. (2018) of 97 participants (mean age: 72.2 years) exhibits a positive association with their health literacy according to Sørensen et al. (2015). However, discrepancies in sociodemographic factors suggest that food literacy and health literacy cannot be assessed in the same way.
Keywords: food literacy, dietary behavior, health literacy, older adults
