Researchers at the University of Sheffield and Royal Holloway, University of London will assert today (October 21) that the nation’s diet is unlikely to improve significantly if healthy eating policies fail to take into account the diverse nature of contemporary family life and each family’s particular circumstances.
A press conference at the British Library, will be told that recent government initiatives have tried to change people’s dietary behaviour and increase their exercise. But, despite compelling evidence of the need for healthier eating, families remain ambivalent about changing their eating habits.
Much of the current policy literature provides factual information on healthy eating and is aimed at individuals rather than families. However, the £1.2 million research programme discovered that decisions about what to eat are not simply a matter of individual choice, but are rooted in people’s diverse family circumstances, embedded in the routines and rhythms of their everyday lives, subject to their available resources and shaped by their social, ethnic and religious ties.
Professor Jackson of the University of Sheffield, one of the leaders of the research programme said: “ If government advice on healthy eating is to have a serious impact, it needs to be framed within a better understanding of our everyday family lives.”
The research, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, provides convincing evidence that food is a powerful lens through which to view recent changes in family life and (vice versa). As families are changing - with fewer and later marriages, more single-person households, increased numbers of divorced and separated couples - so too are food cultures. This has included the rise of “convenience” foods, new cooking technologies and an increased emphasis on snacking rather than formal meals.
Dr Graham Smith of Royal Holloway, University of London, added: “One of the most important changes can be found in the way that different generations see food and family. So, for example, a study of a community of in Bradford found that family and food meant different things to different generations. While the oldest generation saw food as a reminder of a distant homeland and the family as a refuge in a new country, the youngest celebrate their food and families as contributing to multiculturalism.”
