A healthy lifestyle depends on many factors, including appropriate and balanced dietary habits and regular exercise. Even just the food side of the equation is complex, depending on everything from income and education to culture and beliefs. A debate as seemingly simple as which nutrition label works best becomes difficult when compared across different countries, age groups and income classes.

Together with other stakeholders, Europe’s food and drink industry is contributing to a more complete understanding of these factors and ultimately better informed public policy through rigorous scientific research focusing in particular on the identification of best practice with regard to reducing levels of obesity.

One finding that is already clear: there is no such thing as a “European diet.” People eat different foods in different countries, and even in different regions of the same country. They always have – and they always will. Recognising such differences helps policy makers, as well as food and drink manufacturers, better respond to European consumers’ individual needs.

Consumer Research Reveals Differences in Perceptions of Healthy Life Styles

Together with other stakeholders in the Platform, CIAA has contributed €80,000 to a joint research project to identify a best-practice communication strategy to motivate children and their parents to achieve healthy lifestyles. Following quantitative and qualitative fieldwork in several countries in January and February 2007, preliminary findings revealed that mothers and children both saw a healthy lifestyle as a result of healthy diets and exercise, but had different ideas about achieving it:

• Both mothers and children regarded physical activity as something “fun” and important for a healthy lifestyle, but perceived it to be easier for children to practice than for their mothers.
• Children (incorrectly) perceive a healthy diet as being a choice between black-and-white extremes of foods that should and should not be eaten.
• Mothers, on the other hand, were more willing to eat foods perceived as being “healthy” such as vegetables and fish and nuts, but also admitted to not setting particularly good examples for their children.

The findings show that some messages are completely lost on children, but are important for parents, while other messages can “sink in” with children if delivered in the right way through best-practice social marketing.

The results of this research will be used as a basis for educational campaigns across Europe.