Marketing Healthy Diets: The Impact of Health Consciousness on Chinese Consumers’ Food Choices

Abstract

Dietary choices, as the types and amounts of foods that individuals consume, are a major determinant of human health and environmental sustainability. From a marketing perspective, it becomes imperative to identify and understand the factors that motivate consumers to adopt a sustainable diet and purchase healthy food. This research is an attempt to contribute to the literature by revealing the major driving forces leading to healthy food consumption and identifying its underlying mechanism. Based on a survey of the diets and lifestyles of 307 Chinese consumers in several cities of the Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces, our empirical results indicate that consumer health consciousness is a major predictor of the intention to purchase healthy products. Such a relationship is explained by the psychological benefits associated with the consumption experience and the perceived naturalness of the product. Moreover, a high perceived nutritional value will enhance the mediation influences of the psychological benefit and the perceived naturalness on purchase intention while a low perceived nutritional value tends to negate such an impact.

Conceptualizing a Gluten-Free Instant Noodle Prototype Using Environmental Sustainability Aspects: A Cross-National Qualitative Study on Thai and Danish Consumers

“…In addition, this segment needed nutritional value from gluten-free instant noodles as they were highly motivated to improve their health. The finding was consistent with Huang et al [ 72 ], who recommended that nutrition and fitness have become mainstream demands for food consumption among consumers, particularly health-conscious people. Furthermore, participants in segment 2 had common issues regarding food quality and safety since some of them encountered food safety problems and created risks for their health.…”

The Moderating Role of COVID-19 Perceived Risk between Health Concern and Psychological Well-Being of Active Senior Campers Using PROCESS Macro Model

“…Health concern refers to an individual’s attitude and interest in health and healthy behaviors [ 39 , 40 ]. In particular, as people’s health concern increases due to COVID-19, the number of people participating in exercise to increase immunity is increasing.…”

Exploring consumer behavior and attitudes toward healthy food in Slovakia

“…, 2021). Human health becomes the main determinant in the choice of food, as the awareness and interest of consumers in healthy eating habits and a healthy lifestyle is constantly growing (Huang et al. , 2022).…”

“…Food choices are complex and are affected by a combination of various factors, such as health, mood, convenience, price, functionality, social norms, or ethical concerns (Wongprawmas et al, 2021). Human health becomes the main determinant in the choice of food, as the awareness and interest of consumers in healthy eating habits and a healthy lifestyle is constantly growing (Huang et al, 2022). According to the World Health Organization, health can be characterized as a state of physical, social and mental well-being of a person and this person does not show signs of any disease and prefers a healthy lifestyle (Kumar, 2017).…”

“…Nowadays, healthy lifestyle is becoming more popular and important role plays not only healthy diet, but also physical activity, stress management, personal hygiene, proper sleep, socialization and safe environment with increasing focus on environmental and climate change parameters (Debnath, 2021;Secinaro et al, 2022). Diet is a major factor affecting a healthy lifestyle (De and De, 2019) and consumers are beginning to perceive the healthiness of food as one of the most important aspects of food choices (Huang et al, 2022). Consumers should avoid fast food, junk food, foods having zero…”