Nutrition and Food Literacy: Framing the Challenges to Health Communication

Abstract

Nutrition and food literacy are two important concepts that are often used interchangeably, but they are not synonymous. Nutrition refers to the study of how food affects the body, while food literacy refers to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to make informed decisions about food and its impact on health. Despite the growing awareness of the importance of food literacy, food illiteracy remains a global issue, affecting people of all ages, backgrounds, and socioeconomic status. Food illiteracy has serious health implications as it contributes to health inequities, particularly among vulnerable populations. In addition, food literacy is a complex and multidisciplinary field, and there are numerous challenges to health communication that must be addressed to effectively promote food literacy and improve health outcomes. Addressing food illiteracy and the challenges to health communication is essential to promote health equity and improve health outcomes for all populations.

Predicting willingness to consume healthy brand foods using the theory of planned behavior: the role of nutritional literacy

“…Nutritional literacy was first established in 1995 to assess awareness of nutrition labels among healthy individuals in Canada ( 14 , 33 , 34 ). Nutrition literacy is an individual’s ability to understand, evaluate, and effectively use nutritional information ( 35 , 36 ).…”

“…Critical nutrition literacy involves skillfully evaluating and scrutinizing nutrition information and guidance and being motivated to address nutritional obstacles from individual, societal, and global perspectives ( 17 ). In this context, there has been a noticeable increase in the interest and focus on nutritional literacy ( 33 ). Nutritional educational programs have been proven essential in formal and informal settings such as schools, universities, and communities.…”

Do Primary Health Professionals in Brazil Have a Misperception about Food? The Role of Food Literacy as a Positive Predictor

“…FL is considered necessary for public health because it represents a promising approach to helping to solve problems ranging from obesity to environmental sustainability [ 10 ]. FL extends the scope health literacy [ 9 ], which can be understood as the set of skills required for a healthy lifestyle [ 10 ]. The cognitive and social skills that motivate individuals to lead healthy lifestyles ratify FL in ways that can be categorized as functional (an individual’s ability to find and understand health-related information), interactive (the ability to receive and share information about health in one’s environment), and critical (the ability to critically evaluate and question health information) [ 8 ].…”

“…Improving the population’s FL through health communication, whether in care, health services, or mainstream media, is necessary. In this sense, to promote public health and food communication, health professionals must be equipped with adequate FL, knowledge, and social marketing skills [ 9 ]. Limited FL is a barrier for adequate practical advice since FL can empower communities, dietary resilience, and food sovereignty [ 12 ].…”

The Role of Parental Health Literacy in Establishing Health-Promoting Habits in Early Childhood

“…Several tools for measuring health literacy have been developed over the past few decades [5][6][7], with the most widely used tool currently being the 47-item European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire [8] or its abbreviated counterpart [9][10][11][12]. Research on the health literacy of specific populations [13][14][15] and on specific health literacy domains [16][17][18] has become increasingly common. In relation to early childhood, Bánfai et al (2022) [19] pointed out in their systematic review that studies related to health literacy are less focused on children themselves, but rather on the parents and educators raising them.…”