The relative success of official and informal weight reduction techniques: Retrospective correlational evidence

Blair, Alan; Booth, D.A.; Lewis, Vivien; Wainwright, C.J.

doi:10.1080/08870448908400379

Cited by 45 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The use of locally validated descriptions of widespread habits also sidesteps the arguably insoluble issues of determining the extent to which health is improved by compliance with healthy eating messages that have been professionally implemented from expert interpretations of epidemiological data. The effect on health-risk factors can be measured from individuals' changes in frequency and intensity of each pattern (Blair, Booth, Lewis et al, 1989;Booth, Blair, Lewis, Baek et al, 2004). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meals described as healthy or unhealthy match public health education in England

Camacho

Booth

2015

Appetite

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Dietary guidelines for the general public aim to lower the incidence of nutrition-related diseases by influencing habitual food choices. Yet little is known about how well the guidelines are matched by the actual practices that people regard as healthy or unhealthy. In the present study, British residents were asked in a cognitive interview to write a description of an occasion when either they ate in an unhealthy way or the eating was healthy. The reported foods and drinks, as well as sort of occasion, location, people present and time of day, were categorised by verbal and semantic similarities. The number of mentions of terms in each category wase then contrasted between groups in exact probability tests. Perceived unhealthy and healthy eating occasions differed reliably in the sorts of foods and the contexts reported. There was also full agreement with the national guidelines on eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, eating small amounts of foods and drinks high in fat and/or sugar, drinking plenty of water, and cutting down on alcohol. There was a tendency to regard choices of bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods as healthy. Reported healthy and unhealthy eating did not differ in incidences of meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein or of dairy foods and milk. These results indicate that operationally clear recommendations by health professionals are well understood in this culture but, members of the public do not make clear distinctions between healthy and unhealthy eating occasions for foods that can be included in moderate amounts in a healthy diet.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meals described as healthy or unhealthy match public health education in England

Camacho

Booth

2015

Appetite

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“…In a population-based telephone survey in the US, Serdula et al 3 found that most adults who were trying to lose weight or keep from gaining weight (80%) said that they consumed fewer calories, but no more detail was obtained of the speci®c behaviours that were carried out in the service of calorie reduction. In a small study in England, the majority of respondents reported reducing the amountacalories of food in meals and snacks, and reducing fat and sugar in the diet during periods of active weight control, 6 but many respondents reported similar restrictive habits even when they were not trying to lose weight. Another small study in Germany found that restrained caters reported a lower frequency of intake of fatty foods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intentional weight control and food choice habits in a national representative sample of adults in the UK

et al. 2000

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OBJECTIVE: To establish the association between intentional weight control and speci®c eating behaviours. DESIGN: An interview-based survey of a representative sample of the UK population including questions about demographic characteristics, weight and height, intentional weight control and eating behaviours. Associations among the eating behaviours, and between weight control and eating behaviours, were examined. SUBJECTS: 1894 men and women completed the interview (70% response rate). RESULTS: Approximately equal proportions of the sample were`not bothered about weight' (30%),`watching their weight' (36%), or`trying to lose weight' (28%). More men were`not bothered' and more women were`trying to lose'. People who were trying to lose or were watching their weight were more likely to report restricting fats, sugars, snacks, and the amount eaten at meals, than those who were not bothered, but there were no differences between weight watchers and weight losers. The overall level of restriction among weight losers was modest. There were no group differences in eating breakfast, fruits or vegetables, skipping meals or fasting. CONCLUSIONS: Around two-thirds of the adult population of the UK appear to be concerned about weight control, and this is re¯ected in somewhat higher than average adherence to recommended restrictive dietary habits.

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“…One well known strategy of healthier eating while using spreading fats is to place only a thin layer on the bread (Blair, Booth, Lewis & Wainwright, 1989). Indeed also, one way to indulge in a deliciously flavored butter is to spread it thickly.…”

Section: Conceptual and Sensory Factors In Uses Of Low-fat Foodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mind-reading versus neuromarketing: how does a product make an impact on the consumer?

Booth

Freeman

2014

Journal of Consumer Marketing

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Purpose -This research study illustrated the mapping of each consumer's mental processes in a market-relevant context. This paper shows how such maps deliver operational insights that cannot be gained by physical methods such as brain imaging.Design/methodology/approach -A marketed conceptual attribute and a sensed material characteristic of a popular product were varied across presentations in a common use. The relative acceptability of each proposition was rated together with analytical descriptors. The mental interaction that determined each consumer's preferences was calculated from the individual's performance at discriminating each viewed sample from a personal norm. These personal cognitive characteristics were aggregated into maps of demand in the market for subpanels who bought for the senses or for the attribute.Findings -Each of 18 hypothesised mental processes dominated acceptance in at least a few individuals among both sensory and conceptual purchasers. Consumers using their own descriptive vocabulary processed the factors in appeal of the product more centrally. The sensory and conceptual factors tested were most often processed separately but a minority of consumers treated them as identical. The personal ideal points used in the integration of information showed that consumers wished for extremes of the marketed concept that are technologically challenging or even impossible. None of this evidence could be obtained from brain imaging, casting in question its usefulness in marketing.Research limitations/implications -Panel mapping of multiple discriminations from a personal norm fills three major gaps in consumer marketing research. First, preference scores are related to major influences on choices and their cognitive interactions in the mind. Second, the calculations are completed on the individual's data and the cognitive parameters of each consumer's behaviour are aggregated --never the raw scores. Third, discrimination scaling puts marketed symbolic attributes and sensed material characteristics on the same footing, hence measuring their causal interactions for the first time.Practical implications -Neuromarketing is an unworkable proposition because brain imaging does not distinguish qualitative differences in behavior. Preference tests are operationally effective when designed and analysed to relate behavioral scores to major influences from market concepts and sensory qualities in interaction. The particular interactions measured in the reported study relate to the major market for healthy eating.Originality/value -This is the first study to measure mental interactions among determinants of preference, as well as including both a marketed concept and a sensed characteristic. Such an approach could be of great value to consumer marketing, both defensively and creatively.

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The relative success of official and informal weight reduction techniques: Retrospective correlational evidence

Cited by 45 publications

References 20 publications

Meals described as healthy or unhealthy match public health education in England

Meals described as healthy or unhealthy match public health education in England

Intentional weight control and food choice habits in a national representative sample of adults in the UK

Mind-reading versus neuromarketing: how does a product make an impact on the consumer?

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