Abstract
Individuals can apply different healthy eating strategies to help them make healthy eating choices. Previous research showed that individuals differ in their preferred strategy, but also that a mix of strategies is often applied by a single person across contexts. The current research investigated the extent to which differences within an individual across contexts (i.e., meal moments, social environment and physical environment) predicted openness to healthy eating strategies in addition to personal predictors that differ between individuals (i.e., intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, physical opportunity and social opportunity). A representative sample of the Dutch adult population was recruited (N = 892). The within-individual (contextual) predictors were measured nine times just before a meal moment over a period of three weeks, by means of a smartphone application. The between-individual (personal) predictors were administered with a baseline questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis distinguished three healthy eating strategies: Increasing healthy foods, Limiting unhealthy foods and consuming Light products. A random intercept model, in which within-individual predictors and between-individual predictors were entered successively, showed that context matters for openness to all three strategies, but is most important for increasing healthy foods and least important for light products. Individuals are most open to increase healthy foods at dinner as compared to breakfast, whereas the opposite is true for limiting unhealthy foods and consuming light products. Eating at home is beneficial for openness to all three strategies and eating with others positively influences openness to increase healthy foods but has no effect on the other strategies. Insights gained from this research increase our understanding of an individual's openness to apply healthy eating strategies.
Highlights
Current dietary patterns are related to severe diet-related noncommunicable diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disor ders, hypertension and some forms of cancer (Afshin et al, 2019; Ca ballero, 2007; Key et al, 2004; Ng et al, 2014; Willett et al, 2019)
Three items were deleted: ‘eating smaller portions’ because of inconsistent loadings, ‘vary your diet’ because it loaded onto the factor ‘increasing healthy foods’ where it theoretically does not fit and ‘choosing healthy fats’ because it substantially reduced the Cronbach’s Alpha of the factor ‘light product’
Personal predictors of openness to healthy eating strategies When looking at personal predictors of openness to healthy eating strategies, we found that, in accordance with our first two hypotheses, intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy towards healthy eating are relevant for increasing the consumption of healthy foods and decreasing the consumption unhealthy foods, but not for consuming light products
Summary
Current dietary patterns are related to severe diet-related noncommunicable diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disor ders, hypertension and some forms of cancer (Afshin et al, 2019; Ca ballero, 2007; Key et al, 2004; Ng et al, 2014; Willett et al, 2019). A consumer can use different strategies to achieve a more healthy diet (Falk, Sobal, Bisogni, Connors, & Devine, 2001; Verain, Raaijmakers, & Reinders, unpublished results a). As an example, Inauen, Shrout, Bolger, Stadler, and Scholz (2016) researched unhealthy snacking and found that both intentions and actual behaviour fluctuate within individuals over the day. When it concerns healthy eating strategies, little is known about whether openness to apply these strategies varies within persons, for example during different mealtimes (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack), in different locations (at home, out-of-home), and/or in different social contexts (alone, with family, with friends). The current study aims to investigate both individual differences and contextual differences regarding the openness to different healthy eating strategies
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
