Towards the Implementation of a Conceptual Framework of Food and Nutrition Literacy: Providing Healthy Eating for the Population.

Virginia Vettori,Chiara Milani,Chiara Lorini,Guglielmo Bonaccorsi

doi:10.3390/ijerph16245041

Virginia Vettori, Chiara Milani + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16245041

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Abstract

Existing definitions of food literacy (FL) and nutrition literacy (NL) in particular refer to individual knowledge, motivation, competences, and awareness, which determine the relationship between individuals and food, the food system, and nutrition information. Several authors proposed specific conceptualization of the terms. Nevertheless, the description of analogies and differences between FL and NL is still lacking, as is an integrated framework which highlights the meaning of the concepts. This work aims to describe and discuss evidence provided by the literature in order to develop and propose a comprehensive conceptualization of FL and NL to the scientific community. We systematically reviewed six databases, considering the search terms of FL and NL. We collected the antecedents, components, and consequences of both FL and NL. We underlined and traced similarities of the concepts as well as prerogative features through the content analysis of definitions. We obtained 14 definitions of NL and 12 definitions of FL; 42 papers presented antecedents and 53 papers contained consequences. We observed that NL could be considered a specific form of FL. In addition, we noted that the consequences of NL are included in the subset of the consequences of FL and the conceptual limits of FL correspond to the outcome of healthful diet. We conclude that FL and NL build a multifaceted concept which implies both individual and public perspectives. We propose a conceptualization which could be useful to develop an executive framework aimed at providing healthy eating for the population.

Highlights

Food and nutrition literacy are relevant issues in achieving the sustainability of the food system, which has an important impact on public health and environmental health [1]
This study aimed to provide a solid basis for the definition of food literacy (FL) and nutrition literacy (NL) from the perspective of public health, considering individual, collective, and contextual issues
We considered only statements that explained the meaning of the terms proposed by the authors, introduced by words such as ‘is’, ‘may/can be defined’, or ‘defined/described as’ (i.e., ‘Food literacy is about acquiring and developing the food-related skills necessary to help create behavior change [21] (p. 342)’ or ‘Nutrition literacy may be defined as the degree to which people have the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic diet information and the tools needed to make appropriate nutrition decisions [22] (p. 422)’

Summary

Introduction

Food and nutrition literacy are relevant issues in achieving the sustainability of the food system, which has an important impact on public health and environmental health [1]. They may play a vital role in improving individuals’ eating quality. The concepts of food literacy (FL) and nutrition literacy (NL) have been defined only recently because of their role in human health. The concepts of FL and NL probably originate from that of health literacy (HL) [3], as a result of individuals’ need to orient themselves in a complex food environment through specific knowledge and competences

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