What Is Considered Healthy Eating? An Exploratory Study among College Students of Nutrition and Food Science.

In modern industrialized societies, the focus on healthy eating has increased significantly across multiple sectors, including the media, public policy, expert opinion, and public awareness. The aim of this research was to explore the perceptions of healthy eating and the barriers to adopting a healthy diet among undergraduate students in Human Nutrition and Dietetics (HND) and Food Science and Technology (FST) degrees in Spain. An exploratory and descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using a qualitative and quantitative methodology and convenience sampling. Two focus groups and a questionnaire were utilized (300 participants from all academic years completed the survey). Differences in definitions of healthy eating and perceived barriers were found between genders and students at different stages of training (p < 0.05). In their understanding of healthy eating, the students placed importance on balance, variety, moderation, and individual factors. Although students considered it easy to follow a healthy diet, family's eating habits, time availability, and emotional states were found to be the main barriers to the implementation of healthy practices. The obtained data supports the need to critically address perceptions of healthy eating throughout the training of nutrition and food science professionals. The insights obtained on the perceived barriers highlight the importance of considering both individual and environmental factors.

Perceptions of Food among College Students in the Field of Food Science: A Food Sustainability Approach.

The complex concept of food sustainability has become crucial in all spheres of life. Dietitians, food scientists, and technologists are in a unique position to promote sustainability in food systems. However, the perceptions of food sustainability among food science professionals and college students are under-researched, particularly in Spain. The aim of this study was therefore to analyze perceptions related to food and to food sustainability in a sample of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (HND) and Food Science and Technology (FST) students in Barcelona (Spain). An exploratory and descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out using qualitative and quantitative methodology and convenience sampling. Two focus groups and an online questionnaire were conducted (300 participants completed the survey, 151 from HND and 149 from FST). Although the students expressed concern about food sustainability, their dietary choices were primarily associated with or influenced by taste/pleasure and health/nutrition. The issue of sustainability seemed more internalized by women than men, whereas the generalized conception of a sustainable diet was essentially based on environmental aspects, with socioeconomic dimensions largely overlooked. The concept of sustainability should be promoted among food science students in all its multidimensionality, and actions need to be implemented that bring sustainability closer to students' social practices, which should be incorporated into all university education and that is taught by professors duly trained in the subject.

How would you define healthy food? Social representations of Brazilian, French and Spanish dietitians and young laywomen.

The perception that food affects our health has increased over the past fifty years in industrialised Western countries. The notion of "healthy food" has become ubiquitous in medical, political, and media discourse as well as in the discourses of the lay population. This study seeks to understand the social representations of "healthy food" of Brazilian, Spanish and French dietitians and young laywomen. A qualitative and comparative methodology based on 131 individual semi-structured interviews was set up. According to the analysis of the discourses, the notion of "healthy food" is ambivalent and polysemic. Scientific-nutritional rationality is not the only way to think about "healthy food". Two main ways of categorising "healthy foods" are observed in the three countries. They are based on eating analysis criteria that referred to diverse value systems and different scientific, symbolic and moral rationalities: on the one hand, a physiological, nutritional and functional conception, and on the other, an "eco-ideological" conception that took into account production, culture and distribution methods. Though dietitians have a greater technical knowledge of nutrients and metabolic processes than laywomen, professionals and young laywomen, mainly within the same nationality, shared similar discourses concerning the notion of "healthy food", revealing patterns that differentiate each nationality. Taking together, the results reveal that although medical-nutritional discourses are disseminated internationally, discourses on "healthy food" are constructed taking into account social, cultural, symbolic and moral dimensions. These discourses are linked to a historical and sociocultural context.