Food consumption patterns in an affluent society and barriers to overcoming dietary change

In affluent nations, there has been an increasing awareness of the links between diet and the incidence of chronic diseases such as heart disease, hypertension and cancer. In some of these countries, this has led to improvements in the dietary profiles of the community and its health-related status. Studies of random samples of the Australian population carried out in the last decade or so have shown a downward trend in the consumption of total and saturated fats and salt and an increase in polyunsaturated fat and fibre. However, detailed assessment of food consumption patterns reveal that the changes in dietary patterns relate predominantly to improvement in choice within food categories rather than a fundamental change in the relative amounts of foods consumed across categories such as meats, dairy foods, cereal grains and fruits and vegetables. The surveys show that knowledge about the links between diet and disease is encouragingly high in most sectors of the Australian community as is concern about the healthiness of the food supply but time constraints, the perception that "healthy" foods are boring foods, lack of information on packaging and family pressures were seen as major barriers to dietary change. A further barrier is lack of knowledge about the balance of foods required and in particular, the value of cereal foods. Analysis of the dietary data show that further significant improvements in the dietary profile are only likely to accrue from a fundamental change in the relative use of the major food categories.