Promoting and disseminating consistent and effective nutrition messages: challenges and opportunities

Nutrition messages are a central part of policy making as well as communication via product information, advertising, healthcare advice and lifestyle campaigns. However, with amplified information (and misinformation) from a growing number of sources, inconsistent and conflicting food landscapes, and limited engagement from the public, nutrition messaging tensions have become more accentuated than previously. In this review, we focus on the challenges facing those wishing to effect dietary change through communication; and identify opportunities and future research questions. Beginning with a new working definition and taxonomy for the term ‘nutrition message’, we consider the evolution of public health nutrition messages from the past century and discuss which types of messages may be more effective. We then turn to the challenges of implementation and highlight specific barriers to recipients' understanding and change. While the evidence has many gaps and there is a need for systematic evaluation of nutrition messages, research indicates that recipients are more likely to act on fewer messages that provide clear benefits and which resonate with their perceived health needs, and which are relatively straightforward to implement. Effectiveness may be improved through consideration of how nutrition messages can be designed to complement key non-health drivers of food choice (taste, cost) and societal/cultural norms. Consistency can be achieved by aligning the wider food and messaging environment to desired public health actions; that is by ensuring that retail settings provide and signpost healthier choices, and that mass media nutrition messages work with, not against, public health advice.