Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has introduced a new healthy eating campaign that looks to encourage people to make “simple changes to help improve their diet.”
FSS’ new online guide – Eat Well, Your Way – aims to help tackle Scotland’s poor diet by offering a variety of “straightforward steps and useful advice.” The guide also claims to cater for those shopping on a tight budget and consumers who are more sustainability conscious.
The FSS campaign will also feature a TV advertisement, outdoor media, experiential activity in shopping centres and a targeted digital campaign.
Dr Gillian Purdon, head of nutrition at FSS, said: “This is a new resource which focuses on practical advice on how to adopt healthier options. It is designed so that people can find inspiration and make changes that suit their circumstances, as we know that making lots of changes at once isn’t always sustainable.”
“Eating is about much more than nutrition”
The guide covers what FSS highlighted as ‘three key areas’ of consumer behaviour: shopping, cooking and eating out. Dr Julia Allan, senior lecturer in health psychology at the University of Aberdeen, who helped develop the guide, said: “Eating is about much more than nutrition. People make choices about what to eat based on lots of factors – how it tastes, what it costs, how they’re feeling, who they’re with, and so on.
“In many cases, people don’t really ‘choose’ at all – they eat what’s on offer, what’s convenient at the time and what they can afford. Eat Well, Your Way takes this into account and acknowledges that it can be difficult to make healthier choices.”
FSS added that it plans to further tailor and evolve Eat Well, Your Way in the coming months. In addition, a new FSS report that aims to shed light on the impact lockdown and the wider pandemic has had on Scotland’s diet is due to be published in the coming weeks.
