Impediments to Healthy Eating Practices among Adolescent Youth

This paper analyzes the neglect of health among the target group of adolescent youth due to various factors and proposes strategies to address them. The study focuses on the high cost of healthy foods and lack of education on nutrition as major barriers to healthy eating practices. The findings highlight the need for interventions to promote affordable and accessible healthy food options for this age group.

Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
Impediments to Healthy Eating Practices among adolescent youth
Perceptions, Facilitators and Barriers
Abstract
Background: Healthy eating gives an overall sense of satisfaction and well-
being. For the prevention of diseases like heart diabetes, heart disorder, high
blood pressure, cancer, asthma and stomach problems, doctors always recommend
healthy food. This problem is acute among the age group of 18 to 24. We shall
refer this group as a target group. This group is engaged in either study or just
joined their working place. Their budget is also limited and they want to lead a
fast life. This group is affected the most because they are habituated to taking fast
food. They may have knowledge regarding the importance of taking nutritional
food but; their changeover from school to college life gives them more freedom to
choose from a variety of food mostly in the category of fast food.
Purpose: This paper will analyze neglect of health among the target group
because of various factors and proper strategies will be worked out to articulate
them. [1]
They generally neglect their health due to a number of factors which include high
unaffordable prices of healthy foods and lack of education on nutrition. [2] They
have just started living on their own, at this age they may not analyze before
taking something whether it is good and bad for health and they are not serious
about whether their daily food meets the required nutritional needs.[3]
Method: Data obtained from the survey report conducted for this purpose will be
analysed. Qualitative analysis from different sources of literature and publications
will also be done.
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
Results: Among the target group the majority of people prefer to take food
outside for various reasons however as the age increases there was a gradual shift
towards eating homemade healthy food. The detailed analysis will be given later
in this paper.
Conclusion: They may be having complete knowledge of nutritional
requirements for good health; even then whatever choices they make on food,
may not be a healthy one. Convenience and taste are given more priority to
quality.
1. Introduction
Every human being needs nutrients of different types for a healthy and active life.
These nutrients are supplied through the proper intake of foods on a day to day
basis to fulfil dietary needs. An adequate, balanced food along with regular
physical activities is required for maintaining good health. Because of the lack of
adequate nutrition, the immunity system of the body is affected, leading to
frequent chronic disease,[4] like diabetes, [5], cancer [6,7] coronary heart
disease [8,9]. Due to rapid urbanization and effects of globalization, there is an
increase in habit of consuming processed foods. As a result on account of the
change of lifestyles the dietary patterns also has been changed to a great extent.
People particularly the group referred to as target group nowadays prefer
processed food which is easily available. As a result, they are taking foods which
contain high amounts of fats, sugar, salt or energy. Many of them even do not take
enough vegetables, fruits and dietary fibres available in whole grain products like
wheat, unpolished rice etc. The guidelines issued by Australian dietary (details in
Appendix 3) recommended an RDI of fruits and vegetable serves {2 and 5 serves
respectively} according to the different age groups and gender. However, 2014 -
15 NHS found out that less than 50% of adults can satisfy the recommendations
of intake of fruit, while a meagre 7% of adults meet the vegetable intake
recommendations.[10]
2. Materials and methods
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
Both qualitative, as well as quantitative methods, are used to identify the
problems. In the qualitative method, a literature review is conducted whereas
quantitative analysis feedback is obtained from different age groups by
interviewing them.
Qualitative method: a Literature review
Mary Story PhD, Dianne Neumark-Stainzer PhD, et al., in their publication on
“individual and environmental influences on adolescent eating behaviour”,
described 4 levels of influence. They are personal, interpersonal, environmental
and social.[11] A number of factors influence the daily food routines.
A. Cost
An important fact can be derived from most of the studies is that healthy good
food is considered too costly compared to ready-made fast food (junk food).
Cost is one of the factors which badly affects healthy food habits. Though the
number of studies conducted on this target group is few, it can be established that
they are also cost sensitive.[12] SAFrench, M Story et al.,[13] conducted a study
on price vs. sales of vegetables and fruits in which they found that there was a
400% increase in weekly sales after reducing the prices of vegetables and fruits
to 50%. Similar studies were conducted by many other researchers and the results
were almost the same. [14] This clearly shows the relation between the cost of
food materials and eating habits.
Cliona Ni Mhurchu et al.,[15] In their study, observed that by simple substitution
of food regularly purchased with food having better food value can substantially
improve the nutritional profile of the food without negatively affecting the overall
cost. This discovery can lead to two conceptions; 1. the widespread feeling that
“a healthy diet is expensive, may not be always true mainly for seasonal fruits
and vegetables; and 2. If the cost of nutritious food is reduced a little it increase
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
their sales compared to less healthy stuff. However, it is a fact that healthy foods
like meat and spreads, are always expensive and can be replaced by soy-based
food or fish having high protein content and beneficial for health.
Andrea Carlson, PhD et al. [16] in their study, observed that the cost of food has
received plenty of attention because cost determines how much and what type of
food is to be chosen to eat, however, results regarding food’s dependence of costs
have been mixed. Another study conducted by some French scientists reported
contrary to the general conception that because of high-cost youth avoid taking
healthy food. They observed that there is an increase in nutrient density with
increase in food cost. However, only 73 common food was selected for the study,
leaving biases of the report as generally costly foods were excluded from the list.
Similarly, a Spanish study consisting of 166 foods have shown in the report that
diet quality is dependent on the cost of food however the cost was the third most
important entity in their study.
All these study gives a mixed responses to one of the main agenda that the target
group avoids costly food because of cost but the general opinion is that quality
good healthy foods are in general costly.
B. Time and convenience
This mindset works as a hindrance to their affinity for healthy food. They often
think they are very busy and even they skip a meal in the pretext that time will be
wasted during eating, they prefer some snacks instead. The remarks which are
commonly being made "We people are so engaged that they do not have time to
prepare healthy food", and "We have heavy work pressure on us".[17]
To establish the identity of healthy food among the target group we have to make
available healthy food like fresh fruits and healthy snacks in few areas of social
independence enjoyed by the young people so that they have the option to choose
healthy stuff.
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
C. Meal patterns and dieting
There is always a tendency among young people to skip meals which adversely
affects the diet quality. The most common meal of the target group is breakfast.
[18] Among young people especially girls, dieting is very popular to reduce body
weight and to make slim, and this adversely affects health. The National Youth
Behaviour Survey’s data state that the young people who practice dieting for
extreme weight loss are found to eat fruits and vegetables less than people who do
not go on unnecessary dieting or fasting and people who use better techniques of
control of weight. [19] Another popular study discovered that the young girls
who are on frequent dieting have a greater risk of falling ill frequently.[20]
D Peers
Friends and colleagues are also responsible for influencing the general behaviour
of young and adolescents. They themselves create their own behavioural rules.
The young people spend most of their time with close friends and there eating is
part and parcel during their activities of socialization and leisure. However, some
studies have claimed otherwise. French and his colleagues examined 13 reasons
for the sale of snacks among 419 young people. The finding is that they are very
rarely influenced by friends while choosing food, however, the results of
qualitative research on our focus group is inconsistent.[21]
E. Lack of knowledge
One of the areas of concern is the lack of awareness of consequences of eating
continuously unhealthy food and so; Jillian K. Croll, Mary Story et al.,[22]
conducted a study with 203 girls and boys of late adolescent age majority of them
was from high schools. and they observed that they have minimum knowledge
and information about different aspects of eating healthy foods and they have the
conception that eating healthy food means eating varieties of food with a different
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
composition. In spite of having knowledge that they should take healthy food,
they often take foods they know unhealthy. The main reasons for the barrier to
healthy eating are lack of time for preparation of healthy food and practically
unavailability of healthy snack options in schools and the lack of concern.
The above-mentioned findings state that, though the campaigns on healthy-eating
are based on dietary guidelines for Americans (Appendix 1) and Canada
(Appendix 2) are reaching the youth, lot more activities are to be created to help
them utilise the learnings into practical use by building the habit of taking healthy
food. Training and face to face interactions should help people to practise healthy
eating on a regular basis and explain the adverse effects of unhealthy diets in the
long run.
F. Research gap
Though some research activities have been done based on nutritional issues on
the health of youth but none have emphasized properly regarding the problems
faced by young adults who have come out of their parents and started living on
their own generally in academics, working place or financial institutions
In various papers, a lot of discussions has taken place on barriers, but the financial
needs are not discussed to get a clearer picture. People adopt first at this age and
it is desirable that a health belief model can be designed appropriately to bridge
their knowledge gap and allow them to build the habit of using healthy food
model on all occasions.
Quantitative Analysis
Different communication tools like printed material were distributed to the
people so that it can help in creating awareness in them. The main focus was on
the target group so that it would create awareness in them either through face to
face campaign (direct) or through their friends or colleagues (indirect).
Participants
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
People between the age group 18 – 24 years of age were selected from the GMI
research database, which consists of people volunteering to participate in surveys
in exchange for award points. A sampling of quotas shall be done to make sure
that the demographic factors; Age, sex, educational qualification and home state
are represented in a proportion like that of Australia as identified by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics {ABS} in their 2011 census.
Data collection
The most popular data collection methods for any qualitative research study are
interviews and focus groups. [23] Data was taken from the Consumer Food
Survey, an Internet survey. Participants were asked by email to participate in the
study and, for them who agreed on a link to participate in the survey was sent.
The survey contained sections on knowledge of food and nutrition, educational
qualification, demographic characteristics and daily food consumption data. In the
survey, participants were the following question: "What are your suggestions for
helping people of your age group to follow a balanced and healthy diet on a
budget and what kind of foods would you choose to keep yourself healthy?" This
process is schematically shown in Fig. 1.
3. Results and discussion
Data analysis
Once the data was collected, it was organized, interpreted and the pattern was
identified so that the conclusions could be drawn. The answers to the previous
question of the first two hundred participants along with the responses by age
band were used for analysis to identify the most common themes that emerge
from the answers.
The deductive approach, the quick and easy approach was followed to summarize
the data. The survey is conducted with a total number of participants equal no
200. Age group wise data is as below:
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
Table 1 showing Age-GroupWise distribution of the number of people surveyed [the
First row denotes 6 Age Groups, the second row is Distribution]
Age
Group
Whether taking
good food
homemade as per
definition of good
food
Not taking good food as
per the definition of
good food because of
the cost factor
Not taking good food
as per definition of
good food for other
reasons
Total
18-
24(1) 11 8 8 27
25-
34(2) 29 10 11 50
35-
44(3) 21 3 13 37
45-
54(4) 32 3 5 40
55-
64(5) 23 2 2 27
65
and(6)
above
14 5 19
TOTA
L 130 26 44 200
Table 2 showing Age-Group Wise distribution of food preference
Table 2 is showing the distribution of food preference age-group wise. The
first column denotes age-group, the second column denotes the number of
respondents taking good homemade food. Column 3 denotes the number of
respondents not taking good home-made food because of cost. Column 4 denotes
the number of respondents not taking good home-made food because of other
reasons not mentioned. The target group under study is represented in row
8
Age
betwe
en 18
and
24
Age
betwe
en 25
and
34
Age
betwee
n 35
and 44
Age
betwee
n 45
and 54
Ag
e
bet
we
en
55
and
64
Age
above
64
27 50 37 40 27 19

Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
number 1. From the data, 60 % of the respondents do not take good home-made
food which is the highest among all the groups. Out of those who take outside
food 50 % say that it is because of the cost involved in good food, rest 50%
because of other reasons. In the case of group 2, 42% of the respondents do not
take good home-made food. Out of that. 48% cannot afford good food because of
cost 52 % because of other reasons. In the case of group 3, 42% of the
respondents do not take good home-made food. Out of that 19 % take outside
food because of cost, rest 81% because of other reasons. In the case of group 4,
43% of the respondents take outside food, out of that 19% because of cost and
81% because of other reasons. In the case of group 4, 20% of the respondents take
outside food out of that 60% because of cost 40% because of other reasons. In the
case of group 5, 18% take outside food out of that 50% because of cost. In the
case of group 6, 26% take outside food out of that 0% because of cost.
If we see the trend, the tendency to take outside food decreases with the
increase in age. There is a similarity of results for group 1 and group 2 because of
the proximity of age. One of inference can be drawn that, the majority of the
respondents from target group 1 has given the reason of cost factor for taking
outside junk food which is cheaper.
From this analysis that the target group is affected the most, as they are compelled
to take outside fast food because of cost, convenience or other factors.
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the sampling process
4. Conclusion
This review has by and large identified both the pros and cons of healthy
eating among young people and has managed to address the issues behind this
important subject which is going to affect society.
Most of the target group people avoid healthy food in the pretext of the high cost.
It may not be always true. If one can prepare food items at home by purchasing
raw materials which are cheap, in the long run, the cost is even less than the fast
food. Moreover, the cost of medicine to be taken to cure the ill effects of fast food
is substantial which also should be taken into consideration.
The study has brought to a light number of facts, the most important among those
is that because of taste and a wide range of choice these young people are not that
much worried about their health when they consume fast food. Because self-
cooking is a cumbersome process.
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
Increase in the knowledge of nutrition is one of the areas which should be
given importance. It lacks in some of the people in the target group. It can be
suggested that multi-faceted school-level activities will definitely bring better
result. If a range of provision and healthy meals and snacks are provided at
schools and social gatherings at an affordable rate it will induce everybody to
exercise the better option and it will improve the position in the long run.
.
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Impediments to healthy eating practices among adolescent youth
APPENDIXES
1. Appendix 1 :
USDA Food Patterns: Healthy U.S.-Style Eating Pattern
(https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/)
2. Appendix 2 :
https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/ Dietary reference
intake Government of Canada Dietary Reference Intakes
3. Appendix 3 :
Australian Dietary Guidelines
(https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines/about-australian-dietary-
guidelines)
The Australian Dietary Guidelines give advice on eating for health and
wellbeing.
4. Appendix 4: Journal guidelines as per the link provided
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/
information/instructions-contributors
14