Does improving your nutritional knowledge improve the quality of the diet you will consume? Is nutritional education effective at improving the quality of an individual’s diet? These are important questions that are of interest to health professionals. A number of studies have investigated the relationship between nutritional knowledge and the quality of the individual’s diet but found no correlation. However, this has been suggested to result from methodological failures in the studies concerned. For example, many studies investigating this relationship have relied on the memory of the individuals and the methods have not included validation to confirm that the information supplied is truthful and accurate. In addition, many studies have used an outdated scientific understanding of what constitutes a healthy diet, often emphasising dietary fat as the major factor that influences diet quality above all others. Further, many studies have measured parameters that are of clinical interest but perhaps not relevant to the real world.
Studies consistently show that those from the lowest socioeconomic groups have the lowest quality diets. This may explain the association between poverty and health. However, what is interesting is that nutritional knowledge has a modifying effect on this relationship. Therefore nutritional education programmes may be successful if they target those in the lowest socioeconomic groups. Self taught nutritional knowledge may be the most powerful type because it shows an inherent desire by the individual to improve themselves.
However, there have been some well designed studies that have investigated the relationship between nutritional knowledge and diet quality. For example, in one study researchers addressed the inherent problems in this type of research in order to produce a more rigorously designed study. The results of the study showed that the nutritional knowledge was significantly associated with the quality of the diets. Those with the greatest nutritional knowledge were 25 times more likely to obtain the current recommended levels of fruit and vegetables in their diet compared to those with the poorest nutritional knowledge. As with many other studies the authors reported that socioeconomic factors affected the quality of the diet consumed by the individual, with the poorest in society eating the least healthy foods. However, nutritional knowledge had a significant modifying effect on this relationship, suggesting that nutritional education may significantly improve diet quality in those of low socioeconomic status. .
Eat Well, Stay Healthy. Protect Yourself
RdB
