Families face barriers to healthier habits

LONDON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Efforts in Britain to improve dietary behavior and encourage exercise may not help because many Brits are ambivalent about altering habits, a researcher says.

If government initiatives, such as improving the quality of school meals or pushing the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, are to succeed they need to acknowledge that families' differing domestic routines, relationships and resources affect how and what they eat, the researcher said.

Peter Jackson of the University of Sheffield said most people are aware they need to eat "five-a-day" of fruits and vegetables, but many don't because they are limited by their circumstances. Poorer families may be acting rationally when serving "junk" food to their children knowing that "healthier" meals will go to waste, he said.

Much of current health advice is aimed at individuals rather than families, even though decisions about what to eat aren't a matter of individual choice but are rooted in people's diverse family circumstances, Jackson said. Available resources, and social, ethnic and religious ties shape those decisions, Jackson said.

The findings presented at the "Changing Families, Changing Food" research program at the British Library in London.