Reporter Liu Yanfang
Everyone is the first person responsible for their own health, and they should manage their own health through active health management. To manage health, we must first master health-related knowledge and skills, and nutritional literacy is an important component of health literacy. Recently, the China Association for Health and Promotion Education released the Annual Report on Nutritional Literacy of Chinese Residents (2023) organized and compiled by the Nutrition Literacy Branch of the Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Nutrition Literacy Branch"), revealing the current situation of nutritional literacy of the general population in China: people's nutritional and health behaviors lag behind cognition and concepts, especially the nutritional skills of rational food selection need to be improved.
Nutritional health behaviors lag behind cognition and concepts, and the skills of rational food choice need to be improved
Nutritional literacy is the ability of individuals to obtain, process, and understand basic nutritional information and make correct nutrition-related decisions, including cognitive domains, the former including knowledge and concepts related to food nutrition, and the latter including related skills such as food selection, food preparation, and food intake.
From May 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, the Nutrition Literacy Branch conducted a survey on the nutritional knowledge, behaviors and skills of the general population through a mobile app, with more than 30,000 respondents participating. Professor Ma Guansheng of the School of Public Health of Peking University, chairman of the Nutrition Literacy Branch, said that the general population refers to people aged 18-65 years old, and they have a high degree of consistency in cognition and health behavior. Due to the high exposure to unhealthy eating behaviors, it is common for the general population to have poor dietary quality and nutrient intake. The general population spans a wide range of ages, and they are often decision-makers and executors of food choices and nutrition practices in units and households.
The survey showed that the majority of respondents had nutritional literacy, among which, cognition was good, skill mastery was average, and nutritional health behaviors lagged behind cognition and perceptionThe nutritional literacy level of women was higher than that of men, and the nutritional literacy level of respondents in the older age group, higher education level, and higher economic income respondents was higher, and the nutritional literacy level of normal weight respondents was higher.
In response to the survey results, Ma Guansheng further explained that the nutritional literacy compliance rate of the survey subjects was 844%, but the excellent rate is lower at 118%, indicating that there is still a lot of room for improving the nutritional literacy of the general population. The respondents had a high level of proficiency in the cognitive domain, with a compliance rate of 990%, while the level in the skill area is relatively low, with a compliance rate of 771%, indicating that in terms of specific behaviors, continuous reinforcement and change are needed. For example, the attainment rate of the two skills of making food and eating food is 771% and 809%, and the attainment rate of food selection skills was 615%；The excellent rate of the three skills was not high, and the excellent rate of food selection was the lowest, only 58%, the skill of rational food choice needs to be improved.
Improve the nutritional skills of residents and promote the formation and transformation of healthy behaviors
Improving nutritional literacy aims to integrate nutrition knowledge and concepts into daily life, and promote the formation of healthy eating behaviors through application and practice. Therefore, improving residents' nutrition skills is a key point that needs to be solved urgently. Ma Guansheng suggested that focusing on different topics and according to the nutritional needs and characteristics of different populations, formulate corresponding core information on nutritional literacy, and develop simple and practical nutritional literacy assessment toolsStrengthen personalized nutrition literacy improvement activities, and cooperate with traditional and self-leading platforms to create a comprehensive communication matrix of "nutrition literacy UP" to promote the improvement of the overall nutritional literacy level of residentsDevelop, evaluate, implement and promote appropriate technologies for improving nutrition literacy skills, so as to promote the formation and transformation of healthy behaviors while improving residents' nutritional knowledge and establishing health concepts.
Health is everyone's pursuit, and no one doesn't want to be healthy. But health is not innate, nor is it a one-time thing. The acquisition of health is inseparable from good physical fitness, reasonable diet and nutrition, good health literacy, and healthy lifestyle. Tian Jianxin, deputy director of the Department of Food Safety Standards and Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Health Commission, said that a number of studies have shown that improving the level of individual nutritional literacy can promote healthy eating behaviors, thereby improving the quality of diets, and ultimately affecting nutrition and health status. In order to improve the nutritional literacy of the people, the Food Department continues to strengthen multi-departmental cooperation, with the Office of the National Nutrition and Health Steering Committee as the starting point, strengthen cooperation with 18 member units, actively improve nutrition and food education related policies, revise nutrition-related general principles, promote the construction of nutrition and health schools and nutrition and health canteens, strengthen the training of nutrition instructors, strengthen daily science popularization and the promotion and application of food and nutrition knowledge, and continuously improve the supply capacity of nutritious and healthy food.
In the next step, in order to promote the improvement of national nutrition literacy, we hope to work with you to do a good job in three aspects from the perspective of 'knowing, believing and doing' to promote healthy behaviors. Tian Jianxin said.
First, it is necessary to get close to the masses and strengthen professional guidance. Putting the right nutrition knowledge in the hands of the public to prevent half-understanding. It should be said that the daily nutrition expertise is not very profound, but it is often easy to sound, and it is not easy to understand and do. This requires giving full play to the role of front-line and primary medical and health personnel and nutrition instructors as the main force, getting close to the masses in medical treatment, consultation and daily services, and providing one-on-one guidance, so that the masses can understand and familiarize themselves with some essential nutrition knowledge and concepts in daily life, improve the accessibility and professionalism of nutrition services, truly let the masses understand in place, and prevent misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
The second is to improve the compliance of the masses with diet and nutrition. It is necessary to let the masses grasp the knowledge of nutrition, and truly believe in it, and avoid returning to school and using it. Whether you are cooking at home, eating out, or ordering takeout, you should consider whether the nutritional mix is reasonable and whether it meets the nutritional needs of yourself and your familyEspecially when there are children, adolescents and the elderly at home, or special groups such as pregnant women, the diet needs to be carefully matched, not just taste and nutrition.
The third is to pay attention to the evaluation of the effect and enhance the sense of gain of the masses. After a period of publicity, it is necessary to pay attention to the timely follow-up, monitoring, and evaluation of the masses' acceptance of nutritional knowledge and the cultivation of a healthy diet, and to collect the opinions and suggestions of the masses. Understand what confusion the masses still have in terms of nutritional knowledge and what are the obvious unreasonableness in behavior, such as excessive intake of edible oil in the dietary structure, and obvious insufficient intake of beans, milk, fresh vegetables and fruits. It is necessary to adopt some targeted measures to improve the nutritional health of the masses in the end.