Don't make a diet resolution: Support food system change | The Good Food Institute

You probably haven’t met anyone who’s resolved to consume more cheese or processed meat in 2018.

But as we all know, the odds are stacked against consumers who seek to make significant changes in their diets in favor of healthy, humane, and sustainable choices.

There are some incredibly useful tools to help people who embark on a diet-improving endeavor in 2018 (I tested out a couple here). But ultimately there are other factors at play that explain why I have little faith in New Year’s resolutions and why The Good Food Institute isn’t focused on pushing individual consumers toward dramatic dietary changes every January 1.

Instead, the GFI team is working to meet people where they are by addressing the factors that actually guide food purchasing decisions.

Here are the three main barriers – and opportunities! – for creating real, mass dietary change.

Convenience.

Unless you’re a superhuman that grows all of your own vegetables in your biodynamic backyard garden (do you need a roommate, by the way?), you’ve probably found yourself in a situation in recent memory where your food choices have been determined by what you can quickly grab on your way to work, not by what’s optimal.

The fact is that accessibility, store design, product placement, and marketing all play a significant role in determining our food purchasing decisions, even if we start with the best of intentions.

Impulse purchases in the checkout lane are a classic example of this. In fact, a recent survey showed that candy, energy bars, chips, and cookies comprise 90% of the food sold in checkout – pitting our desire to stick to resolutions against our biological drive to consume all the fat, sugar, and salt within arm’s reach.

Read on . . .

To learn more about GFI’s work, check out what we do. And to support our efforts, consider including GFI in your charitable giving.

Source: Don’t make a diet resolution: Support food system change | The Good Food Institute