Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2021-540/ Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, consumer eating patterns and habits have changed. Before the pandemic, most countries in the Nordic-Baltic region had been collecting food consumption data to monitor the region’s health and food safety situation, but during these unusual times, no data on consumer behaviour exists. It’s important to examine changes in food consumption in the Nordic-Baltic region during the pandemic not only to understand the local situation and trends but also global trends and their effect on food supply chains, regional food availability, and food waste. Comparing regional data with those in Asia, the USA, and elsewhere offers the opportunity to see which practices are effective in each region and provides more information to help predict trends in consumer behaviour during the post-pandemic recovery period.
Updates for many countries have made it possible to estimate hunger in the world with greater accuracy this year. In particular, newly accessible data enabled the revision of the entire series of undernourishment estimates for China back to 2000, resulting in a substantial downward shift of the series of the number of undernourished in the world. Nevertheless, the revision confirms the trend reported in past editions: the number of people affected by hunger globally has been slowly on the rise since 2014. The report also shows that the burden of malnutrition in all its forms continues to be a challenge. There has been some progress for child stunting, low birthweight and exclusive breastfeeding, but at a pace that is still too slow. Childhood overweight is not improving and adult obesity is on the rise in all regions. The report complements the usual assessment of food security and nutrition with projections of what the world may look like in 2030, if trends of the last decade continue. Projections show that the world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 and, despite some progress, most indicators are also not on track to meet global nutrition targets. The food security and nutritional status of the most vulnerable population groups is likely to deteriorate further due to the health and socio economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report puts a spotlight on diet quality as a critical link between food security and nutrition. Meeting SDG 2 targets will only be possible if people have enough food to eat and if what they are eating is nutritious and affordable. The report also introduces new analysis of the cost and affordability of healthy diets around the world, by region and in different development contexts. It presents valuations of the health and climate-change costs associated with current food consumption patterns, as well as the potential cost savings if food consumption patterns were to shift towards healthy diets that include sustainability considerations. The report then concludes with a discussion of the policies and strategies to transform food systems to ensure affordable healthy diets, as part of the required efforts to end both hunger and all forms of malnutrition.
The coronavirus pandemic has upended local, national, and global food systems, and put the Sustainable Development Goals further out of reach. But lessons from the world’s response to the pandemic can help address future shocks and contribute to food system change. In the 2021 Global Food Policy Report, IFPRI researchers and other food policy experts explore the impacts of the pandemic and government policy responses, particularly for the poor and disadvantaged, and consider what this means for transforming our food systems to be healthy, resilient, efficient, sustainable, and inclusive. Chapters in the report look at balancing health and economic policies, promoting healthy diets and nutrition, strengthening social protection policies and inclusion, integrating natural resource protection into food sector policies, and enhancing the contribution of the private sector. Regional sections look at the diverse experiences around the world, and a special section on finance looks at innovative ways of funding food system transformation. Critical questions addressed include: - Who felt the greatest impact from falling incomes and food system disruptions caused by the pandemic? - How can countries find an effective balance among health, economic, and social policies in the face of crisis? - How did lockdowns affect diet quality and quantity in rural and urban areas? - Do national social protection systems such as cash transfers have the capacity to protect poor and vulnerable groups in a global crisis? - Can better integration of agricultural and ecosystem polices help prevent the next pandemic? - How did companies accelerate ongoing trends in digitalization and integration to keep food supply chains moving? - What different challenges did the pandemic spark in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and how did these regions respond?
Written by leading international experts, this book explores one of the central difficulties faced by nutritionists today; how to improve people's health by getting them to change their dietary behaviour. It provides an overview of the current understanding of consumer food choice by exploring models of food choice, the motivations of consumers, biological, learning and societal influences on food choice, and food choices across the lifespan. It concludes by examining the barriers to dietary change and how nutritionists can best impact upon dietary behaviour.
Studies food traditions in each major period of Chinese history, noting the impact of methods of preparing, serving, preserving, and eating foods on Chinese culture
The first book to identify the eating disorder orthorexia nervosa–an obsession with eating healthfully–and offer expert advice on how to treat it. As Americans become better informed about health, more and more people have turned to diet as a way to lose weight and keep themselves in peak condition. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa–disorders in which the sufferer focuses on the quantity of food eaten–have been highly documented over the past decade. But as Dr. Steven Bratman asserts in this breakthrough book, for many people, eating “correctly” has become an equally harmful obsession, one that causes them to adopt progressively more rigid diets that not only eliminate crucial nutrients and food groups, but ultimately cost them their overall health, personal relationships, and emotional well-being. Health Food Junkies is the first book to identify this new eating disorder, orthorexia nervosa, and to offer detailed, practical advice on how to cope with and overcome it. Orthorexia nervosa occurs when the victim becomes obsessed, not with the quantity of food eaten, but the quality of the food. What starts as a devotion to healthy eating can evolve into a pattern of incredibly strict diets; victims become so focused on eating a “pure” diet (usually raw vegetables and grains) that the planning and preparation of food come to play the dominant role in their lives. Health Food Junkies provides an expert analysis of some of today’s most popular diets–from The Zone to macrobiotics, raw-foodism to food allergy elimination–and shows not only how they can lead to orthorexia, but how they are often built on faulty logic rather than sound medical advice. Offering expert insight gleaned from his work with orthorexia patients, Dr. Bratman outlines the symptoms of orthorexia, describes its progression, and shows readers how to diagnose the condition. Finally, Dr. Bratman offers practical suggestions for intervention and treatment, giving readers the tools they need to conquer this painful disorder, rediscover the joys of eating, and reclaim their lives.
This book reflects the current thinking and research on how consumers’ perception of product risks and benefits affects their behavior. It provides the scientific, regulatory and industrial research community with a conceptual and methodological reference point for studies on consumer behavior and marketing. The contributions address various aspects of consumer psychology and behavior, risk perception and communication, marketing research strategies, as well as consumer product regulation. The book is divided into 4 parts: Product risks; Perception of product risks and benefits; Consumer behavior; Regulation and responsibility.
Providing a broad, global view of all aspects related to preparation for and management of SARS-CoV2, COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from the Frontline explores and challenges the basis of knowledge, the transmission of information, and the preparation and epidemiology tactics of healthcare systems worldwide. This timely and provocative volume presents real-world viewpoints from leaders in different areas of health management, who address questions such as: What will we do differently if another pandemic comes? Have we learned from our mistakes? Can we do better? This practical, wide-ranging approach also covers the problem of contrasting sources, health system preparedness, effective preparation of and protection offered to individual healthcare professionals, and the human tragedy surrounding the pandemic. - Offers a global perspective on how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled, things that went wrong, and things that could be done differently in the future. - Covers multiple aspects of the pandemic, including disaster preparedness; perspectives from patients, families, and healthcare providers; inequity of medical resources; risk exposure on the frontline; government decision making; lockdowns; the role of politics; the burden of COVID-19 in various countries worldwide; and future directions. - Reflects on the role of professional societies and NGOs in advising governments and supranational organizations. - Features a diverse list of contributors, including health decision makers and frontline healthcare personnel.
This book focuses on the crucial sustainability challenge of reducing food waste at the level of consumer-society. Providing an in-depth, research-based overview of the multifaceted problem, it considers environmental, economic, social and ethical factors. Perspectives included in the book address households, consumers, and organizations, and their role in reducing food waste. Rather than focusing upon the reasons for food waste itself, the chapters develop research-based solutions for the problem, providing a much-needed solution-orientated approach that takes multiple perspectives into account. Chapters 1, 2, 12 and 16 of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com
