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Collective Scientific Expertise Produces Significant Results on Eating Behaviors

http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/64300.htm

Although a great deal of information circulates on the relation between diet and health, the often conflicting messages on nutrition confuse consumers. Public authorities in charge of the population proper nutrition need to be able to identify the relevant knowledge so they can formulate efficient recommendations. Accordingly, at the request of Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Bruno Le Maire, INRA conducted a 'Collective Scientific Expertise' on eating behaviors whose results have just been submitted to a conference held at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris.

Patrick Etiévant, Director of the Human Food & Nutrition Department at the Clermont-Ferrand INRA Center and Co-Chair of the VITAGORA cluster Scientific Committee, headed the group of experts involved in the work. "We were asked three questions," he explained. "Can one define diet typologies and establish a relation between diet and health? What are the determinants of eating behaviors? What public or private actions have been rolled out to change the behaviors and what were the results?" To answer the questions, the expert group, which must only report on the state of current knowledge for a Collective Scientific Expertise, analyzed some 1,600 scientific articles, half addressing human and social sciences, the other half focussing on food and nutrition physiology.

Different Factors Upset Eating Behaviors

In answer to the first question, it seems that much scientific data authorizes scientists to establish a link between a food or its regular consumption and a state of health, whether the food prevents the development of a specific pathology or, on the contrary, causes a harmful effect. However, when the scientists looked into the issue more closely, they observed that causal origin of the protection (or initiation) fades and general statistical links are predominant. "In other words, the only conclusion we can draw is that, if an individual has a cautious eating behavior, or a behavior compliant with National Nutrition and Health Program (PNNS) recommendations, the said individual will tend to be healthier. The contrary has been proven for high-fat high calorie diets," explained Patrick Etiévant.

In answer to the second question, the expert group drew up a list of several determinants of eating behaviors, the first being a physiological determinant. "Eating is an automatic action that one learns implicitly, but that can be upset daily by different factors such as noise, stress, television or company. All these factors will upset our automatic appreciation of what we are going to eat, thus causing a food intake in excess of one's fill," underscored the INRA researcher. Other factors upset eating behaviors, such as the accessibility of food and social factors, but also halo effects that are due to a systematic overestimation of the favorable aspects and an underestimation of the unfavorable effects. "The latter weigh heavily in the balance," he pointed out, explaining that a social class can be defined according to the food it consumes.

Interesting Results from Multiplayer Actions

Last, in answer to the third question, the group of experts said that two types of actions have been carried out to change eating behaviors. The first PNNS 1 and PNNS 2 type of action advances knowledge, especially in the wealthier classes of the population, albeit without changing behaviors. "Sometimes the message of an ad for salty, sweet or fatty foods may even be taken for a quality label of the product," remarked Patrick Etiévant who admitted that, "overall, the actions do not really have an effect on the eating behavior of underprivileged population groups even if one cannot rule out that they may end up changing their behaviors in the medium or long-term, through mimicry." On the other hand, the setup of industry operators' charters of commitments to improve product quality seems especially efficient according to the first reports. "We observed that so-called step-by-step actions by multiplayers who simultaneously roll out information actions on the quality of the supply and on the sociocultural environment, involving the medical profession, schools, families and municipalities attain very interesting results," Patrick Etiévant concluded. He explained that a possible follow-up to the Collective Scientific Expertise is now being studied for a crosscutting program that could be launched in early 2011.

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INRA/Clermont-Ferrand - Human Food & Nutrition Department (Département Alimentation Humaine) - Patrick Etiévant - email : alimh@clermont.inra.fr

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ADIT : 64300

ADIT - Jean-François Desessard - email: jfd@adit.fr

eTech France numéro 245 (2/09/2010) - ADIT / ADIT - http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/64300.htm