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Finding effective means of helping people choose, cook and eat safe, healthy food just isn’t as easy as some of us might hope.  We know that interventions to encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyles need to provide more than information alone. As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, the Agency has used a range of approaches to help people choose safe, healthy food and also conducted research to help determine their effectiveness. 

Indeed, it’s a hot topic for anyone with an interest in public policy, judging from the rush to review ‘Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness’,  a new American book recently published on the subject. You can read reviews from the Times online and the Guardian on their websites. 

Our social scientists and nutritionists have been drawing upon their experiences to contribute to a Government Social Research Knowledge Review on the evidence on theory and principles of behaviour change. The review published last week will provide additional help to those individuals and organisations working with people to help change their lifestyle behaviour, including the food they choose. 

The practical guide contains nine principles that will be helpful for those in the Agency who want to know how to go about applying the models in practice. The next phase of work will examine the empirical evidence base and consider how models are applied in the UK public sector context.