Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has launched a new healthy eating campaign.
The campaign will feature a TV advertisement, outdoor media, experiential activity in shopping centres, and a highly-targeted digital campaign.
FFS, along with partner organisations, has developed a new online guide – EatWellYourWay.scot – to help tackle Scotland’s diet.
The Eat Well, Your Way guide, which aims to encourage people to make simple changes to help improve their diet, offers a variety of straightforward steps and useful advice. The guide also caters for those shopping on a tight budget and consumers who are more sustainability-conscious.
The first roll-out of the practical guide is packed with advice based on three key areas: shopping, cooking and eating out.
Dr Gillian Purdon, Head of Nutrition at FSS, said: “This is a new resource which focuses on practical advice on how to adopt healthier options. It is designed so that people can find inspiration and make changes that suit their circumstances, as we know that making lots of changes at once isn’t always sustainable. This guide offers a realistic way to help people work towards new healthier food goals.”
Dr Purdon added: “Discretionary foods continue to represent far too high a proportion of our shopping baskets, and purchases on promotion continue to be skewed towards these products. It’s important to highlight, however, that this campaign is not a move away from the Eatwell Guide, but a realistic way to help people make healthier food and drink choices.”
Dr Julia Allan, Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, and who helped develop Eat Well, Your Way, said: “Eating is about much more than nutrition. People make choices about what to eat based on lots of factors – how it tastes, what it costs, how they’re feeling, who they’re with, and so on.
“In many cases, people don’t really ‘choose’ at all – they eat what’s on offer, what’s convenient at the time, and what they can afford. Eat Well, Your Way takes this into account and acknowledges that it can be difficult to make healthier choices.
“The new guide supports people to make small, positive changes to what they eat and drink and offers evidence-based ways to get motivated, take action and build healthier habits.”
There are plans to further tailor and evolve Eat Well, Your Way in the coming months.
