iii
EDITORIAL Communication and Food Messaging: The Consumer Disconnect “From scientific findings to useful consumer information” Introduction to Editorial You will find below a report from the Canadian Nutrition Society Food For Health Workshop in 2013. This message about knowledge translation is not one we like to consider and yet it is one of the most important one for scientists in today’s world in which the technology of communication is evolving at such a rapid pace. Scientists commonly have a lack of trust in the media or are reluctant to communicate their findings and opinions and yet are very frustrated when their work is ignored or the media do not “get the story right”. The problem is multidimensional; from our side, we often feel the need to do more investigations to be confident, we frequently fail to integrate our results and apply them to the human, and many of us operate in scientific silos. Within the world of nutrition, how rarely are the links made to and from the food scientist – the molecular/cellular biologist – the metabolically oriented nutritionist – the applied community nutritionist – the health practitioner? The media need an integrated message, and the public need to receive this in a manner that they can understand. The “competition” is constantly sending out messages about a new and improved food product or announcing the latest diet that praises one food ingredient and damns another. We cannot compete in this classical warfare approach as we are massively “outgunned” financially. We need to develop other strategies. We need to make ourselves available to the media, to speak out in simple terms and with a strong message rather than falling back on the traditional phrase “more studies need to be done”. Most of us are not trained in communications, yet we need to make sure that our students receive this education, developing both the verbal and written skills. This will not only greatly assist our field but also will open up new, exciting professions and opportunities for our graduates. Terry Graham Editor We are fortunate that Canadian Science Publishing has taken a leadership role with their newsletters and blog, their work with authors to craft press releases, and other communications and connecting with the mainstream media and science blogging community. In addition, Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism (APNM) has recently developed Clinical Corner, a section of the journal in which scientists have the opportunity to take developments in their field and apply the body of knowledge to human health. APNM strongly encourages all of us and our sponsoring societies to take active leadership roles in knowledge translation. It is clear that if food and nutrition are to play an important role in the health of Canadians, more work needs to be done to examine the causative factors as to why Canadians and our ministry of health are not massively adopting healthy eating. Obesity rates continue to soar and the incidence of chronic illness is on the rise in line with the aging population. There is no shortage of research and messaging to consumers; perhaps too much. In fact, Health Canada has adopted as part of its mandate on food for health a strategy to partner across the Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. 39: iii–iv (2014) dx.doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0062
food–health continuum to bring more consistency to food and nutrition messaging to consumers. A recent survey of Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS) members and attendees to the 2013 CNS Food for Health Workshop on “Communications and Food Messaging: The Consumer Disconnect ‘From scientific findings to useful consumer information’” affirmed the wisdom of this strategy. Workshop survey respondents identified a confusing, changing, and cluttered nutrition messaging landscape rife with contradictory claims, and lifestyle pressures making “convenience king” as the 2 key drivers of the consumer “disconnect” on food messaging and Canadians’ inability to translate scientific findings into behaviour change. The respondents suggested that new ways of delivering nutrition and healthy eating messages be explored to bridge the gap between knowledge generation and consumer adoption. The communication of emerging science should have powerful effects on consumer understanding, purchasing and eating patterns, and ultimately, the health of consumers, but it does not (International Food Information Council (IFIC) 2013). Far too often, emerging science is not successfully communicated to the public by scientists. In many cases, consumer choices are driven more by a concern about weight loss than overall health, and further exacerbated by commercial interests who are highly successful communicating pseudoscientific nutrition information in books popular with consumers. But is the scientist fully to blame? Communicating nutrition messages and science to the public is complicated by many realities, including the following: the evolving nature of nutrition science; scientists are not trained communicators; too many messages in a crowded and contradictory nutrition message marketplace; consumer use of the Internet as an information resource; little health policy follow-up; and the media’s quest for hard truths and penchant to sensationalize scientific findings. To that point, high volumes of media coverage have not brought clarity to or improved understanding of healthy eating and just added more confusion (IFIC 2013) And the public’s unfamiliarity with scientific processes makes the evolutionary nature of research appear contradictory and can be frustrating to consumers. Further, scientists themselves do not always agree on what constitutes scientific evidence sufficient to warrant changing recommendations to the public, which can add even more confusion. (IFIC 2013) A recent report in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Hornick et al. 2013) addresses the consumer disconnect between individual attitudes–perceptions and actual behaviours when it comes to achieving a healthful lifestyle. Despite access to “instant” information, individuals do not act on that information when making food choices. IFIC attitudinal surveys indicate that consumers are aware of the need for a healthful diet. Surveys undertaken 2006–2010 on consumer knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behaviour related to nutrition, health, and food safety show that 6 out of 10 survey respondents reported attempts to change their diet to achieve health; largely through weight loss. And while over 50% of those surveyed felt that their diet was healthful, this represented Published by NRC Research Press
iv
a significant decline over previous years, suggesting an increased awareness as to what constitutes a healthful diet. The 2013 CNS Food for Health Workshop on communication and food messaging concluded that the communications disconnect between the generation of scientific knowledge and its translation into useful information that consumers can use to adopt healthy eating patterns results from a breakdown of a complex process: a 5-step process that starts with knowledge generation (research), and synthesis of that new knowledge with previous research (step 2). The disconnect seems to occur between step 2 (synthesis) and step 3 (dissemination and communication of clear messages), which leads to the failure of step 4 (adoption and use of that knowledge by consumers), and ultimately step 5, which is permanent behaviour change. (CNS 2013) We believe that the time has come to re-examine how scientific findings are transmitted to consumers to effect real behaviour change and chart a course for the future using food-based strategies to enhance the health of Canadians. Consumer health is not just dependent on quality or quantity of food. It is also dependent on our ability to communicate in a way that influences behaviour change and healthy food choices. A change in approach needs to be considered. A new strategy that recognizes the important role of the researcher and his/her relationship with the knowledge user is needed to simplify and promote consistency of nutrition messaging; messaging that is persuasive and motivating. A collaborative platform involving
Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. Vol. 39, 2014
a broad range of stakeholders across the food for health continuum is essential to lead this work. Leah Gramlich Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Benoît Lamarche Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods Institute, Laval University, Laval, Quebec, Canada David Ma Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Angelo Tremblay Department of Kinesiology, Laval University, Laval, Quebec, Canada
References CNS. 2013. Food for Health Workshop Report. Canadian Nutritional Society. Available from http://www.cns-scn. Hornick, B.A., Childs, N.M., Smith Edge, M., Reinhardt Kapsak, W., Dooher, C., and White, C. 2013. Is it time to rethink nutrition communications? A 5-year retrospective of Americans’ attitudes toward food, nutrition, and health. J. Acad. Nutr. Diet. 113(1): 14–23. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2012.10.009. PMID:23157941. IFIC. Available from http://ific.org. [Accessed 26 May 2013.]
Published by NRC Research Press
Copyright of Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Copyright of Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
EDITORIAL Communication and Food Messaging: The Consumer Disconnect “From scientific findings to useful consumer information” Introduction to Editorial You will find below a report from the Canadian Nutrition Society Food For Health Workshop in 2013. This message about knowledge translation is not one we like to consider and yet it is one of the most important one for scientists in today’s world in which the technology of communication is evolving at such a rapid pace. Scientists commonly have a lack of trust in the media or are reluctant to communicate their findings and opinions and yet are very frustrated when their work is ignored or the media do not “get the story right”. The problem is multidimensional; from our side, we often feel the need to do more investigations to be confident, we frequently fail to integrate our results and apply them to the human, and many of us operate in scientific silos. Within the world of nutrition, how rarely are the links made to and from the food scientist – the molecular/cellular biologist – the metabolically oriented nutritionist – the applied community nutritionist – the health practitioner? The media need an integrated message, and the public need to receive this in a manner that they can understand. The “competition” is constantly sending out messages about a new and improved food product or announcing the latest diet that praises one food ingredient and damns another. We cannot compete in this classical warfare approach as we are massively “outgunned” financially. We need to develop other strategies. We need to make ourselves available to the media, to speak out in simple terms and with a strong message rather than falling back on the traditional phrase “more studies need to be done”. Most of us are not trained in communications, yet we need to make sure that our students receive this education, developing both the verbal and written skills. This will not only greatly assist our field but also will open up new, exciting professions and opportunities for our graduates. Terry Graham Editor We are fortunate that Canadian Science Publishing has taken a leadership role with their newsletters and blog, their work with authors to craft press releases, and other communications and connecting with the mainstream media and science blogging community. In addition, Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism (APNM) has recently developed Clinical Corner, a section of the journal in which scientists have the opportunity to take developments in their field and apply the body of knowledge to human health. APNM strongly encourages all of us and our sponsoring societies to take active leadership roles in knowledge translation. It is clear that if food and nutrition are to play an important role in the health of Canadians, more work needs to be done to examine the causative factors as to why Canadians and our ministry of health are not massively adopting healthy eating. Obesity rates continue to soar and the incidence of chronic illness is on the rise in line with the aging population. There is no shortage of research and messaging to consumers; perhaps too much. In fact, Health Canada has adopted as part of its mandate on food for health a strategy to partner across the Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. 39: iii–iv (2014) dx.doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0062
food–health continuum to bring more consistency to food and nutrition messaging to consumers. A recent survey of Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS) members and attendees to the 2013 CNS Food for Health Workshop on “Communications and Food Messaging: The Consumer Disconnect ‘From scientific findings to useful consumer information’” affirmed the wisdom of this strategy. Workshop survey respondents identified a confusing, changing, and cluttered nutrition messaging landscape rife with contradictory claims, and lifestyle pressures making “convenience king” as the 2 key drivers of the consumer “disconnect” on food messaging and Canadians’ inability to translate scientific findings into behaviour change. The respondents suggested that new ways of delivering nutrition and healthy eating messages be explored to bridge the gap between knowledge generation and consumer adoption. The communication of emerging science should have powerful effects on consumer understanding, purchasing and eating patterns, and ultimately, the health of consumers, but it does not (International Food Information Council (IFIC) 2013). Far too often, emerging science is not successfully communicated to the public by scientists. In many cases, consumer choices are driven more by a concern about weight loss than overall health, and further exacerbated by commercial interests who are highly successful communicating pseudoscientific nutrition information in books popular with consumers. But is the scientist fully to blame? Communicating nutrition messages and science to the public is complicated by many realities, including the following: the evolving nature of nutrition science; scientists are not trained communicators; too many messages in a crowded and contradictory nutrition message marketplace; consumer use of the Internet as an information resource; little health policy follow-up; and the media’s quest for hard truths and penchant to sensationalize scientific findings. To that point, high volumes of media coverage have not brought clarity to or improved understanding of healthy eating and just added more confusion (IFIC 2013) And the public’s unfamiliarity with scientific processes makes the evolutionary nature of research appear contradictory and can be frustrating to consumers. Further, scientists themselves do not always agree on what constitutes scientific evidence sufficient to warrant changing recommendations to the public, which can add even more confusion. (IFIC 2013) A recent report in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Hornick et al. 2013) addresses the consumer disconnect between individual attitudes–perceptions and actual behaviours when it comes to achieving a healthful lifestyle. Despite access to “instant” information, individuals do not act on that information when making food choices. IFIC attitudinal surveys indicate that consumers are aware of the need for a healthful diet. Surveys undertaken 2006–2010 on consumer knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behaviour related to nutrition, health, and food safety show that 6 out of 10 survey respondents reported attempts to change their diet to achieve health; largely through weight loss. And while over 50% of those surveyed felt that their diet was healthful, this represented Published by NRC Research Press
iv
a significant decline over previous years, suggesting an increased awareness as to what constitutes a healthful diet. The 2013 CNS Food for Health Workshop on communication and food messaging concluded that the communications disconnect between the generation of scientific knowledge and its translation into useful information that consumers can use to adopt healthy eating patterns results from a breakdown of a complex process: a 5-step process that starts with knowledge generation (research), and synthesis of that new knowledge with previous research (step 2). The disconnect seems to occur between step 2 (synthesis) and step 3 (dissemination and communication of clear messages), which leads to the failure of step 4 (adoption and use of that knowledge by consumers), and ultimately step 5, which is permanent behaviour change. (CNS 2013) We believe that the time has come to re-examine how scientific findings are transmitted to consumers to effect real behaviour change and chart a course for the future using food-based strategies to enhance the health of Canadians. Consumer health is not just dependent on quality or quantity of food. It is also dependent on our ability to communicate in a way that influences behaviour change and healthy food choices. A change in approach needs to be considered. A new strategy that recognizes the important role of the researcher and his/her relationship with the knowledge user is needed to simplify and promote consistency of nutrition messaging; messaging that is persuasive and motivating. A collaborative platform involving
Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. Vol. 39, 2014
a broad range of stakeholders across the food for health continuum is essential to lead this work. Leah Gramlich Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Benoît Lamarche Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods Institute, Laval University, Laval, Quebec, Canada David Ma Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Angelo Tremblay Department of Kinesiology, Laval University, Laval, Quebec, Canada
References CNS. 2013. Food for Health Workshop Report. Canadian Nutritional Society. Available from http://www.cns-scn. Hornick, B.A., Childs, N.M., Smith Edge, M., Reinhardt Kapsak, W., Dooher, C., and White, C. 2013. Is it time to rethink nutrition communications? A 5-year retrospective of Americans’ attitudes toward food, nutrition, and health. J. Acad. Nutr. Diet. 113(1): 14–23. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2012.10.009. PMID:23157941. IFIC. Available from http://ific.org. [Accessed 26 May 2013.]
Published by NRC Research Press
Copyright of Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Copyright of Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
