It is perhaps a basic human instinct that we prioritise avoidance behaviours to keep ourselves safe and well. As children, we learn a long list of things not to do to stay out of harm’s way. Put that down, take those out your mouth, stay away from the road, leave your sister alone, stop riding around on the dog.
As we age, it arguably becomes of greater importance to do more of certain things which maximise our health. But, perhaps because of how we learn as children, this often proves far more difficult than simply avoiding stuff.
Get some exercise, increase your fibre intake, eat five portions of vegetables, have some oily fish once a week. All sensible evidence-based health messages that most of us are aware of, yet all seemingly impossible to achieve.
Five a day is the most ubiquitous example of this messaging, with incredibly strong visibility and awareness among every UK population group. But since it first appeared in 2003, average fruit and veg consumption has stubbornly failed to increase. Meanwhile, far less prominent campaigns to reduce sugar, salt and saturated fat have been more successful in achieving their actual aims, as have targeted public health efforts to stop drink driving and reduce smoking. It seems far easier to encourage avoidance than inclusion.
Denmark’s Whole Grain Partnership
There is an exception. In Denmark, the ‘Whole Grain Partnership’ has, for the past 18 years, consistently targeted increasing wholegrain intake in the Danish population. It has been a wild success, more than doubling average consumption between 2007 and 2019, meaning Danes now eat more wholegrains than anyone in Europe.
This was all achieved without punitive taxation, legislation, coercion, or the sort of health-by-stealth approaches favoured in the UK.
How did they do it? As with many public health successes, the secret appears to be a joined-up and consistent approach. A wholegrain logo was adopted and is now recognised by the majority of the Danish population. Public information campaigns were combined with thousands of new product launches from hundreds of manufacturers, all carrying the distinctive logo.
Retailers, brands, healthcare professionals, charities and government pushed the same message at the same time, all under one consistent banner. And crucially, widely available, cheap and convenient products made it easy for consumers to change.
Consumer change
Too many debates about ultra-processing and the evils of our modern food system miss this last, crucial point. If we want consumers to make healthier choices, we need to provide them with options that fit into their lives. Governments, charities, academics and public health campaigners are absolutely terrible at doing this, so it will always require the buy-in of retailers, manufacturers and brands.
Campaigns to encourage healthier eating will only succeed if they take the food industry along for the ride, allowing them to piggyback on increased public awareness of an issue and create the sort of product innovation that drives consumer change.
Wholegrain might not be the best approach in the UK, but there may well be potential for similar campaigns on fibre, nutrient density, pulses or vegetables.
But the moment such campaigns judge, alienate or exclude key industry players, as so many seem to, they will be destined for failure and obscurity. Too often we are just telling people off for riding around on the dog, without giving them another way to behave. We should not be surprised when they just carry on as before the moment no one is looking.
Anthony Warner is a development chef at New Food Innovation
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