Consumer Focused Review of Men’s Food Behaviour
- Project start date: 16 September 2013
- Project status: Completed
- Project type: Nutrition
- Discipline: Food skills
Research objective
- To give a brief overview of the major public health nutrition and food safety issues on the island of Ireland for men and explain the related behaviours;
- To investigate the environmental, social and personal factors that influence attitudes and food related behaviour in men from an international perspective;
- To provide an account of research conducted on the island of Ireland on knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and food-related behaviours of men in relation to both nutrition and food safety;
- To review interventions that have been carried out in relation to key nutrition-related and food safety behaviours in men and outline those factors that may promote successful behaviour change;
- To develop recommendations for further research/action where gaps have been identified through the review process.
Outputs
Research report
- Title: Consumer Focused Review Of Men’s Food Behaviour
- Publication date: 5 December 2014
- Summary: Gender expectations influence men's food behaviours, with men often less interested in healthy eating and more focused on exercise. Social factors, gender roles, and masculinity perceptions impact their food choices and health attitudes.
- Findings:
- Gender has been revealed as an important social determinant of health. However, few studies have explored how social gender expectations influence men’s attitudes and practices in relation to food.
- Within the literature there is the prevailing idea that men are risk takers; they perceive themselves to be invulnerable and are uninterested in health issues.
- Some foods are labelled masculine and others feminine.
- Men perceive exercise as more relevant to their health than healthy eating.
- Research has revealed that adding an exercise component to a weight management routine produced marked effects in the long term in men.
- Studies on cooking suggest that men and women cook differently.
- Other environmental factors influence men’s food behaviour.
- Men are less likely to be aware of healthy eating guidelines and are also less likely to regard healthy eating as an important factor influencing long-term health.
- Gender-related levels of knowledge, less positive attitudes towards healthy eating and lower levels of health concerns have the potential to influence men’s food choices.
- For men, the formation of habits and taste preferences are a key factor in relation to eating habits.
- Men tend to gauge what they need to eat against the energy they need to expend.
- Factors such as socially-reinforced gender roles, sports participation, convenience orientation and body weight perception influence men’s food behaviour.
- Men tend to view larger body frames as more masculine.
- Men are less likely to attempt to lose weight or to monitor their diet.
- Food safety practices are influenced by a wide range of factors, such as personal, social and cultural ones.
- Men are at higher health risk due to poor food safety practices.
- Younger appear feel invulnerable to many food hazards. Most men reported that they had experienced some level of food poisoning; however, none described his symptoms as severe.
- Barriers to men’s increased involvement in food-work included overcoming gender stereotypes, lack of education and confusion around food and health terminology, perception of ability, advertising influence, career, life-stage and household make-up.
- Various trigger points affected men’s food and health behaviour. The presence of partners/children changed some men’s food motivation and brought an increased level of focus on health.
- As men became older, some sought out higher quality food and more varied food experiences. Others, mainly due to presence of illness, used food as means of improving health.
- Younger men, who displayed a lower level of knowledge and interest, were identified as the group most at risk.
- Recommendations:
- ROI policymakers should monitor the impact of making home economics compulsory in NI to evaluate the effectiveness.
- Services tailored to men, should place a greater importance on the link between diet and health.
- Initiatives such as sports clubs can be used as a gateway to introduce men to healthy eating.
- Interventions are needed to specifically target men to improve their food related skills, knowledge and confidence.
- Communication strategies should be targeted to men’s specific circumstances and food involvement levels.
- Further research is needed to investigate the effect of masculinity, specifically in shaping men’s food-related behaviour.
- Further studies, with a focus on reporting men’s food safety-related behaviour to develop effective interventions, are needed.
- Studies are needed to investigate effective interventions to promote realistic body weight perception among men.
- Research on how to best communicate and motivate men to consider food and diet as means of improving health and not just exercise.
You can download the report and a summary below.
Consumer Focused Review Of Men’s Food Behaviour - Executive summary [PDF]
