Healthy and eco-smart dietary recommendations by the Swedish National Food Agency

The fundamental objective is to improve national health. The objective of the dietary guidelines is to promote consumers' healthy and eco-smart food choices based on the newest scientific research. The agency launched its new dietary guidelines in 2015. They aim to support consumers in their everyday food choices and for the first time especially highlight climate smart food choices, the importance of energy balance and exercise. The guidelines recommend increased consumption of plant based foods: vegetables, especially root vegetables and beans, berries, whole grains and vegetable oils. The guidelines further recommend that consumption of meat should be reduced, and environmental and ethical considerations should be taken into account when choosing what kind of meat and fish is consumed. A new element in the dietary recommendations is that practical tips are an essential part of the guidelines. The tips give ideas on practical ways of eating healthy and smart - ways that fit the consumers' lifestyle. Some key concepts which support the adoption of the dietary guidelines are the following: Hitta Ditt Sätt – Find Your Way The “Find Your Way” communication concept presents small steps, which promote more healthy and sustainable eating habits. Each dietary recommendation is linked to information on the positive environmental impacts of the food choices. The aim of the concept is to inspire and motivate lifestyle changes. Nyckelhålsrecept - Keyhole Recipes The “Keyhole Recipes” concept presents inspiring examples of how more healthy and sustainable meals can be prepared. Healthy and sustainable food products are marked with the keyhole symbol. The symbol use is free for companies. Matvanekollen – Diet Check The “Diet check” is an application, which can be used to check how healthy a diet is and to evaluate what kind of dietary changes would be good to make. The project has invested in testing the recommendations with focus groups and in developing communication materials for the “Hitta Ditt Sätt” (“Find Your Way”) concept. Success factors Key for the success of the adoption of the dietary guidelines is succeeding to communicate the guidelines to consumers in a way, which achieves behavioral change. Key stakeholders and gatekeepers in the communication are e.g. dieticians, nurses and teachers, who are in a position to distribute information to the public and especially to vulnerable groups. These gatekeepers are targeted with systematic communication measures by the Swedish National Food Agency. Novelty The incorporation of environmental and ethical recommendations in the dietary guidelines seems to be quite unique internationally. Few national level guidelines by food agencies include recommendations for a healthy diet, where sustainability and ethical aspects are combined with recommendations for energy balance and exercise. Challenges and potential for development The challenge is reaching the public and consumers and especially socioeconomically challenged groups. Even if people know what a healthy diet is, ingrained behaviors are difficult to influence. Therefore, communication efforts target especially key groups such as dieticians, teachers and nurses. The next steps in the project are to communicate the dietary recommendations to key stakeholders, such as dieticians, nurses and teachers, whose role is to inform and educate consumers and to get them to commit to making lifestyle changes. The project will be further evaluated at a later stage. Contact person for more information: Åsa Brugård Konde, asbr@slv.se