About this Research Topic

Background

The connection between food and the environment has always existed but this relationship is currently becoming more evident. While we observe increasing environmental degradation and growing scarcity of natural resources, malnutrition in its different forms continues to affect thousands of individuals worldwide, emphasizing the food inequalities in our most vulnerable populations. Food choices are a highly complex process that reflects ways of producing and consuming food. The dietary patterns of individuals impact the physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains of their quality of life, as well as the social, environmental, and economic domains of sustainable living in general. Therefore, our dietary choices should be thought of as a collective act and, subsequently, a healthy diet can only materialize by understanding its scope. Food is a basic human right and must be accessible in all the various principles, for example, access to nutritious and safe food, respecting cultural habits, and originate from sustainable production systems.

To guarantee our basic human right and make healthy eating accessible, research must be strategically designed for our different population groups. Based on these efforts, public policies and other government or private actions should be adopted to ensure that such diets are affordable. One of the ways would be through nutrition-education action as, from the development of a collective awareness of healthy food choices, transformations in our society can be achieved. Communities and schools have an especially important role in this regard. In schools, in particular, the menu available to pupils has the potential to be an important educational tool. The planning of menus must therefore be oriented to encompass all the principles of healthy eating and assist in its understanding. Thus, it can be used for health promotion not only in schools but in several food services, where a substantial number of people consume their meals daily. Finally, it is important to consider external influences, such as the media, in the construction of our food choices. It is the joint action of these aforementioned actors and more that can contribute to conscious individual choices about healthy eating, and will certainly strengthen the guarantee of our right to access to nutritious food for all.

Based on this understanding, this Research Topic proposes to publish research that supports the promotion of a collective awareness focused on healthy food choices. Throughout the production cycle, evaluation and intervention plans may increase individual and collective autonomy about making sustainable and nutritious food choices. Similarly, actions on different aspects of food, especially in regards to our more vulnerable populations, from the countryside to the table, should be widely discussed for solutions focused on protecting life.

With this in mind, we encourage the submission of articles addressing the following themes:
a) Safe food as a human right;
b) Food choice and quality of life;
c) Knowledge, attitude, and practices on food quality;
d) Nutrition literacy and the important role that social media can play in this;
e) Sustainable practices on food production;
f) Menu management;
g) How can we ensure that such diets are affordable?
h) The role of education for the prolonged consumption of healthy diets (communities and schools).

Keywords: Quality of life, nutrition literacy, food safety, food security, sustainability, food choices, education, menu management, healthy diets

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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