Measuring Diets and Food Choice in the Context of a Changing World

About this Research Topic

Background

Historically, research in low- and middle-income countries, has been focused on what people consume, with less attention to how and why people choose to consume the foods that they do. As incomes rise and local food environments undergo rapid changes providing consumers with a wider array of options at competitive prices, understanding the underlying drivers of food choice including the preferences and values that underpin them has become increasingly important. In recent years there have been renewed efforts to understand the drivers of food choice in the context of changing food environments and broader food system, and how these drivers link with food consumption.

The goal of this Research Topic is to look beyond dietary consumption (what people eat) by considering more holistically the various drivers of food choice (how and why people eat the foods they do), to better understand what underpins individual decisions. Ultimately, by understanding why people make the choices they do – especially when situated in the local food environment and/or broader food system – we can identify important entry points for behavior change interventions, develop a better understanding about the role of food safety in food choice decisions, improve the environment, climate, and food systems through improved knowledge on the drivers of food choice, and learn about how changing livelihoods shifts dynamics related to food choice, amongst other important research tied to drivers of food choice.

This Research Topic invites articles of original research, systematic reviews, literature reviews, and methods articles within the general topic of drivers of food choice. Potential subtopics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The link between dietary data (what people eat) with other drivers of food choice (how and why they eat what they do)
• The measurement of drivers of food choice: What we have and where to go
• To demonstrate ways of measuring and linking drivers of food choice and food environments and/or food system data
• To use information on the drivers of food choice to improve climate and food systems
• To use information on food choice to design behavior change interventions, amongst others
• The link between food safety and food choice in broader food environments and/or food systems
• The measurement of the impact of changing livelihoods on food choice

Keywords: Food Choice, Food environments, Food safety, Climate change, Livelihoods, Diet quality, Food systems, Metrics, Methods

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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