International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/iijf20

The underrated role of psychosocial determinants

of dietary choices

Giuseppe Grosso

To cite this article: Giuseppe Grosso (2024) The underrated role of psychosocial determinants
of dietary choices, International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, 75:3, 239-240, DOI:
10.1080/09637486.2024.2345691

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09637486.2024.2345691

Published online: 30 Apr 2024.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 185

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=iijf20
International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
2024, VOL. 75, NO. 3, 239–240
https://doi.org/10.1080/09637486.2024.2345691
EDITORIAL
The underrated role of psychosocial determinants of dietary choices
The evolution of research in human nutrition has
allowed an unprecedented progress at identifying key
components of the diet that would so vastly affect
human health (Wang et al. 2023). We can hypothesise
that the majority of global chronic non-communicable
diseases could be prevented with lifestyle intervention,
including adequate diet quality (Venkatesan 2024).
National and international bodies exert numerous
efforts to establish the best guidelines in order to iden-
tify an “optimal” dietary intake of nutrients, food
groups and overall dietary patterns (Herforth et al.
2019). There is ongoing research concerning the best
dietary model to adopt for the preservation of human
and planetary health (Springmann et al. 2020). In this
context, assessing human needs for nutrients and assur-
ing their adequacy with appropriate dietary choices are
of paramount importance for public health experts.
While diet quality from a nutrient point of view
remains the culprit for a healthy diet, there is growing
interest for other aspects that may be equally important
to determine healthy (or unhealthy) dietary choices
and yet being largely unexplored. For instance, mech-
anisms explaining the psychosocial factors influencing
eating behaviours may include food emotion, mental
health, mood and pleasure (Walker-Clarke et al. 2022).
Perceptions and emotions related to certain foods may
positively or negatively affect dietary intakes (Caso and
Vecchio 2022). These choices may be influenced by
social and psychological influences: among the former,
societal facilitators and social environment may play a
role, while among the latter, impulsivity, attitudes and
perceptions have been accounted for as potentially
responsible for dietary choices.
In this issue of the International Journal of Food
Sciences and Nutrition, a few articles explored the
traditional concept of diet quality in relation to dietary
choices and health. An article from Lotti et al. (2024)
evaluated the level of adherence to the Mediterranean
diet and adequacy to national dietary recommenda-
tions in a sample of more than 10,000 individuals.
The authors emphasised the insufficient consumption
of various food groups, such as vegetables, bread,
legumes, fish and milk and dairy products, confirming
the general observation of an abandonment of tradi-
tional dietary patterns (Godos 2023). Another study
from Kazemi et al. (2024) further reported that vari-
ety, aside quantity, would affect the dietary nutritional
content in antioxidants, vitamins and phytochemicals
in general from fruit and vegetables. Still concerning
nutrients, the study of Golzarand et al. (2024) inves-
tigated the association between carbohydrate intake
and metabolically unhealthy phenotype, reporting that
individuals with higher low-carbohydrate dietary score
were less likely to be metabolically unhealthy obese.
Two studies finally investigated the nutritional rele-
vance of some products, namely fruit juices (Salar
et al. 2024) and pasta (Atzler et al. 2024), showing
that agro-technological interventions on such food
stuff would assure an adequate content in (poly)phe-
nols and fibre, respectively.
Aside from the nutritional content, some studies
also explored other aspects of food consumption. In
the study by Navarra et al. (2024), the relation between
impulsivity traits and actions towards consumption of
eco-sustainable foods has been investigated. Specifically,
individuals with a lower tendency to act impulsively
(in food choices) and a lower tendency towards a
dysfunctional emotional eating (i.e. eating in response
to negative emotions) reported finding easily available
eco-sustainable foods in their environment and showed
higher levels of behavioural intention and perceived
responsibility. On the other hand, impulsivity was
found to play an important role in the context of
non-sustainable diets. With these findings the authors
suggest that impulsivity may be implicated in indi-
viduals’ food choices and it may be related to food
availability. Hence, building an environment with
higher availability of healthy eco-sustainable food stuff
could produce benefits at societal level by shaping
more positive food choices. There is a need to better
understand what is determining food choices among
pleasure, healthiness and convenience. Such aspects
of research on human nutrition remain widely under-
rated and warrant further attention.
240 EDITORIAL
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Funding
None.
References
Atzler JJ, Crofton EC, Sahin AW, Ispiryan L, Gallagher E,
Zannini E, Arendt EK. 2024. Effect of fibre fortification
of low FODMAP pasta. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 1–13.
doi:10.1080/09637486.2024.2303605.
Caso G, Vecchio R. 2022. Factors influencing independent
older adults (un)healthy food choices: a systematic review
and research agenda. Food Res Int. 158:111476.
doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2022.111476.
Godos J. 2023. Decreasing adherence to the Mediterranean
diet: health and environmental foe. Int J Food Sci Nutr.
74(8):797–798. doi:10.1080/09637486.2023.2290439.
Golzarand M, Masrouri S, Soraneh S, Moslehi N, Mirmiran
P, Azizi F. 2024. Low-carbohydrate dietary score and the
incidence of metabolically unhealthy phenotype based on
BMI status: a cohort study. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 1–11.
doi:10.1080/09637486.2024.2313972.
Herforth A, Arimond M, Álvarez-Sánchez C, Coates J,
Christianson K, Muehlhoff E. 2019. A global review of
food-based dietary guidelines. Adv Nutr. 10(4):590–605.
doi:10.1093/advances/nmy130.
Kazemi A, Golzarand M, Shojaei-Zarghani S, Babajafari S,
Mirmiran P, Azizi F. 2024. Is variety more important
than quantity of fruits and vegetables in relation to car-
diovascular disease incidence and mortality? Results from
a prospective cohort study. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 1–11.
doi:10.1080/09637486.2024.2304134.
Lotti S, Napoletano A, Tristan Asensi M, Pagliai G,
Giangrandi I, Colombini B, Dinu M, Sofi F. 2024.
Assessment of Mediterranean diet adherence and com-
parison with Italian dietary guidelines: a study of over
10,000 adults from 2019 to 2022. Int J Food Sci Nutr.
1–8. doi:10.1080/09637486.2024.2313979.
Navarra ME, Bertaina F, Piedimonte A, Mauro A, Scarpina
F. 2024. Are eco-sustainable dietary patterns associated
with impulsiveness? An insight from Italy. Int J Food Sci
Nutr. 1–16. doi:10.1080/09637486.2024.2303043.
Salar FJ, Sánchez-Bravo P, Mena P, Cámara M, García-Viguera
C. 2024. Comparison of vitamin C and flavanones
between freshly squeezed orange juices and commercial
100% orange juices from four European countries. Int J
Food Sci Nutr. 1–9. doi:10.1080/09637486.2024.2303034.
Springmann M, Spajic L, Clark MA, Poore J, Herforth A,
Webb P, Rayner M, Scarborough P. 2020. The healthiness
and sustainability of national and global food based
dietary guidelines: modelling study. BMJ. 370:m2322.
doi:10.1136/bmj.m2322.
Venkatesan P. 2024. Food is medicine: clinical trials show
the health benefits of dietary interventions. Nat Med.
doi:10.1038/s41591-024-02891-1.
Walker-Clarke A, Walasek L, Meyer C. 2022. Psychosocial
factors influencing the eating behaviours of older adults:
a systematic review. Ageing Res Rev. 77:101597.
doi:10.1016/j.arr.2022.101597.
Wang P, Song M, Eliassen AH, Wang M, Fung TT, Clinton
SK, Rimm EB, Hu FB, Willett WC, Tabung FK, et al.
2023. Optimal dietary patterns for prevention of chron-
ic disease. Nat Med. 29(3):719–728. doi:10.1038/
s41591-023-02235-5.
Giuseppe Grosso
Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological
Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Center for Human Nutrition and Mediterranean Foods
(NUTREA), University of Catania, Catania Italy
giuseppe.grosso@unict.it
Received 15 April 2024; Accepted 16 April 2024
© 2024 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC