Transforming Food Environments

We regularly find ourselves in food environments that promote the consumption of high fat and sugary foods rather than encouraging us to eat more fruit and vegetables. However, because of increased media attention, people are becoming more interested in alternative approaches to improving the many food-related decisions we make daily. Transforming Food Environments features evidence from several disciplines exploring initiatives that have improved food environments and discusses the importance of achieving success in equitable and sustainable ways.

The book presents information on diverse food environments followed by methods that help readers become aware of the design of interventions and food policies. It covers food environments in schools, workplaces, and community centres as well as fast food establishments and food marketing. The book presents methods to help encourage better food choices and purchase of healthier foods. It explores persuasion tactics used by health professionals such as changing availability and/or price, using nudging techniques, and food labelling.

Led by Editor Charlotte Evans, Associate Professor of Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health Nutrition at the University of Leeds; and written by an international range of authors from countries including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United Kingdom, this multidisciplinary book appeals to students, researchers, public health professionals and policy makers. It also raises awareness and provides a comprehensive treatment of the importance of our environments on food choice.

Charlotte E.L. Evans is an Associate Professor in Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health Nutrition at the University of Leeds, UK, with more than 20 years of experience in researching dietary behaviour and food environments. She is dedicated to improving the quality of children’s and adolescents’ diets, particularly for those on the poorest diets. Her research focusses on making the healthier choice, the easier choice, with experience spanning a range of food environments including schools, hospitals, fast-food and nutrition in the media. Another key area of her research is the evaluation of programmes and policies to improve diet quality such as increasing fruit and vegetable consumption and decreasing free sugars. She has more than 100 publications including papers, book chapters, a special issue on adolescent diet as well as conference abstracts. She has also presented her work internationally and has regularly featured on television and the radio communicating hers and others work on diet behaviour. In 2016, she was awarded the prestigious Elsie Widdowson Medal for contributions to Public Health Nutrition by the UK Nutrition Society.