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New Research on Healthy Eating in Perth County

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Health Units from across Ontario are working to discover some of the factors that influence the way people eat.

PERTH COUNTY - A local Registered Dietitian is working with nutrition experts in Ontario to discover some of the factors that influence the way people eat. 

The research is being done by 15 Ontario Health Units including Perth County. They have published their findings in an online journal. Public Health Nutrionalist Shannon Edmonstone from the Perth District Health Unit was part of the study. 

She tells Heart FM what they were trying to discover in their work. 

"We were trying to find the attributes of food literacy, so just really the components of what make up food literacy. Food literacy is kind of a broad term, I would say in the past, especially in public health we would of just focused on food skills and teaching people food skills but knowing how to cook and how to eat healthy involves more than just a skill around cooking. It involves other things like food knowledge and your confidence on finding reliable information. Food literacy is kind of a new broader, more comprehensive term to address, not just food skills but other knowledge that you need to be able to cook and eat healthy." 

Edmonstone also talks about some of their findings. 

"They are all inter connected, you can't have food literacy if you have really good food skills but you don't have food and nutrition knowledge, you can't have one without the other to be food literate." 

In their research, the team of Ontario nutrition experts identified five key areas that make up food literacy. You can read their entire report online here. 

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