Healthy eating
Just over half of respondents felt they eat healthily. This was similar to the previous two waves.
| Level of healthiness | W21 | W20 | W19 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very healthy | 9% | 10% | 10% |
| Quite healthy | 43% | 43% | 44% |
| Neither healthy nor unhealthy | 27% | 28% | 26% |
| Not very healthy | 16% | 15% | 15% |
| Not at all healthy | 3% | 2% | 3% |
| It varies too much to say | 2% | 2% | 2% |
Those who were less likely to claim they eat healthily were:
- Aged 35-64 (45%)
- Diagnosed health condition (42%)
Those who were more likely to claim they eat healthily were:
- SEG AB (68%)
- Ethnic minority (75%)
- Heard of FSS (56%)
- Have clear information on healthy diet (57%)
For those with children, two thirds said their children eat healthily. This is in line with W20.
Healthy eating concerns
Amount of salt, sugar, fat and saturated fat in food
Similar to W20, most consumers believe that nutrition and calorie information should be available on request when eating out.
| W18 | W19 | W20 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calorie information | 67% | 67% | 68% |
| Nutrition information | 71% | 68% | 70% |
45% said they would request nutrition information it was available, and 40% said they would request calorie information.
Healthy eating statements
Consumers were provided with a list of statements and asked how much they agree or disagree with the statements.
| Statement | W21 | W20 |
|---|---|---|
| Eating healthily makes me feel good about myself | 86% | 86% |
| There aren’t enough promotions on healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables | 81% | 80% |
| *I am actively trying to reduce the amount of ultra-processed foods I am eating | 75% | 74% |
| *Government should take stronger action to help people be a healthy weight | 70% | 68% |
| There are too many promotional offers on foods high in fat, salt and sugar | 67% | 67% |
| *I am concerned about the amount of ultra-processed foods I am eating | 65% | 65% |
| Promotional offers on foods high in fat, sugar and salt should be banned | 55% | 55% |
| Standard portion sizes of items such as chocolate bars, crisps, sweets, cakes, muffins should be reduced | 43% | 43% |
When asked, most consumers agreed that:
- healthy eating makes them feel good
- there aren’t enough promotions on healthy foods
- they are actively trying to reduce the amount of ultra-processed (UP) foods consumed and government should take stronger action to help people be a healthy weight.
These results are similar to previews waves.
Eating a healthy balanced diet
Nearly two thirds claimed to find it hard to eat a balanced diet, which is a slight increase on W20. As with last wave the main reasons were due to being tempted by unhealthy foods, not being able to afford to eat healthily and the availability of unhealthy foods.
| W21 | W20 | W19 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | 65% | 61% | 61% |
| No | 34% | 37% | 37% |
| Don't know | 1% | 1% | 2% |
The following sub-groups were all more likely to find it difficult to eat a healthy diet than others:
- Those who are working
- Demographic groups: white, C1C2DE
- Children in the house
- Diagnosed with illnesses
- Receive help with shopping
- Worry about affording food
They were then asked why they find it difficult:
| Statement | W21 | W20 | W19 | W18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I am tempted by unhealthy foods* | 48% | 53% | 53% | n/a |
| I can’t afford to | 35% | 36% | 31% | 39% |
| There’s more unhealthy than healthy foods to choose from | 31% | 34% | 36% | 36% |
| I don’t have time to prepare healthy meals and snacks from scratch | 26% | 28% | 29% | 28% |
| It can be difficult to understand what is and isn’t classed as ‘healthy’ | 23% | 25% | 28% | 28% |
| I don’t know how to prepare healthy meals and snacks from scratch | 8% | 10% | 10% | 14% |
| I don’t understand what a healthy balanced diet looks like | 8% | 9% | 10% | 12% |
| Other | 3% | 2% | 3% | 6% |
Eating out
When eating out or ordering in, three fifths agree they don’t want to think about healthy choices, and it would help if there was access to nutrition/calorie information. Just over half agreed there are not enough healthy choices. Less than half agreed it’s difficult to determine healthy options or portion sizes being too big and these results closely match W20.
| Statement | W21 | W20 | W19 |
|---|---|---|---|
| I don’t want to think about healthy choices when I eat out or order in | 62% | 62% | 62% |
| When eating out or ordering in, it would help me make healthier choices if I was able to access nutrition/calorie information of menu items | 60% | 61% | 61% |
| There are not enough healthy choices when eating out or ordering in | 55% | 59% | 60% |
| Promotions and special offers encourage me to buy more than intended when eating out or ordering in | 53% | 53% | 51% |
| I find it difficult to know which options are healthy and which are not healthy when eating out or ordering in | 48% | 51% | 50% |
| Portion sizes of food when eating out or ordering in are too big | 46% | 44% | 46% |