Consumers’ Weight Management: Aspects of Eating Behavior, Food Choice, and Product Perception
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Date
2024
Publication Type
Doctoral Thesis
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yes
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Abstract
The upward trend toward overweight and obesity not only increases susceptibility to noncommunicable diseases but also amplifies their economic impact on a global scale, affecting each of us. Hence, it is crucial to find solutions to improve this situation. Eating behaviors, food choices, and product perceptions are factors that have an impact on consumption behavior and have consequential effects on body weight regulation. Thus, the overall aim of this dissertation is to broaden the current state of knowledge regarding these factors that influence consumers’ weight management.
Chapter 2 investigates how intuitive eating behavior (i.e., listening to body signals such as hunger and satiety) longitudinally influences body weight development, maladaptive eating behaviors (restrained, reward [emotional], and external), and overeating frequency. Intuitive eating seems to counteract maladaptive eating behaviors, thereby reducing the frequency of overeating and hence stabilizing weight. In Chapter 3, individuals’ dietary strategies and food choice motives for weight loss are explored. Consumers are capable of composing calorie-reduced meals for an entire day to lose weight. However, they compose meals with an excessively high calorie deficit (770–1’200 kcal) and sacrifice taste. This poses a potential problem for long-term adherence to such a dietary change. Finally, Chapter 4 assesses how consumers perceive the healthiness and environmental friendliness of dairy products and plant-based dairy alternatives and whether these perceptions match objective evaluations (based on nutrient profiling and life cycle assessment). Consumers overestimate the healthiness and environmental friendliness of dairy products while underestimating those of plant-based dairy alternatives. To prevent the onset and reverse the consequences of overweight and obesity, it is therefore vital to increase individuals’ attention to body signals, increase adherence to a healthy and calorie-reduced diet, and align perceptions with reality.
Overall, this dissertation underscores the complexity of weight management and highlights the dynamics among eating behaviors, food choices, and product perceptions. In fostering collaboration among all stakeholders, including the food industry, policymakers, and consumers themselves, advances can be made toward creating a healthier and environmentally friendlier world.
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Examiner : Siegrist, Michael
Examiner : Fischer, Arnout
Examiner : Hartmann, Christina
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Publisher
ETH Zurich
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Subject
Weight management; Eating behavior; Food choice; Product perception; Consumer behavior
Organisational unit
03780 - Siegrist, Michael / Siegrist, Michael