Are we asking consumers to do the impossible when it comes to healthy eating?

Are we asking consumers to do the impossible when it comes to healthy eating?

Experts from across the food system gathered to identify practical ways to help consumers make healthier food choices amid competing nutrition messages, rising costs, and time constraints.

By Julie Shlisky

Americans are getting nutrition advice from everywhere including scientists, social media influencers, food companies, and government guidelines, yet the messages don’t always align. Add higher grocery prices, limited access to healthy foods, and rushed mealtimes, and many people say they feel overwhelmed deciding what’s for dinner.

Diet quality is a measure used to reflect how well a person's typical eating patterns align with dietary guidance, focusing on nutrient-dense foods rather than calories. To help identify realistic actions that could improve diet quality in the U.S., the International Food Information Council (IFIC) and the College of Agriculture and Life Science (CALS) co-hosted food system leaders at Academic Building One, one of Virginia Tech’s DC area locations. 

Leaders in nutrition, economics, policy, retail food service, and science communication considered a shared question: Are we asking consumers to do the impossible when it comes to healthy eating?

Improving diet quality requires collaboration across agriculture, industry, food science, nutrition, public health, education, economics, and policy — an approach that aligns directly with Virginia Tech’s land-grant mission, leverages CALS’ interdisciplinary expertise across the food system, and draws on Extension’s practical, community-based experience. 

For IFIC, a nonprofit dedicated to communicating science-based information about food safety, nutrition, and sustainable food systems, serving the public good and empowering consumers to improve their diet quality is central. And convening thought leaders and fostering meaningful dialogue is one of the key ways to advance that goal.  

“Healthy eating cannot be addressed in silos and improving diet quality is not a challenge any one sector can solve alone,” said IFIC President & CEO Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, MS, RDN. “This convening was the first of its kind and an important step toward identifying areas of alignment across sectors and translating insights into meaningful action.”

The convening event included panel discussions and facilitated breakout sessions that let participants explore communication strategies to influence dietary change, capitalizing on the expertise in the room. 

CALS graduate students, faculty, and dietetic interns facilitated breakout sessions where participants worked to reach consensus ranking dietary guidance based on both ease of adoption and potential impact to diet quality. This approach encouraged honest dialogue and helped surface where the food system supports — or complicates — healthier choices.

“To identify high-impact behaviors, participants ranked behavior-based and system-wide strategies that could be both practical for consumers and aligned with improving diet quality,” said Tracy Rutherford, professor and department head of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education (ALCE). 

Discussions highlighted where friction or opportunities exist to influence diet quality, Rutherford said, stressing the need to meet consumers where they are and make realistic changes over time.

Participants discussed consumer research showing that while many people want to eat healthier, decisions are shaped by real-life constraints like cost, time, convenience and taste. They also questioned whether communication alone can drive healthier eating, especially when messages about many food and nutrition issues can be polarizing, confusing, or disconnected from everyday realities.

Rather than focusing solely on what consumers should do, the discussions explored how researchers, educators, policymakers, and industry leaders can better support healthier choices.

Jessica Spence, ALCE doctoral student, helped manage consensus mapping exercises and data collection.

“Engaging with industry professionals, nutrition specialists, academic experts, and IFIC organizers, was an incredibly valuable experience,” she said. “It is not often we get that opportunity, to be part of the conversation with such diverse expertise. I get to better understand multiple, relevant perspectives.”

Insights from the convening will inform a proceedings paper and a forthcoming set of behavior-based communication principles designed to help people navigate food decisions in the real world.

To learn more about this story, contact Julie Shlisky at juliesb@vt.edu.