Today we are surrounded by mass media – the internet, television, radio, newspapers, magazines and books – which accompany us at every step and strongly influence our mentality. Over the last decades these media have created the ideal of a ‘perfect figure’ and offered nutrtion information which many people have begun to follow. They look for food recipes and expert articles on healthy nutrition and dieting on the internet, watch food advertisements and entertaining or educational cooking programs on television, listen to food related talk shows on the radio, and read various articles in newspapers and magazines.
In the research part of diploma work I wanted to establish which medium is most often used by adults seeking dietary information. I was also interested in whether adults have changed their dietary habits as a result of the acquired information. I collected the data through a questionnaire carried out among 60 adults and aged between 20 and 50. The results of research have shown that most adults acquire dietary information through the internet, while on television and radio they mostly follow food advertisements. Very few respondents have looked for dietary information in books. It was established that dietary informations from media have a small impact on changing eating behaviours, because the majority of respondents do not trust dietary informations from media. Those who did change their dietary habits pointed out that they only trusted verified expert sources. The media presents numerous, often contradictory, information on healthy eating, so it is necessary to educate adults to critically evaluate the information obtained.
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