Fruit, vegetables and health

A poorly perceived link among the under 25s

November 3, 2009 "We have been able to clearly observe in populations of under 25s that the message associating fruit, vegetables and health have not been assimilated," explains Raphaël Laurin, a young lecturer recruted by the laboratory of socio-psychology  and management of sport at the University of Burgundy, whose research themes are oriented to the biomedical sector. One of the specialisations of this laboratory is indeed an interest in the traitment and anaysis of language.

After his doctoral thesis, Raphaël Lauren worked for six months in the Regional Observatory of Health (OBS - Observatoire Régional de Santé). The laboratory had initiated a partnership with the ORS and the Regional College of Health Education (CORES - Collège Régional d'Education Santé) in order to meet the needs of a number of programs funded by the PNNS (France's national program of nutrition and health). "At this time, we launched a study with the goal of seeing what were the representations of fruit and vegetables amont young people," he concludes.

The survey was carried out at a number of food markets around the region. "We used a technique of verbal association consiting of asking the person what came to mind when we evoked fruit and vegetables," he indicates. The results were inequivocable. When fruit and vegetables were evoked, adults and seniors, recurrently and spontaneously, answered "health", well-being" and "vitamins".

A different view of fruit, vegetables and health among young people

Among the under 25s, the results were completely different as, when presented with the same words, fruit and vegetables, they limited themselves, quite spontaneously, to listing the names of other fruit and vegetables. "There had been no integration in this population which prevented them from making the link between fruit and vegetables and health. It seems therefore essential to do some work, especially via communication, targeting the under 25 age group," explains Raphaël Laurin.

Today,he is continuing his research which is not completely finished. "We still have some data to analyse. In addition, the study has a post-evaluation phase. A number of actions have been put in place during the study. We are also interested in various aspects of fruit and vegetable consumption, such as obstacles or motivations. for the moment, we are moving towards evaluting these observations and seeing if we can observe changes in the representations of fruit and vegetables within different populations," he declares. Eventually, this more biomedical orientation of research projects adopted by the laboratory could lead its teams to be more involved in projects developed by Vitagora involving food companies.  

Contact
Raphaël Laurin
Email : laurin_raphael@yahoo.fr

Source : Agence JFD and Co