Legume and pulse consumption is currently recommended for health and sustainability purposes, but barriers to consumption can include low enjoyment and poor sensory properties. This work aimed to investigate the relative importance of a number of barriers and facilitators towards legume, including pulse, consumption with a specific focus on enjoyment, sensory properties and a possible role for perceived cooking abilities in these relationships.

A cross-sectional questionnaire study assessed legume and pulse consumption, agreement and disagreement with statements relating to enjoyment, sensory properties, cooking abilities, practical aspects, healthiness, upbringing, social influences and quality issues, and four demographic characteristics. Complete responses were gained from 633 respondents with a mix of genders, ages, usual cooking responsibilities and usual eating habits.

UK, March 2021 – September 2022.

General UK adult population.

Using multiple regression analyses, enjoyment and cooking abilities were found to be important for both legume and pulse consumption (smallest beta = 0·165, P < 0·01), and the sensory properties of these foods were also important for the consumption of pulses (beta = 0·099, P = 0·04). Perceived cooking abilities also reduced the importance of enjoyment and sensory properties for consumption, mitigated effects due to upbringing and practical aspects and increased the value of perceived health benefits (smallest beta = 0·094, P = 0·04).

These findings demonstrate a clear role for enjoyment, sensory properties and perceived cooking abilities in legume and pulse consumption and suggest benefits for increasing cooking abilities for improved legume and pulse consumption, as result of both direct and indirect effects.

To evaluate the culinary content of key messages contained in food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) available at the global online repository of the FAO of the UN.

Document analysis was conducted in August 2021 with data extraction of key messages explicitly related to cooking present in FBDG. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis.

The FAO’s global repository of FBDG.

Not applicable.

Just over half (n 39; 53·4 %) of the seventy-three FBDG analysed included at least one key message about cooking. The Latin American and Caribbean FBDG presented the greatest amount and variety of content about cooking in the key messages, whereas the Near East and North America placed less emphasis on cooking. We identified three themes: (i) healthy food preparation (n 35; 61·4 % of the fifty-seven culinary key messages identified); (ii) food hygiene (n 14; 24·6 %) and (iii) the promotion of culinary practices (n 7; 12·3 %). Albania’s key message covered two themes (food hygiene and healthy food preparation) (n 1; 1·8 %).

FBDG are official documents that express recommendations for a healthy diet. As most of these recommendations throughout the world include foods that must be cooked prior to consumption, culinary content should gain more visibility and be presented more broadly in these official documents.

To evaluate what is known about the relative health impacts, in terms of nutrient intake and health outcomes, of diets with reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE).

We systematically reviewed the results of published studies that link GHGE of dietary patterns to nutritional content or associated consequences for health.

We included studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals that included data on actual and modelled diets and enabled a matched comparison of GHGE with nutrient composition and/or health outcomes.

Studies included used data from subjects from the general population, who had taken part in dietary surveys or prospective cohort studies.

We identified sixteen eligible studies, with data on 100 dietary patterns. We present the results as dietary links between GHGE reduction and impact on nutrients to limit (n 151), micronutrient content (n 158) and health outcomes (n 25). The results were highly heterogeneous. Across all measures of ‘healthiness’, 64 % (n 214) of dietary links show that reduced GHGE from diets were associated with worse health indicators. However, some trends emerged. In particular, reduced saturated fat and salt are often associated with reduced GHGE in diets that are low in animal products (57/84). Yet these diets are also often high in sugar (38/55) and low in essential micronutrients (129/158).

Dietary scenarios that have lower GHGE compared with average consumption patterns may not result in improvements in nutritional quality or health outcomes. Dietary recommendations for reduced GHGE must also address sugar consumption and micronutrient intake.

To present the way the Brazilian government is addressing the prevention of nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NR-NCDs).

Innovative legislative and regulatory actions, mass communications and capacity building have been combined to create a comprehensive approach for addressing poor dietary and activity patterns in Brazil that are leading to obesity and NR-NCDs. Included are new nutrition-related initiatives in the labelling area, shifts in the types of food purchased for the school food programme, use of mass media to communicate components of the food guidelines, establishment of a smart shopping initiative, and training of teachers and health workers.

The entire effort has taken several years to get underway. This paper describes the process and some of the initial changes seen.