preferences are set during early childhood and are
difficult to change thereafter. Sensory learning forms
taste and food spectrum, and these are shaped
before birth from the seventh month of pregnancy.
New research themes are currently investigating
the impact of perinatal nutrition which, according
to animal experiments, causes lasting metabolic
imprinting and which can sometimes be passed down.
Repeatedly offering a variety of foods without forcing
the child seems to be the best way of widening food
acceptance. School not only provides tasting oppor-
tunities, but could also improve awareness of
hunger, fullness and satiety.
Preventive action has proved effective for mothers
whose children risk being overweight, particularly by
changing the mothers’ attitudes regarding their
traditional responsibility for nourishment. Child
obesity-control programmes increasingly call for
parental learning.
Dietary habits change during adolescence, and
meals eaten outside the home offer opportunities
to experience a certain freedom (meal times, meal
composition). These practices do however appear to
be temporary, and a return to a family type of diet
is observed when couple relationships form, when
children are born, or when young people start working.
So, except for dietary disorders (anorexia, bulimia,
not dealt with here) and risky practices (binge
drinking), the diet of adolescents is not a public
health problem. If difficulties with dietary behaviour
are experienced during childhood, this phenomenon
can be accentuated upon adolescence with negative
consequences for well-being and health.3.6.2 Old age
During old age, dietary behaviour can become more
unstable. Retirement, death of a spouse, solitude,
deteriorating health and less autonomy often have
negative repercussions on dietary practices and
food intake. A considerable proportion of elderly
people suffer from malnutrition, which is recog-
nized as a public health risk factor.A positive point is that elderly people are attentive to
preventive messages concerning health. Carers and
the immediate social circle of elderly people are
crucial for maintaining good dietary practices and/or
implementing nutritional preventive strategies.
It should be noted that dietary behaviour could be
linked to one’s generation. This hypothesis, suggested
by CREDOC findings using the Budgets survey,
needs to be scientifically supported. The most
striking fact is that the more recent generation
spend three times less money to buy fresh fruits
than the generation born between 1937 and 1946.3 .7 The underprivileged are less receptive to
preventive messages
Dietary inequalities have continued into recent years.
Food can absorb up to 50 percent of the budget of the
more underprivileged households in France, while
this figure stands at 15 percent for the population
overall.
Underprivileged people, poor and/or underedu-
cated, suffer more from obesity.
Their diet deviates from nutritional guidelines more
than that of wealthier populations. A greater number
of risk factors are associated with their dietary
practices: sedentary lifestyle, distraction linked to
TV viewing, low self-esteem. The preventive mes-
sages for nutrition and health are less well under-
stood and can even make them feel at fault, given
that these messages are on a completely different
wavelength to the attitudes they have about diet,
health or body norms. They also need to cope with
other worries which appear more important to them.
The desire to buy foods that are promoted by intense
advertising (high-energy-dense foods) undermines
their efforts to conform to guidelines.- Research needs
If detailed typologies of French consumer behaviours
are to be established, large pooled longitudinal
cohorts need to be recruited and which are repre-
sentative of the entire population. Tools need to be
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