Developing Personal Skills: an increase of information (through various resources such as education, the media etc) is vital in one's struggle for good nutrition. One needs the knowledge of nutrition (e.g. nutrient groups) to apply to real life situations such as when grocery shopping (choosing healthier options, reading labels etc) and when eating for specific purposes (e.g. sporting events, special occasions etc). It is this increase of life skills that autonomy (self-reliance) develops which consequently results in a benefit to eating habits and ultimately, physical health.
An example is the healthy food pyramid. This diagramatic resource effectively sums up a balanced diet; one that incorporates a variety of nutrients in their relatively healthy proportions (with the breads, cereals, rice, grains, wholewheat foods at the bottom, fruit and vegetables next, meat/dairy/poultry/alternatives following and finally the high in fat, sugar and salty foods at the top of the pyramid). The pyramid has the potential to be a general yet (gives scope for personal choice) prescriptive outline for an individual's diet.
I will post up another action area tomorrow.
Oh, I just realised I didn't answer your question. Sorry.
In relation to your question:
Developing personal skills: if the above (the two chunky paragraphs above) can at least be increased by a decent proportion of the population the incidence and prevalence of lifestyle-related nutrition diseases have the possibly of decreasing (e.g. obesity, cardiovascular disease, anorexia, buliema, diverticular disease etc). Also, the good skills developed by the people of one generation have the potential to be learnt by the succeeding generation which in turn creates indeliable habits and social norms. Therefore, the nutritional status improves.
Creating Supportive Environments: if an individual's different social networks (e.g. workplaces, health services, schools, the media, families) have healthy environments one is more likely to live a nutrionally healthier lifestyle --> as it through constant, habitual exposure to these environments that certain perspectives and trends emerge; making good nutrition more than just a concept, but a reality.
More to come.
I'm not sure it answers the question. :s
Don't trust any of my ideas either, as I did not research them.
