Internal and external forces that prevent (vs. Facilitate) healthy eating: Review and outlook within consumer Psychology

This article synthesizes recent findings on antecedents of healthy eating. We discuss consumer-related and environment-related forces that influence consumers’ healthy food choices and emphasize the duality of these forces so that they can facilitate but also prevent healthy eating. Specifically, our review documents how consumer lay beliefs, goals, and habits shape eating patterns. We further document the impact of environment-related forces on healthy consumption—focusing on intervention strategies and environmental changes (i.e., the trend towards online retail channels). Finally, we discuss three salient tensions (i.e., an innate craving for unhealthy food, a focus on single decisions, and a selective focus on self-control dilemmas) that emerge when taking a holistic view on existing research.