When Food Choices Tell a Bigger Story: Understanding Food Literacy among Young Adults in India
Published in Education
Living and working in Delhi NCR, we observed a growing contradiction among young adults. Many were aware of concepts like “healthy eating,” “balanced diets,” and “junk food,” yet daily eating habits often reflected a different reality. Fast food deliveries had become routine, meal skipping was common, packaged snacks replaced homemade meals, and eating patterns were increasingly shaped by stress, convenience, social media, and busy urban lifestyles.
At the same time, India is witnessing a sharp rise in obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs), even among younger populations. We wanted to understand whether the issue was simply a lack of nutrition knowledge or whether something deeper was happening.
This led us to explore the concept of food literacy.
Food literacy goes beyond knowing which foods are healthy. It includes the practical and behavioural skills needed to make healthy eating possible in everyday life: planning meals, reading labels, shopping wisely, preparing food, managing time, and making informed choices despite environmental pressures.
Although food literacy has been studied in several countries, very little research has explored it in the Indian context using validated multidimensional tools. We saw an opportunity to contribute evidence from India, especially among urban young adults who are rapidly transitioning toward modern food environments.
Our study, conducted among 119 adults in Delhi NCR, examined self-perceived food literacy and diet quality using internationally validated assessment tools.
One of the most surprising findings was that while many participants demonstrated moderate skills in certain areas, such as healthy food preparation or nutrition awareness, only about 19% showed comprehensive food literacy across all major domains.
This finding revealed something important: food literacy is fragmented.
A person may know how to cook but struggle with meal planning. Another may understand nutrition labels but still rely heavily on ultra-processed foods because of time constraints, stress, or convenience. Food decisions are rarely shaped by knowledge alone.
Our diet quality findings reflected this “dual dietary burden.” Many participants consumed protective foods like fruits, vegetables, pulses, and dairy, yet these foods coexisted with frequent consumption of sugary beverages, deep-fried foods, packaged snacks, and fast foods.
This pattern mirrors what many of us see every day in urban India a mix of traditional eating habits and rapidly expanding processed food culture.
Another interesting aspect of the study was that higher food literacy was associated with better diet quality, particularly in areas such as food selection, label reading, meal planning, and nutrition self-efficacy. However, food literacy alone was not directly associated with body weight or BMI. This reminded us that obesity and metabolic health are influenced by many interconnected factors, including stress, sleep, physical activity, environment, affordability, and lifestyle.
The research also highlighted the emotional and environmental dimensions of eating. Many young adults today navigate food choices in environments filled with aggressive marketing, online food delivery apps, social pressures, and limited time for cooking. Healthy eating is no longer simply a matter of “willpower”; it is deeply connected to the systems surrounding us.
As researchers, this study changed how we think about nutrition education.
Traditional nutrition messaging often focuses only on information: telling people what to eat and what to avoid. But our findings suggest that knowledge alone is insufficient. Young adults also need practical life skills, supportive food environments, affordable healthy options, and opportunities to develop confidence in managing food choices.
Food literacy, therefore, becomes not just an educational concept but a public health strategy.
We believe future interventions should move beyond classroom-style nutrition advice and instead include cooking skills, meal planning workshops, digital food literacy, label-reading education, emotional eating awareness, and policy-level actions that make healthy foods more accessible and convenient.
This research journey was especially meaningful because it brought together behavioural science, nutrition, and public health within the Indian context. It also reinforced the importance of understanding people’s lived experiences around food rather than viewing dietary behaviour in isolation.
Most importantly, the study reminded us that healthy eating is not simply about individual choices. It is about the interaction between knowledge, skills, emotions, culture, time, economics, and the environments we live in.
As India continues to urbanize and younger populations face increasing lifestyle-related disease risks, understanding food literacy may help us design more realistic and compassionate approaches to nutrition promotion.
Research is often driven by data, but behind every dataset are real people trying to make food choices in increasingly complex environments. We hope that this work contributes to creating healthier, more supportive food systems for the next generation.
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