Adolescents’ Perceptions About Healthy and Sustainable Diets: A Qualitative School-Based Study in Portugal

ABSTRACT

In this qualitative study, we explored Portuguese adolescents’ perceptions of diet, sustainability, and health through six focus group discussions (FGDs). Fifty-five adolescents (10–18 years) participated. FGDs focused on sustainability in food choices and its health impact, with our primary interest in their perceptions. Results showed a limited comprehension of “sustainable/sustainability,” especially among younger participants. Those aware of sustainability recognized its diverse aspects, including health, economic, and ecological domains. Some adolescents recognized the link between health and sustainability in their diets, emphasizing the need for food literacy. These findings emphasize the importance of public health and sustainable policies among Portuguese adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent
• diet
• focus group discussion
• literacy
• sustainability

Acknowledgments

We thank the study participants for their contribution to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data will be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Credit author statement

Beatriz Teixeira: Funding acquisition, Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Andreia Oliveira: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Visualization. Rui Poínhos: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Cláudia Afonso: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2024.2363893.

Additional information

Funding

Individual grants – Beatriz Teixeira was supported by a PhD grant 2021.05133.BD (https://doi.org/10.54499/2021.05133.BD), co-funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT–Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science) and the FSE (Fundo Social Europeu) Program.