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Governments worldwide make substantial efforts to reduce the contribution of poor diets to NCDs. Scotland has higher rates of NCDs than most other European countries and it has proved difficult to improve this situation (1). While health promotion messages have some impact on consumer awareness of ‘eating for health’, this does not necessarily translate into changes in consumer behaviour (2). Common terminology used to communicate the concept of ‘eating for health’such as ‘healthy eating’is often confused with dieting for weight loss (3). Additionally, food marketing has found value in using ‘healthy eating’terminology, which may dilute or confuse genuine health promotion messages (4). The present study aimed to define public perceptions around ‘eating for health’terminology.

Consumer understanding was assessed for four commonly used prompt-terms: Healthy Eating, Eating for Health, Balanced Diet and …