Fruggies for all - Evaluation of an integrated nutrition-sensitive project targeted to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in urban Vietnam and Nigeria

Promovendus: G (Giulia) Pastori MSc. Promotor: dr.ir. ID (Inge) Brouwer. Copromotor: dr.ir. EF (Elise) Talsma & prof.dr.ir. EJM (Edith) Feskens. We know that fruits and vegetables are important components of healthy diets, but why then global fruit and vegetable consumption is quite low and especially in low- and middle-income countries? Nutrition-sensitive interventions that target different causes of low consumption at the consumer and supply side of the food system have the potential to promote fruit and vegetable consumption in low-income populations. Investigating two urban contexts of Hanoi, Vietnam, and Ibadan, Nigeria, we demonstrated that implementing a variety of interventions that were co-created with the respondents and that tackled affordability, accessibility, and acceptability at the same time, can increase fruit and vegetable consumption. This is because several are the determinants of consumption, that vary across contexts and requires close monitoring and evaluation. An integrated nutrition-sensitive approach is relevant to address the problem in its complexity and can be scaled up to improve fruit and vegetable consumption in low- and middle-income countries.

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