You might know you don’t need to reach for the biscuit just because you made yourself a cup of tea. You might know that it would be good to eat more vegetables. You might know that you’re satisfied and don’t need to finish your plate.

… but there’s a difference between what we know and what we do.

We were making eating decisions before we could talk.

During infancy, your food preferences were starting to be shaped; exposure to a range of tastes and textures has lasting effects on what we find acceptable and appealing as adults. This early exposure then effects the regulation of our feeding preferences and influences the health status of our diet into adulthood.

This goes far beyond “I’ve always had a sweet tooth.” There is research that shows childhood experiences with food shape cognitive networks influencing adult dietary choices to the point that even a vegetarian, years after cutting out meat, can report a lingering desire for meat. This suggests the food biases formed early in life persist despite conscious changes in attitude.

There’s also a social and emotional layer. Family eating habits are important:

o Encouraging children to try new foods

o Modelling healthy eating

o Eating meals together

o Involving children in preparing food

… These all tend to predict healthier eating behaviours and better diet quality in adulthood. More difficult childhood experiences can do the opposite - children who experience neglect, abuse or chronic stress have a significantly higher risk of obesity later I life.

None of this means your adult eating behaviours can’t be changed. But it explains why “just eat better” can feel so difficult. You’re being told to override subconscious eating patterns that were developed before you even have memories of eating.

Autopilot behaviours.

Even if our eating patterns as children were balanced, as we shift into adulthood, the life-variables we encounter can quite easily lead to habit development around food. A habit is a learned process where environmental cues automatically activate an unconscious impulse to perform a behaviour, and through repetition, this behaviour becomes associated with the cues. Generally, a habit forms through repeated behaviour ‘in a stable context’ like sitting on the same side of the sofa at the same time of day or experiencing the same emotional trigger like boredom or sadness.

This is why eating decisions can bypass conscious thought. There’s a great study where cinema-goers ate stale popcorn without noticing or even caring how it tasted… just because there were in the cinema. The context linked to the habit. Take the same people out of the cinema and give them stale popcorn - there is no habit - they taste how stale it is and stop eating it.

This matters for behaviour change because it tells us where the challenge is. It’s not the crisps you choose to eat at 9pm each night. It’s that the sofa you sit on at 9pm that triggers the eating behaviour.

We can change this! Change your routine - disrupt the behaviour. Weaken the association between context and behaviour.

Why quick fixes are so tempting?

Because… social media.

This could be a whole blog in itself, but here’s a brief look at what’s happening:

You’re not stupid. You might be academically minded. You are often sceptical. These qualities are only weakly protective against misinformation.

What predicts susceptibility [to BS] is something called “myside bias”: the tendency to judge a claim as true not by evaluating the evidence, but by how well it fits what you already want to believe. Myside bias operates independently of our ability to reason – it’s about motivation – overriding our capacity to think clearly.

Quick fixes are built to exploit myside bias. Before-and-after photos and testimonials tap into confirmation bias, reinforcing the idea that a ‘diet ‘works even when those results aren’t typical. The use of ‘sexy’ words like “clean eating,” “superfoods,” and “detox” which might sound scientific but are vague or misleading, and celebrity endorsement – because we build trust in certain celebrities/figure-heads – making claims feel real without the evidence.

Diet identity.

Don’t underestimate the power of diet identity, and how these impact and prevent us from changing behaviours. Diets can function like a form of identity, and adopting one often means finding a community on social media, all doing the same thing - same benefits, shared tips and experiences. This creates a shield from outside scepticism and scientific evidence. Dietary criticism can start to feel like a personal attack, and the more invested someone becomes, the harder it is to walk away if evidence to the contrary comes to light.

So it’s not really about food; it’s about the community and a sense of control over ‘doing something for my-own long-term health.’ It feels far more immediate and therefore more satisfying than evidence-based nutrition advice/behaviours… small changes, sustained over years… no dramatic before-and-after photo to post.

Here’s what I would do whenever a new trend appears. Ask yourself “if it actually works as promised, why wouldn’t it be the standard, blanket recommendation?” We have public health guidance for a reason. It does feel slow and it’s not glamorous, but it exists precisely because it’s been tested against the population, not against a single individual results. A protocol that genuinely outperformed the evidence base would get adopted.

What actually helps with behaviour change?

Understand the ‘why’ behaviour change is hard, then:

o Change the context. Since habits are triggered by environment, altering the cue (where you keep snacks, what’s visible when the cupboard opens, your route home etc. disrupts the automatic response more reliably than relying on self-control in the moment.

o Use stable repetition. Habit-based interventions result in significantly greater weight loss than controls. Pick one small, specific behaviour change (e.g., fruit after lunch, not a blanket “eat healthier”) and repeat it in the same context daily.

o Expect change to feel uncomfortable and take time. It can range from 18 days to over 8 months to make sustainable changes depending on the person and behaviour. Feeling uncomfortable in the meantime is normal and it probably means you’re doing something right!

o It’s ok to be sceptical. In nutrition, anything claimed as ‘fact’ or ‘absolute’ is usually incorrect. If a claim feels too quick and satisfying, it’s probably worth ignoring.

o Before adopting a trend, ask what the evidence is. Evidence is not testimonials. Evidence is science.

o Be patient with inherited patterns. If certain foods or behaviours feel disproportionately hard to shift, it doesn’t make you a failure. It could be that preference, or a coping pattern was established in childhood. Change is still possible, but it won’t come from a quick-fix.

Behaviour change isn’t just a “you’ve got the wrong mindset”. It often feel hard because you’re fighting against childhood exposure, automatic habits, an educations system with limited time to teach nutrition, and a media environment that rewards certainty with no consideration for nuance. Rather than aiming to “fix yourself,” aim to make small moves to “redesign the context” – it will get easier!