The global policy debate on sustainability and health has called for dietary reforms, which will need a variety of coordinated measures from governments and organizations.

From a policy standpoint, organizing dietary change needs significant work. While significant nutritional changes have occurred, they have occurred in tandem with profound modifications in livelihood, food production, and distribution.

Material and ideational (cognitive) components that give birth to distinct eating habits within a geographic region or social group are referred to as cultural food practices.

Food behaviours are mostly passed on from parents to children. Social groups teach people about meal structure and scheduling, where food may be consumed, and how to eat.

The learning process is both explicit, such as vocal communication about what to eat and information exposure, and implicit, such as in organized daily routines for children and modelling of eating behaviour.

But many of these teachings are being lost because the transmission of knowledge is reduced and parents share less and less time of preparation and consumption of food with their children, who are acquiring eating habits based on imported and standardised models with abundant processed and unhealthy foods. Reversing these trends is essential to have more socially and environmentally sustainable ways of eating ourselves.