Tell Me About the Image of the Person Who Consumes Home-Packed Meals: An Alternative Way to Promote Healthy Eating Among University Students

OpenAlex İngilizce

It is a common and usual behavior in a variety of cultures for consumers to bring their home-packed meals to the settings like school or workplace where they spend their entire day. Besides this behavior is not common and usual in Turkish culture, anecdotal evidence shows us that there could be a negative perception toward these consumers, and they could be excluded or bullied in settings like school because of this behavior. In this research, we conducted four focus groups with university students with an aim to understand the barriers in bringing their home-packed meals to school, and their perception toward the person who sticks to this practice. According to findings, university students mentioned their hesitation and shyness since the society is not accustomed to this practice and lack of a suitable place to consume their home-packed meals on the campus as the main barriers. Also, the most mentioned point about their perceived image of the people who bring home-packed meals was that they could be people who care about their physical appearance, beauty, and health. The second most mentioned point was that they could be people who have insufficient financial resources.