Key Takeaways
- A large share of the global public expresses strong personal motivation to eat healthier and more sustainable diets: Around four in ten people strongly agree that they care about having a diet that supports both personal health and sustainability. This signals a meaningful, values‑driven aspiration around food that goes beyond convenience or cost alone.
- Intent is strongest where benefits feel personal and immediate: Motivation is highest for changes that are closely tied to individual health and well‑being, especially reducing the consumption of processed foods.
- Environmental impact is widely acknowledged but held with weaker conviction: While most people agree that food choices affect the planet, fewer say they strongly agree, suggesting sustainability is often understood in principle rather than experienced as a primary driver of everyday decisions.
Global public opinion research results from Grains of Truth, a collaboration between GlobeScan and EAT, show a strong appetite for dietary change, particularly when framed around health. Forty‑four percent of respondents in 33 markets around the world strongly agree that they would eat fewer processed foods, and a further 41 percent somewhat agree. Similarly, four in ten strongly agree that they care about having a diet that supports both health and sustainability, with nearly half somewhat agreeing.
Support is softer when it comes to more specific shifts in food systems. Around one‑third strongly agree that they would eat more plant‑based foods or change their diet to support fair treatment of farmers and workers, with many more expressing moderate agreement. These findings suggest openness to change but also indicate that these behaviors may still be perceived as needing more effort, being less accessible, or being more constrained by availability, price, or habit.
The weakest point of conviction relates to environmental impact. While a solid majority at least somewhat agree that their food choices affect the planet (72%), only 28 percent strongly agree, and nearly three in ten express some level of disagreement. This gap highlights how people broadly accept the idea that food and climate are linked, but for many, this understanding may be incomplete. Taken together, the pattern points to a gradient of motivation from strong, health‑driven intent at the personal level to softer, more conditional concern when impacts feel distant, systemic, or harder to influence individually.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
The research shows that people overwhelmingly want diets that are both healthy and sustainable, and most recognize that food choices play a role in shaping environmental outcomes. However, motivations are not equally weighted. Personal health remains the most powerful entry point for change, while sustainability, particularly when framed in planetary or systemic terms, tends to act as a secondary or reinforcing benefit rather than a primary driver.
This has important implications for how sustainable diets are promoted and enabled. Accelerating dietary change requires anchoring sustainability more firmly in what people already care about most, such as their own health, their families, and their quality of life. Making the environmental benefits of food choices more tangible and clearly linked to personal outcomes is critical to bridging the gap between awareness and action.
Grains of Truth is a collaboration between GlobeScan and EAT. This fifth edition of the report series provides a review of consumer perceptions and attitudes toward our global food system, based on a global survey with nearly 32,000 respondents. The insights gathered reveal consumer understanding, current behaviors, core motivations, and significant barriers faced in consuming healthy and sustainable diets. The goal of this analysis is to equip actors in the food system, such as governments, policymakers, producers, and retailers, with the knowledge needed to respond to consumer desires and challenges, and to support the transformation of our global food system to one that is healthy, fair, and sustainable.
Survey Question: How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Countries surveyed: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Türkiye, UK, USA, and Vietnam
