Interested to know more about New Zealanders’ attitudes and behaviours in relation to diet? We’ve included a summary below from our latest Healthy Futures research.

How we view food

New Zealanders believe they are knowledgeable when it comes to healthy food but consider healthy eating to be expensive. A growing number of younger people don’t know how to prepare healthy meals. These attitudes reflect the high cost of groceries and point to a need for more education on healthy food preparation.

Changes in approaches to diet

Diet is top of mind for many. One third of New Zealanders are already taking steps to improve or change their diet. Behaviours around seeing a nutritionist remain largely unchanged over the past two years, but more people in the Pasifika community are likely to consider seeing a nutritionist.

Choosing to abstain from alcohol

More New Zealanders feel that no alcohol is the way to go with four in ten of us choosing not to consume any alcohol.

Adult New Zealanders consume an average of four standard drinks per week which is similar to 2022. This is below Ministry of Health guidelines.