Health behaviour, behaviour change and personalised diet: The concept of lifelong health

Health behaviour is the totality of the types of behaviour connected to health which, as an element of healthy lifestyle, are manifested in behaviour created resulting from health needs and health motives. Staying in good health is influenced by a lot of factors. Regular physical exercise, clean environment, reduction of overwork and, last but not least, balanced diet has a prominent role. In the last twenty years the authors have conducted a lot of representative surveys with the aim to examine the health behaviour, nutrition habits and sustainable lifestyle of the Hungarian population. According to research results, the consumers’ interpretation of health goes beyond the classical organic-medical view that is the several-dimension interpretation of health is becoming widespread. People are more or less aware of what they should do in order to stay healthy, but they do not act accordingly. It is indicated by that in most of the cases there is a significant difference between the importance of health pro-tective activities and their frequency. Some 48% of the respondents do not plan to change their present eating habits, which means that a significant ratio of the population has introverted and extremely passive behaviour. Personalised nutrition, as a new technology and nutritional basic principle may create a good possibility to im- prove people’s objective state of health, to help change their way of life, and finally, to preserve lifelong health. But Hungarian consumers distrust and are uncertain about new technology despite its obvious benefits. To sum up, people must be supported to be able to switch to a healthier lifestyle considering external conditions and needs.