Dispelling Myths About a New Healthful Food Can Be More Motivating than Promoting Nutritional Benefits: The Case of Tofu

Objective: This study examines what factors impact the adoption of certain types of healthy foods, such as Tofu, by future nutritional gatekeepers. Design: Information on perceived facilitators and barriers to the utilization of barriers would be obtained via interviews and surveys. Setting: In-depth laddering interviews and an online survey during 2012 were utilized. Subjects: The in-depth laddering interviews were conducted with 83 young women and new mothers (non-vegetarians and non-Asians) who were enthusiastic lovers of tofu. 502 women from the target demographic (between 20 and 35, non-Asian) were recruited from a national panel and surveyed online in 2012. Results: Based on the interviews, 21 primary reasons for trying Tofu (facilitators) and 10 reasons that might be preventative (barriers) were identified. A key finding was that facilitators were not motivating factors for why women adopted tofu into their diets. Instead, barriers explained more than 44% of the variance for not adopting tofu. Conclusions: When encouraging nutritional gatekeepers to adopt Tofu in their home, it may be more effective to focus on changing the barriers. This study suggests that nutritionists and health practitioners may be more successful in encouraging the adoption of healthy new foods by dispelling their misconceptions rather than focusing on their nutritional benefits.