Dietary resolutions

With each new year, members of the population consider changing lifestyle habits to improve their holistic health. The SMART model advocates its users to ensure their goals, or New Year’s resolutions are: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based, in order to aid behavioural change (Gale, 2020). Oscarrson et al. (2020) stated changes to weight or body are one of the primary New Year’s resolutions the general population will aim to implement. This article considers the impact of sudden dietary changes within the dental environment.

The World Health Organisation (2022) has proposed determinants of health which reflect behaviours patients may wish to change, or that health care professionals may provide interventions for. These include smoking, alcohol consumption and dietary choices. The National Health Service (2022) has advocated a balanced diet in order to improve systemic health. This same message has been endorsed by Public Health England (2021) through campaigns such as Better Health, which increase patient awareness of the risks which present with consistent exposure to minimally nutritious food items. Such risks include: coronary heart disease; diabetes mellitus and bowel cancer (National Health Service, 2019).