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Background: Lifestyle in Western countries has significantly changed during recent decades. These and other factors have increased the prevalence of overweight and obesity, leading to a higher risk of noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. A balanced diet has been shown to predict better health, so several public healthcare strategies aim to encourage "healthy" food choices. Objectives: To assess self-concept of knowledge about nutrition compared to factual knowledge and knowledge implementation in daily life. Design: Cross-sectional cohort study with a total of 524 Swiss women recruited, of which 447 women met the inclusion criteria for the final analysis. Methods: Main outcome measure: a self-constructed questionnaire was used to evaluate subjective and objective knowledge about healthy nutrition and its practical application. Subgroup analyses utilized Fisher's test for categorical and Mann–Whitney- U test for metric/ordinal. Results: Most participants sourced their nutritional information predominantly from nonexperts. While the majority believed they were well-educated about nutrition, this self-assessment was only partially accurate. The "nutrition pyramid" concept was widely recognized, and correct assignment of food items to dominant macronutrient components was generally accurate. However, understanding of food category ranking by optimal daily intake and composing a healthy diet was lacking. Higher education levels correlated with better objective nutrition knowledge (p < 0.001), and normal-weight women were more likely than overweight/obese women to implement nutritional knowledge daily (p = 0.021). Apart from body mass index other bio-psycho-social factors were observed. Conclusion: Recent insights show that although women perceive themselves as knowledgeable about nutrition, there are significant gaps in their objective understanding. Higher education levels improve nutritional knowledge, and normal-weight women apply this knowledge more effectively. Thus, providing accessible, high-quality expert information on nutrition is essential. Trial registration: The study has been approved by the Cantonal Ethics Committee (registration number: 2018-00358). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the widespread prevalence of obesity and its potential adverse impacts on health, the majority of interventions aimed at weight loss stay ineffective. This study aimed to assess illness perception in people with overweight/obesity and its impact on bio-functional age (BFA) and cognitive patterns governing eating and movement behavior., Methods: A total of 40 subjects from the original overweight/obesity subcohort of the Bern Cohort Study 2014 (BeCS14) were included and assessed for a follow-up from 2019-11-29 to 2020-07-14. The subjects completed a validated "bio-functional status" test battery with calculation of BFA, as well as validated questionnaires for eating and movement behavior and illness perception., Results: Participants were overall bio-functionally younger than their chronological age (mean 4.3 ± 6.9 year equivalents) but aging was more pronounced than anticipated. Mental occupation with illness cause was moderate to high with psychosocial (PS) factors being more pronounced than naturalistic (NT) factors. There was a shift from defined theory with focus clearly on PS theories to diffuse theory with consideration of both PS and NT theories. Participants with good sense of coherence (SOC) were less likely to be mentally preoccupied with illness cause ( p < 0.05, r s = -0.404), especially with PS factors. PS theories on illness cause correlated with pathological eating behavior (emotional eating: p > 0.05, r s = 0.378; temptation: p < 0.01, r s = 0.486)., Conclusions: Illness perception does affect cognitive patterns and integrating it into therapeutic management for people with obesity can enhance outcomes. Strengthening of SOC is important to decrease PS stress and achieve better subjective health, less mental preoccupation, and less dysfunctional eating behavior., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.)