Healthy eating: Overcoming barriers to change

What are barriers?

A barrier is anything that causes you to slip up in your goals to make lifestyle changes, such as changing your eating habits.

Even when you know about the benefits of healthy eating, you may find it very hard to change your eating habits until you deal with the reasons you give yourself for not eating healthy. Barriers to healthy eating include the valid reasons why you don't make healthy food choices (for example, food allergies) as well as the excuses you make to avoid doing something you dislike.

Test Your Knowledge

1. In the area of changing bad habits into good habits, barriers are:

1. Things that get in your doctor's way when he or she is trying to help you.
2. Things that block you from opening the refrigerator.
3. Things that keep you from having success in changing your habits.
4. Things that keep you out of the kitchen.

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Author:	Debby Golonka, MPH	Last Updated: February 6, 2009
Medical Review:	Ruth Schneider, MPH, RD - Diet and Nutrition Rhonda O'Brien, MS, RD, CDE - Diabetes Educator
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