People at risk of heart disease or other chronic illness do make positive changes to their diet if they are given intensive counselling.

You may have resolved to try to eat more healthily this New Year - but will it be easy to do so without support and advice? Researchers for the US Preventive Services Task Force suggest, from a new analysis, that those whose health is at risk are certainly helped to make dietary changes if they are offered intensive counselling.

Both group and individual counselling seem to motivate people who have high blood pressure or high cholesterol do things like reduce fat consumption or increase their intake of fresh fruit and vegetables. But the researchers note that there's no evidence that this actually improves the patient's health - because this research wasn't done. There is also little evidence that healthy people benefit from dietary counselling. However, if you think support from a group or health professional might just work for you, why not give it a try? If you already have some risk factors or an existing health problem, this study suggests that you could have a lot to gain.

Source

American Journal of Preventive Medicine January 2003