article · Cogent Food & Agriculture
Urban households in Rundu, Namibia, were surveyed to examine how nutritional knowledge and structural factors influence fruit and vegetable intake. The analysis separates reaching a minimum adequate diet from consuming higher overall quantities. Nutritional knowledge strongly correlates with households achieving the minimum recommended fruit and vegetable consumption, but it does not lead to higher intake intensity. Larger household sizes reduce the likelihood of dietary adequacy, whereas age, income, and education display non-linear relationships with consumption. These patterns demonstrate a gap between possessing nutritional information and changing daily eating habits, indicating that education alone cannot overcome structural obstacles. Consequently, efforts to improve urban diet quality must combine educational programmes with interventions that ensure fresh, nutritious food is affordable, available, and readily accessible.
Nutritional awareness does not automatically result in healthier eating when urban households face structural constraints. Identifying why knowledge supports basic adequacy but fails to drive higher consumption allows policymakers and public health bodies to target resources better. In rapidly growing towns, educating consumers must be coupled with practical measures to make nutritious food physically accessible and affordable for families of all sizes.
This early-stage research provides behavioural and demographic insights for municipal authorities, development agencies, and agrifood distribution businesses. While it does not present a ready technology, the findings can inform the design of targeted food retail networks, urban supply chain logistics, and subsidised fresh produce programmes. Potential commercial users include urban food distributors and retailers looking to structure affordable product offerings for lower-income urban populations that already understand the value of healthy eating.
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Improving diet quality is increasingly central to global food security and public health strategies, yet evidence on whether nutritional knowledge translates into healthier dietary behaviour remains inconclusive, particularly in rapidly urbanising low- and middle-income countries. This study examines the relationship between nutritional knowledge and fruit and vegetable consumption among urban households in Rundu, Namibia, focusing on behavioural and structural influences on dietary outcomes. Household survey data were analysed using binary and ordered probit models to distinguish dietary adequacy from consumption intensity. Nutritional knowledge was positively associated with achieving the recommended minimum fruit and vegetable intake (β = 1.526, p < 0.001) but did not significantly predict higher consumption intensity (p > 0.05). Household size was negatively associated with dietary adequacy (β = −0.137, p = 0.021), while age, education, and income exhibited non-linear effects. These findings reveal a knowledge–behaviour gap, suggesting that nutrition education alone may be insufficient to improve diet quality where structural barriers persist. By distinguishing dietary adequacy from intensity, the study demonstrates that nutritional knowledge may influence different stages of dietary behaviour differently. Nutrition education should therefore be complemented by food-system interventions that improve the affordability, accessibility, and availability of nutritious foods.
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DOI: 10.1080/23311932.2026.2725405
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