Table 2 Chinese students’ (n = 55) descriptions of a healthy diet and exemplifying quotations

Benefits of healthy eating (83/39)

Writer describes positive outcomes related to healthy eating (psychosocial wellbeing, energy, appearance, detox)

“…Eating harmful foods will cause our body to produce harmful substances, so the health foods is very important for a healthy diet, yet the reasonable diet law is very major, such as if we often eat breakfast, we will find our body become very good, but we drop up eat breakfast, we will feel strange, we will fell pain, because our stomach have a lot of gastric acid. The gastric acid will erode our stomach…”

“Secondly, you need to eat comfortable, which means eating something you want to eat. A healthy life means happy life, we can access nutrition. From what we like to eat…”

“To me a ‘healthy diet’ means consuming foods that make me feel good.”

Guidelines (56/31)

Writer refers to or cites the food pyramid or other official guidelines for healthy eating or concepts from those guidelines; this may include balance, variety, or moderation (either naming a concept or providing an example of the concept)

“A healthy diet is not only the healthy food, but also how much you will eat in a meal. If you eat excessively no matter what food it is, you will be in a bad situation.”

“If someone has a healthy diet, he would eat a variety of foods everyday. These foods include grains, meats, vegetables, fruits, eggs, fishes, beans and milk.”

“I understand ‘a healthy diet’ is reasonable, healthy food, reasonable nutrition, balanced diet.”

Food groups (50/24)

Writer names specific foods as representative of a food group or food groups, such as fruit, vegetable, meat, dairy, grain, sweets, oils, or plant source foods

“In my eyes, ‘a healthy diet’ means more vegetables and fruits, less meat and oil.”

“Swap high fat dairy foods, such milk and cheese for lower fat version.”

Timing of eating (49/21)

Writer names specific meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) or times when foods should or should not be eaten

“According to many scientists, a person needs more energy and nutrition during the day, and less at night. So a healthy diet may be a large-size breakfast, a medium-size lunch, and a modest-size dinner.”

“In China, there is a common saying ‘good breakfast, hearty lunch and litter dinner’ about ‘a healthy diet.’ And many Chinese are following it now. But in my mind, Americans are different. They always have bread and milk in morning. Lunch is coffee or so. And dinner like Chinese lunch, it always more hearty.”