An advice line launched by the Scottish Executive last month has also been declared a success, beating its target of 10,500 calls in the same period.

More than 12,000 people phoned the healthy eating advice service between 7 January and 7 February.

Changing Scotland's long-standing cultural love of high fat, high sugar and high salt foods will be a long, hard battle Gillian Kynoch Food and health co-ordinator

Scotland's food and health co-ordinator, Gillian Kynoch, said she was "delighted" that so many people were seeking advice on improving their diets.

"I am equally pleased to see that so many people have requested information packs and downloaded recipes and other information from the website," she said.

She said that the service would be monitored over the coming months to ensure that it meets the public's needs.

"As we have made clear from the start, we don't expect any quick wins here," she said.

"Changing Scotland's long-standing cultural love of high fat, high sugar and high salt foods will be a long, hard battle.

Telephone line

"However, it is one which we must win, if we are to create a fitter, healthier Scotland and reduce the burden of diseases such as heart disease, cancer, obesity and type 2 diabetes on individuals, as well as society."

The healthy eating telephone line received 12,085 calls during its first month.

The website was visited 43,214 times, giving an average of about 1,400 hits each day.

Weight loss

The average user spent more than 10 minutes on the site.

Cathy Higginson of the Health Education Board for Scotland said people wanted advice on a range of food and diet-related subjects.

These included queries on weight loss, advice on weaning babies, questions about vegetarian diets and help in creating healthier meals for a family on a low income.

The healthy eating advice line can be contacted on 0845 2 78 88 78.