Enjoyment plays the biggest role in eating
Published: Monday, Nov 18th 2024, 07:20
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According to a study, 75 percent of Swiss people see eating as a pleasure, enjoyment and social event. Healthy eating, meanwhile, plays a much less important role.
Not quite half (48 percent) of the 2,100 respondents paid attention to a balanced composition of nutrients when eating. And only a third (35 percent) think about the long-term effects of food on health when eating, the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI) reported on Monday. For around three quarters of those surveyed, eating together is the best way to spend time with friends.
68 percent would like to take time to enjoy their meal. Family and/or regional roots play a major role for around half of those surveyed. Over half of those surveyed cooked traditionally at home and almost half said that their personal eating habits were strongly influenced by their origins.
The survey also compares the situation between Switzerland and its four large neighboring countries Germany, France, Italy and Austria. Community is the most important factor in food culture for all countries. Switzerland scored the highest, southern Germany the lowest. Enjoyment comes in second place after community, with the countries close to each other.
Rootedness is in third place in almost all regions - only in southern Germany is health just ahead. Italy was an outlier here: Respondents from the north of the country relied much more on tradition and family recipes than anyone else.
92 percent of respondents also stated that their eating habits had changed in the past ten years for the following reasons: New information (42 percent), weight control (40 percent), health issues and financial reasons (32 percent each).
For around two thirds of respondents, family, partners or roommates have a major influence on eating behavior. In second and third place came the availability of food (56%) and its price (51%).
Young people more influenced by social media
Only 12 percent of those surveyed said that traditional media played a major role in their food choices - and only 11 said that social media played a major role.
However, there are major differences between the age groups when it comes to the latter: While 71 percent of over-60s do not see themselves influenced by social media at all, around half of under-30s believe that social media has at least partially influenced their eating habits. A quarter even spoke of a rather to very large influence.
©Keystone/SDA
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