Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Food satisfaction and perceptions of healthy eating are declining globally, including in the U.S.
- A Gallup poll shows a drop in food enjoyment from 87% in 2022 to 81% in 2023.
- Food affordability and accessibility impact satisfaction, affecting well-being and community connection.
SALT LAKE CITY — People worldwide, for the most part, like their food choices and consider their meals healthy. But that satisfaction is dropping, including in the United States — and that has ramifications for overall perceptions of well-being and quality of life.
That's according to the most recent Ando Foundation/Nissin Food Products study. The food satisfaction questions were part of the 2023 Gallup World Poll, the query going to adults in 140 countries.
Gallup reported the study's findings that 81% of adults worldwide in 2023 reported "mostly enjoying" the food they ate, while three-fourths called it "mostly healthy." But that's down considerably from 2022, when 87% say they enjoyed their food and 82% deemed it pretty nutritious.
The survey focused on food consumed within the past seven days.
In the United States, the share reporting they ate mostly healthy dropped from 83% in 2022 to 71% in 2023.
Enjoying food and considering it healthy matters because it's linked to quality of life, the article said. "Individuals who feel positively about these different aspects of the food they recently ate not only are more likely to have higher levels of well-being but also tend to feel more socially connected or attached to their community."
Love your meals, love your life
That's true especially when people are completely satisfied with recent meals and also feel they have good food choices. Worldwide, that's just over half of adults. Worldwide, folks who said they were completely satisfied with eating experiences ranked their lives, on average, 6.2 out of 10. For those who were not completely satisfied, life satisfaction was 4.9 out of 10 globally.
In North America, those who were completely satisfied with their food rated their overall well-being at 7 out of 10, while those who were not completely satisfied rated their well-being 5.8 out of 10.
Food enjoyment in different parts of the world varied a lot. The vast majority of folks in Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and northern, southern and western Europe (92%) said they enjoyed their food. In African countries, that was true among 61 to 66% of those queried.
The researchers told CNN that food affordability and accessibility proved to be a "huge barrier" to enjoyment and satisfaction.
Making meals enjoyable
The Department of Health and Community Services in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, has a website dedicated to "healthy eating for healthy aging." It offers tips for making meals more enjoyable, including creating a pleasant setting.
The first step, though, is to "start with foods you like to eat."
The site also suggests sharing meals with others. "Studies show that when you eat with others, you eat healthier." So it recommends having some of your meals with people whose company you enjoy.
Senior Helpers recommends picking out recipes together, among other tricks. People are more invested — and also more apt to make and eat healthy food — that way.
A number of studies have been conducted exploring the link between eating healthy and eating happy. A 2017 study by researchers in Germany, published in Scientific Reports, suggests that "fruit and vegetable consumption has immediate and beneficial psychological effects. Overall, of 14 different main food categories, vegetables consumption contributed the largest share to eating happiness measured across eight days. Thus, in addition to the investment in future well-being indicated by previous research, 'healthy' food choices seem to be an investment in the in-the-moment well-being."
The nonprofit We Don't Waste cites research showing that good food — "your leafy green veggies, unsaturated fats, fruits, etc." — improves both mental and physical health indicators. "We can see that hormones and neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine are being released in the body to reward you for enjoying a healthy meal and even the trillions of microorganisms living in your gut microbiome communicate with your brain through neural, inflammatory and hormonal signals to let you know that you have made a healthy choice."
That organization, too, cites the 2017 German study, noting that eating fruits, vegetables and foods like salmon that are high in fatty acids on a regular basis increases mental well-being. "This was shown to be the case regardless of age, sex or race."
If food is fuel, it appears that good food is great fuel.
