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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
People need to eat for physiological reasons, to ensure a proper body functioning of the cells and
organs. Nevertheless, what people eat and what they choose to eat is not only influences by a
basic necessity of the body, and is determines by many other factors of personal or social nature.
The purpose of this study was to investigate motivation for eating healthy food in a large sample
of individual from different nationalities. The data were collected through an online survey and
the participants had to express their agreement towards some sentences related to factors that
could influence people’s food choices towards a healthy diet. These aspects were investigated in
the following 16 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia,
Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, United States of America,
and a total number of 11960 participants were included in the global sample. The results
identified expressive differences between the participants from the countries involved in the
study. While Egyptian participants attend more to concerns related to food safety and hygiene
when they choose foods, Portuguese participants attribute greater scores for food that keep them
healthy and low fat diets that are rich in vitamin and minerals, Romanian participants tend to
value healthy and balanced diets and avoid food additives, Slovenians avoid processed foods for
their lower nutritional quality and Lithuanians avoid genetically modified foods. This research
clearly showed how different geographical locations and socio-cultural environments contribute
to shape peoples’ motivations to consume healthy foods. As so, it is important to adapt healthy
food policies and campaigns to effectively communicate with different types of people and
contribute to promote changes towards healthier diets diminishing the economic and social
burdens of disease.
Description
Keywords
Food choice Healthy motivation Regional differences Questionnaire survey