Browsing by Author "Piipponen, Anna-Maria"

Some diets strain the environment more than others and have disadvantageous effects on population health. Ecological impact of animal protein production is often particularly high; it bears about three quarters of the greenhouse gas emissions of food. Consequently, ecological impact of plant-based protein sources, pulses and nuts, is generally considered small. The food consumption varies between different sociodemographic groups, and unhealthy diets, that are significant exposers for many lifestyle diseases, are more common in certain population groups. To improve the population health and reduce the ecological impacts of food consumption, it is important to recognize the population groups whose diets reveal disadvantageous food consumption. Utilizing Finnish loyalty card data (LoCard-data), this study investigates the sociodemographic variables related to daily consumption of three separate protein sources: meat, milk products and plant proteins. Customer responses to a questionnaire on their food consumption preferences and demographics were used. The probability of consuming different protein sources on daily basis was obtained using logistic regression model. In other words, daily consumption of meat, milk products and plant-based protein sources was explained by the following independent variables: age, sex, education, income, household size and place of residence. Statistically significant association was found between the daily meat consumption and all the independent variables in both unstandardized and standardized models. In the unstandardized model, sex was not associated with daily consumption of milk products, and income was not associated with daily consumption of plant-based protein sources. However, in the standardized model, the association of the daily milk product consumption and sex became significant, whereas the association with education and urbanization level was not statistically significant. Association of the daily plant protein consumption with income and region was insignificant. In the standardized model, the probability of daily meat consumption increased with age, income and household size or when the respondent was male or had a low level of education. The probability of daily milk product consumption increased with age, income and household size or if the respondent was female. The probability to consume plant proteins on daily basis was in association with female sex, older age, having a higher education and a bigger household. The results are largely in line with other studies. However, contrary to most of the studies, the greater age was associated with daily consumption of all the examined protein sources. Future studies are needed to examine sociodemographic factors related to consumption of milk products and plant protein sources in total, but also related to consumption of different meat and milk products. Moreover, it is important to investigate the motives, attitudes and cultural meanings of the food choices as those cannot be captured with this approach. Differences in food cultures may impact on the results as well, which increases the need for additional research.