WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Although fewer people worldwide are enjoying the food they eat or considering it “mostly healthy,” the latest Ando Foundation/Nissin Food Products study shows most people are still feeling good about both.
At least three in four adults in 2023 said they mostly enjoyed the food they ate (81%) in the past week and thought it was mostly healthy (75%), down from 87% and 82%, respectively, in 2022. Nearly two in three (64%), basically unchanged, felt they had a lot of choices in the types of food they ate.
People’s perceptions about their food experiences are valuable because they are related to their quality of life: Individuals who feel positively about these different aspects of the food they recently ate not only are more likely to have higher levels of wellbeing but also tend to feel more socially connected or attached to their community.
These relationships are especially true among individuals who are “completely satisfied” with their diet -- meaning they enjoyed the food they recently ate, felt it was mostly healthy and believe they have a variety of options in the types of food they ate. In 2023, just over half of adults worldwide (52%) fit this category, similar to the 55% reading the year before.
These results come from the second iteration of the Ando Foundation/Nissin Food Products Satisfaction With Food Enjoyment and Variety Survey, which was fielded as part of the 2023 Gallup World Poll. As the only survey to ask people in over 140 countries and areas about the food they eat, it provides unique insights into people’s relationship with their food and how these feelings factor into their overall quality of life.
The newly released report -- Nourishing Wellbeing -- A Global Perspective on Food Enjoyment, Healthy Eating and Choices in Food: 2023 Edition -- further explores the question posed in the inaugural report: whether eating well can lead to living well.
Food Enjoyment, Perceived Healthy Eating Down in Most Regions
Food enjoyment in 2023 varied widely across the world’s major regions. In three regions -- Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America, and Northern, Southern, and Western Europe -- this feeling was nearly universal, with 92% of people saying they enjoyed their food, relatively similar to the 2022 sentiment.
By contrast, food enjoyment was lowest throughout Africa, with 66% of those in Northern Africa and 61% in sub-Saharan Africa saying they enjoyed the food they recently ate. These regions, which had already registered the lowest rates of food enjoyment in 2022, saw large drop-offs in enjoyment in 2023, including a 15-percentage-point drop in Northern Africa and an 11-point drop in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2023, 84% of people in Northern, Southern and Western Europe as well as Southeastern Asia and the Pacific described the food they recently ate as “mostly healthy,” outpacing all other regions. Three regions saw the biggest (negative) shift in how people answered this question: Northern Africa (fell by 21 percentage points), Northern America (down by 12 points) and Central and Western Asia (11-point decline). Northern America’s double-digit decline dropped it from one of the best-performing regions in 2022 to the middle of the pack.
Within Northern America, the U.S. led the decline, as the percentage of Americans who felt they ate mostly healthy foods fell from 83% to 71%. This drop was particularly sharp for Americans aged 30 to 49, among whom the figure tumbled from 82% in 2022 to 57% in 2023.
Satisfaction With Food Linked to Higher Life Evaluations
Globally, people who were completely satisfied with their eating experiences -- meaning they enjoyed their food, believed they ate healthy and had lots of choices in what they consumed -- consistently expressed higher levels of life satisfaction than did those who were not completely satisfied, according to the Food Wellbeing Index. In 2023, the average life evaluation among those completely satisfied was a 6.2 on a 0- to 10-point scale, compared with the 4.9 average rating among people who were not completely satisfied.
This “wellbeing advantage” enjoyed by people who were completely satisfied holds across all global regions, ranging from as high as a 1.5-point difference in Northern Africa to 0.7-point margins in Eastern Asia and Northern, Southern, and Western Europe. Despite slight variation in the size of the wellbeing advantage, the difference is statistically significant in every region, suggesting the relationship between food satisfaction and life evaluation ratings is broadly felt across all cultures.
Bottom Line
The second administration of the Ando Foundation/Nissin Food Products study finds that, even if slightly diminished compared with the previous year, large majorities worldwide enjoy the food they eat and consider it mostly healthy.
These global findings mask interesting regional differences, when one considers the 2023 results and compares how perceptions have changed since 2022.
Food satisfaction appears to be a key ingredient in overall life satisfaction, with individuals who affirmatively answered all three survey questions rating the current state of their lives higher than those who were not fully satisfied with their eating experiences.
This relationship is no statistical fluke. Across all world regions, those who are completely satisfied have the advantage in how they assess their current lives compared with others; a similar dynamic exists when comparing how many positive emotions people experienced in a day, and whether they feel socially supported or attached to their community.
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