Abstract:

The aim of the study was to analyse the relationships between economic factors and healthy eating styles/ habits. An additional goal was to find a definition of a healthy dietary system and establish proper statistical methods for those analyses. Bad eating habits are the subject of many publications. Many studies have been carried out based on material and social status, gender and ethnicity. We propose a new approach to the issue of optimum nutrition. In this paper, we analyse the impact of factors not directly related to the consumer, such as economic growth, on consumer purchasing decisions in relation to the guidelines contained in the current healthy eating pyramid. We want to determine whether consumers in more developed countries eat in a manner consistent with the recommendations of the pyramid or whether their higher incomes imply higher consumption of highly processed products. In our study OECD and Eurostat data about food supply, health of the population, and economic indicators were used. For the analysis, we proposed Hellwig's ordering method and correlation analysis. The Hellwig's method allowed us to construct Taxonomic Measure of Economic Assessment of Health Dietary ( ). The analysis of the literature related to healthy eating and preservation of the modern nutrition pyramid showed that one should look for other than just nutritional factors responsible for the health of the society. In the analysis we found differences between European countries in assessment of relations between socio-economic factors and food supply system, and then their impact on the health of the society.