Well-Being and the Lifestyle Habits of the Spanish Population: The Association between Subjective Well-Being and Eating Habits

Abstract

The so-called Mediterranean diet is not simply a collection of foodstuffs but an expression of the culture of the countries of the south of Europe, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. Despite the link between food and culture, little has been studied about how diet contributes to the well-being of the population. This article aims to analyze the association between subjective well-being and the eating habits of the Spanish population in order to gain a better understanding of the subjective well-being that food culture produces. For this study, we used a representative sample of the Spanish adult population from a survey by the Sociological Research Center (CIS 2017). Three indicators of subjective well-being were used: perceived health, life satisfaction, and feeling of happiness. The independent variables relating to eating habits considered in the analysis were, among others, how often meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, and sweets were consumed; how the food was prepared; how often meals were eaten out at restaurants or cafés and how often they were eaten with family or friends. Other independent variables related to lifestyle habits were also included in the analysis, in particular, physical exercise and body mass index. We used ordinal logistic regressions and multiple linear regression models. Our findings coincide in large measure with those obtained in earlier studies where perceived health and income play a key role in evaluating subjective well-being. In turn, several variables related to lifestyle habits, such as consuming sweets and fruits, social interaction around meals, exercising, and body mass index, were also associated with subjective well-being.

Exploring Hedonic and Eudaimonic Items of Well-Being in Mediterranean and Non-Mediterranean Countries: Influence of Sociodemographic and Lifestyle Factors

“…BMI and body image have also been indicated to have a key role for happiness in Spanish adults [56]. In an additional latest study, the consumption of fruits and vegetables has been found associated with life satisfaction in Spanish adults with a high BMI [25]. Overall, the results are still limited, are associated with specific populations, and show some ambiguity, which suggests that these factors may all interact in a complex way to influence SWB.…”

“…The association between well-being and a healthy diet has been widely recognized but the specific link of SWB and the consumption of a particular diet or food component is not yet understood. Recently, the lack of evidence for the association between the MD global indicators and SWB has been reported; however, there appears to be some links between the intake of specific food items (fruits, vegetables, sweets) and SWB [25,26]. The complexity of the interaction between diet and SWB deserves further and thorough investigation.…”

“…Between the components of the Mediterranean lifestyle, a lot of research provided evidence of the favorable influence of the Mediterranean diet (MD) on the prevention of NCDs including neurodegenerative and neuropsychological disorders [19,20]. More recently, a positive impact of the adherence to MD and/or consumption of some of their main healthy food (i.e., fruits and vegetables) on subjectively experienced well-being has also been repeatedly reported [21][22][23][24][25][26]. However, the data are still limited, and the results are not yet conclusive, as many of those studies have been conducted in specific subpopulations from individual countries (i.e., Spain, Portugal) or with specific characteristics (e.g., body mass index, BMI; age, etc.).…”

Antecedents of Subjective Health among Korean Senior Citizens Using Archival Data

“…Nutritional food has a substantial role in building good health [ 43 , 44 ]. Food expenditure indirectly represents an individual’s food consumption quality, implying that higher food expenditure indicates healthier food consumption [ 45 , 46 , 47 ]. For instance, Noll and Weick [ 16 ] revealed that food expenditure positively affected subjective health in a study in Germany, and Kabir et al [ 9 ] found similar results in Bangladesh.…”

Mediterranean Diet: The Need for Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives

“…However, despite the evident and unavoidable link between food and culture, not really much has been studied about how diet contributes to the well-being of the population. In their article, Cabiedes et al [ 20 ] analyze, from a sociological perspective, the association between subjective well-being and the eating habits of the Spanish population, in order to gain a better understanding of the subjective well-being that food culture produces. Their findings show also how perceived health and income play a key role in evaluating subjective well-being.…”