Forbidden Fruit Tastes the Sweetest—A Study of Norwegians’ Consumption Pattern of Chocolate, Sweets, Salty Snacks, Soft Drinks and the Like

Abstract

The theme of this study is eating and drinking patterns for products of which the health authorities want the Norwegian people to reduce their consumption. Although consumption development has shown positive trends over the past few years, Norwegians still have a much higher intake of such products than what is advisable. The study showed that only a small proportion had not eaten chocolate, sweets, sweet pastries, salty snacks etc. in the last seven days. Young people, men, people with low education and people living in households with children had the highest eating and drinking frequency of these kinds of products. Gender and age had the strongest impact on eating and drinking frequency. However, women had a higher eating rate of chocolate and sweets, and men had a higher eating and drinking frequency of salty snacks and sugary soda. People with low education had a considerably higher frequency of drinking sugary soda than people with high education. Among those who ate these products weekly, there were many who expressed that they would prefer to avoid such products, but that they were often tempted. Among those who ate these products a few times a month or less, few said that they did not like chocolate, sweets, etc. The main reason for having a relatively low eating and drinking frequency was that they perceived such products as unhealthy and fattening. Although there were only a few in the group of respondents who were concerned with healthy eating that had not eaten any of the listed products in the past seven days, this group had a significantly lower frequency of eating chocolate, sweets, etc. than the group that was not concerned with this. It was also clear that people who were health conscious to a greater extent limited eating of such products to the weekends and special occasions than those who were not. In order to succeed in reducing eating and drinking frequency of these products, it will be necessary to draw attention to product availability and social acceptance.