Household Nutrition Habits and Food Consumption in Turkey

Abstract

Food consumption and the accompanying nutritional quality of the diet are determined both by income and price as well as by a broad range of the other factors. Changing demographics and household composition, woman’s labor force participation, new concerns about health-diet links as well as changes in the food markets can all affect the types and amounts of food consumed. Specifically, the major objective of this study is to develop methodologies and to analyze the effects of socioeconomic and demographic factors on nutrition demand and consumption behavior of households. To accomplish these objectives in this study, the food consumption survey data collected from the national representatives of Turkish households, who live in urban and rural areas. This study also investigated nutrition consumption for socioeconomic and demographic groups in both rural and urban areas in Turkey. According to results of the model, fat income elasticity is considerably higher at 0.57, while those for protein-calorie and carbohydrates are 0.47, 0.43 and 0.38. Thus a given increase in household expenditure will lead to a much larger proportionate rise in consumption of protein and fat than it will for carbohydrate and total calorie intake.