Pandemic and Nutrition: Analysis of Eating Behavior of Russians in the Context of Health Maintenance

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed usual behavior and habits, including dietary practices, of Russian people, which has implications for public health. Objective: To identify specifics of transformation of dietary practices of Russians before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in order to establish the impact of conditions and context of this infectious disease spread on eating behavior and habits. Materials and methods: We used the method of content analysis of unique Russian-language messages from the VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks (145 thousand messages). Data were collected using the IQBuzz social media monitoring service during three time spans: before (January 1, 2018 to February 28, 2020), during (March 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022), and after the COVID-19 pandemic (July 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023). Results: We found that, regardless of the time span under study, Russians consider fruits and vegetables (26.9 %), dairy and fermented milk products (12.6 %), water (9.0 %), tea (10.0 %), and meat (8.3 %) as key components of a healthy diet. Attempts to cope with stress caused by the pandemic were manifested by a 2.6-fold and double increase in the number of festive feasts during and after the pandemic, respectively; cooking for relaxation; higher consumption rates of sweets (before – 3.9 %, during – 6.2 %, and after – 5.1 %) and alcohol (3.6 %, 3.2 %, and 4.3 %, respectively). The persistence of high social tension deepened the practices of emotional eating of sweets and drinking alcohol. We observed a shift from traditional offline shopping to a widespread use of online services, which became a sustainable norm of consumption after the pandemic. Conclusion: Health maintenance is closely related with food choices and eating behavior, so healthy eating has become a more frequent topic of discussion after the pandemic. Our findings suggest that the majority of Russians are stable in their dietary practices in the context of preserving health.