First Global Study Reveals a Direct Correlation Between Food and Wellbeing
Image: NISSIN FOODS Group
First Global Study Reveals a Direct Correlation Between Food and Wellbeing
The Ando Foundation (President: Koki Ando) and NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS CO., LTD. (President: Noritaka Ando, hereinafter “the Company”) in cooperation with Gallup (CEO: Jon Clifton), released the Recipes for Wellbeing Report, the first global study offering a fresh perspective on the food-wellbeing* connection.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has long been used as an indicator to measure the scale of a country’s economy. However, in recent years, the idea of constructing an alternative measure of economic prosperity rather than GDP (Beyond GDP) has become widespread. Wellbeing, the state of mental, physical and social contentment of an individual, has been drawing particular attention.
Furthermore, the Summit of the Future, held at the United Nations in September 2024, will focus on building an economy and society with an emphasis on wellbeing, and nations worldwide, including Japan, United Kingdom, Netherlands and New Zealand, are attempting to measure wellbeing and apply this valuable insight to their policies.
Although it is taken for granted that food is the foundation of health, it has not been considered a component of wellbeing. Therefore, the Ando Foundation and the Company, together with Gallup, conducted a study to test the hypothesis that food is an important ingredient of wellbeing.
The Recipes for Wellbeing Report found that those who were “completely satisfied” with their diet are 1.62 times more likely to have higher subjective wellbeing than those who were not “completely satisfied, ” and that food is an important component of wellbeing along with income. This is the first study in the world that proved there was a strong correlation between food and wellbeing.
Based on the results of this newly released study, the Ando Foundation and the Company will continue to explore how food can improve wellbeing in collaboration with researchers from universities and international organizations.
* Wellbeing refers to the state of mental, physical and social contentment of an individual. There are generally two types of wellbeing: subjective wellbeing, which is understood through answers to questions such as “Am I happy?” and “How satisfied am I with my life?” and objective wellbeing, which is understood through quantitative indicators such as GDP, healthy life expectancy and crime rate.
■ Summary of Results From the Study
The Recipes for Wellbeing Report focuses on the following three questions:
- Would you say you mostly enjoyed the food you ate, or not?
- Do you think the food you ate was mostly healthy, or not?
- Did you feel you had a lot of choices in the types of food you ate each day, or not?
The percentage of respondents who answered “yes” to all three questions was newly defined as the “Food Wellbeing Index.” By combining the Food Wellbeing Index with the Life Evaluation Index, an index measuring subjective wellbeing obtained from the Gallup World Poll, Gallup’s global public opinion survey, the Company analyzed the relationship between food and subjective wellbeing.
The results showed that people who answered “yes” to all three questions were 1.62 times more likely to have higher subjective wellbeing than those who gave responses other than “yes” to any of the three questions, proving for the first time in the world that there is a strong relationship between food and wellbeing.
The results of this study are considered significant even when considering the influence of factors such as gender, age, education and income, which are strongly correlated to wellbeing.
The top-ranked countries on the Food Wellbeing Index included many countries that had the highest scores of overall life evaluation on the Gallup World Poll, such as Netherlands, Iceland, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and Norway. (See chart below).
Detailed results of the survey are available on the Ando Foundation website.
[URL]: https://www.gallup.com/analytics/512390/eating-behavior-wellbeing.aspx
■ Koki Ando, President of the Ando Foundation:
“We have been working to improve food culture based on the philosophy that food and sports are the two wheels that support health. This is the first global study to show that food has a significant relationship not only with health, but also with wellbeing. We hope that this research will inspire policymakers and researchers at national and local levels to take action to improve wellbeing.”
- Yoshiki Ishikawa, Founder and President of the Well-being for Planet Earth Foundation: “As Sustainable Development Goal 3, “Good Health and Well-Being,” states, there is much knowledge about the relationship between food and physical health, however, the link between food and wellbeing is limited. This study is, to the best of my knowledge, the first in the world to use global data to clarify a strong correlation between food and wellbeing and provides significant findings for humanity. We will continue to focus on the findings, especially on how food can contribute to wellbeing, which is a global agenda for the future.”
■ Joe Daly, Senior Partner, Global Head of Public Sector at Gallup:
“We are committed to reshaping global perceptions through groundbreaking research. The Food Wellbeing Index provides new knowledge on how our eating habits impact wellbeing, aiming to deepen the world’s understanding that wise eating equals wellbeing through food and encourage more people to see their food choices not just through the lens of health but holistic wellbeing.”
Source: Company Press Release