Welcome to Nutrition Bites. The no nonsense podcast where you get the truth about food so you can eat what you want, and be healthy. I’m your host Maggie and welcome to Episode 31 of this series! What we choose to eat and our relationship with food is always evolving, but sometimes, the cause for switching up our diet is completely out of our control. On the menu today, how the pandemic changed the way we eat.
I was chatting with a friend recently, using long-winded voice notes because I’m too lazy to text and too non-committal for a phone call, and she brought up the topic of how her eating has changed since March of 2020. In particular, how working from home since the beginning of the pandemic has completely shifted her hunger levels and when she sits down for a meal. And I absolutely relate to this. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, or as the youth have called it - the panini, panda, and panorama - I lived a pretty active life. With work, sports, and social events, I was running around non-stop and constantly hungry - which is why I always carried snacks like I was about to embark on a transatlantic journey. I also took pride in never buying takeout and instead relied on a strict meal planning routine to save cash. But over the past 2 years things have drastically changed. I’m generally less hungry, I don’t really snack anymore, and I order takeout at least once a week - which, let’s be real, is a very fun and very addicting habit. I’m sure many of you can relate to these changes too. But I’m curious, what research has been done on this topic? And are our new habits something we should be worried about for the future? Let’s dig in.
The early days of the panorama were marked by a lot of scary emotions, but also…many memorable cultural moments, like the tussle over toilet paper, domination of Tiger King and celebrities joining together to sing away our pain to the Beatles song Imagine. And while those are the memories we’ll relay to our grandchildren and granddogs, it’s also important to reflect on what our relationship with food looked like at this moment in time. Grocery store shelves were empty, line-ups snaked around buildings, restaurants closed down, and demand at food banks spiked. We also experienced disrupted supply chains, rising food prices, the boom of online shopping, working from home, job loss, and the parent-colleague-teacher burden - all of which affects our relationship with food and eating. With all these shifts happening to everyone at the exact same time, it’s no wonder that our regular eating routines got thrown out the window and we suddenly became obsessed with making sourdough bread - which is notoriously the hardest bread to make from scratch. Like why did we start there?! I digress. Now that we’re farther removed, and more accustomed, to our new reality it’s a good time to evaluate how our eating habits have evolved. Because how we eat now affects how we feel both today and in the future.
One of the easiest ways to study behaviours and habits is to conduct a survey. Now there are both pros and cons to surveys as a research tool, but what’s important for this discussion is that - it’s really the only research method scientists had at their disposal. Remember, everyone was stuck at home during the initial weeks of the panini, and so what better way to understand how our eating behaviours were changing than by conducting an online survey. So that’s where all the data we have on this topic has come over.
Now normally I like to dive into a research area by trying to find the #1 trend highlighted across multiple studies, but the most common theme I saw across the thousands of surveys conducted was simply, change itself. Every survey showed a mixed bag of positive and negative modifications we made to our eating habits because of the pandemic. Take for example research conducted by the University of Southern California. 28% of respondents to their survey said they have improved their diets since March of 2020, and at the same time 24% reported the exact opposite. And keep in mind that people can adopt both healthy and unhealthy habits at the same time. Like my own uptick in fruit consumption and increased purchase of takeout curries, jerk chicken and pizza. Gotta support local business you know what I’m saying? Now it’s impossible to say that the pandemic caused us to eat more healthy or less healthy. But what we can do is group the most commonly adopted habits seen in research into two categories: those that positively affect our health and those that don’t.
First up, are the good changes, and by far one of the most popular food-related shifts seen since the pandemic was an increase in home-cooking. Of course, restaurant closures and stay-at-home orders kinda forced people into this habit, but no matter the reason why we saw this change, it’s definitely a good one. Studies shows that people who cook more meals at home tend to have an overall healthier diet - because there is usually less added sugar, salt and fat, in home-made meals versus ones from restaurants. And for parents who cook at home, involving kids in the kitchen is also really positive. Research has shown that children who learn to cook by their early twenties are more likely to have a higher veggie intake and eat less fast food a decade later. And this collective increase in at home cooking seen since March of 2020 has also had positive short term effects on our wellbeing. In a survey conducted on behalf of Sensodyne toothpaste, of course, researchers found that nearly 75% of respondents found cooking to be a helpful coping mechanism for managing stress. Which, we had a lot of, and continue to have. And good news is, it seems like this habit is here to stay. Even as the world opened up and restaurants welcomed back their hungry patrons, a 2021 survey conducted by a food non-profit found nearly half of respondents said they continue cooking at home more than before.
Another positive behaviour change seen throughout the research was a renewed focus on healthy foods. Which makes sense cause all we did for months on end was be laser focused on our health. Many respondents across multiple surveys cited the health factor of foods as one of the biggest drivers behind their grocery store purchases. Other studies found many people increased their fruit and vegetable intake during the pandemic. And what I find really fascinating is that one U.S. study discovered that even the idea of what makes a healthy food has changed. Back in 2016 survey respondents identified healthy food mostly by what it lacked, like less fat or less sugar. But in the 2021 version of that same survey, more consumers defined a healthy food by what it has, like the presence of fruits or vegetables.
Related to this increase in healthy eating was also an increased consumption of plant-based foods. Partially driven by skyrocketing beef prices, news reports of COVID outbreaks in meat processing plants, and the continued evolution of climate change, more and more people began to dip their toes into the plant-based waters. A U.S. survey found that almost a third of respondents ate more plant-based proteins during the pandemic, and nearly a quarter consumed more plant-based dairy compared to 2019. And as I’ve highlighted in many episodes before, consuming more plants, and specifically protein from plants over animals, is one of the best changes you can make for your health and for the planet.
Finally, the last key “good for you” dietary change made popular by the panorama, was the increased interest in purchasing locally produced food. With the fragility of the food system exposed during our panic buying phase of the pandemic, a lot of consumers realised that our food takes a wild, and long, journey to wind up on our plate. And that can be dangerous when supply chains break down. Supporting local economies, including farmers, became huge, and related to this was the rising interest in growing our own food. A survey out of the University of Dalhousie’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab found that 1 in 6 respondents had started growing some kind of food at home during the pandemic. Included in that group would be yours truly, who in the summer of 2020 successfully grew tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, only to have them all harvested by the local raccoon gang who runs my property. Safe to say, my home garden did not return in 2021. Buying local and growing your own food has many benefits, one of which is strengthening our appreciation for food - an important aspect in building a healthy relationship with eating.
But for all those positive changes many experienced, there were an equal amount of behaviour shifts that weren’t as healthy. The most common one by far, was the huge increase in snacking. In a review of over 20 global surveys, at least half reported that respondents increased the number of snacks they ate during the pandemic. And the most popular explanation was that snacking was used as a mechanism to help cope with anxiety. Complimenting these results was a U.S. survey which found that almost 40% of respondents replaced entire meals with snacks. Now as a former snack head, I must say that snacking in and of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It only turns unhealthy when the snacks are consistently made of energy-dense and non-nutrient-rich foods - also known as “empty calorie” foods - such as chips, cookies, and fish-shaped cheese crackers. When these become the go-to snacking foods, weight gain and the development of metabolic disorders like diabetes are more likely to occur.
A general increase in less nutritious foods like sweets, fried items and processed foods was another habit change found throughout research. And this goes hand in hand with other results that showed an increase in the consumption of “comfort foods” such as chocolate, ice cream and desserts, during lockdown. Again, thinking back to this time, it makes perfect sense. We had no idea what was going on, and often oscillated between states of being scared, stressed, and bored. I mean who in their right mind turns to swiss chard during that emotional rollercoaster? It’s also important to call out that the shift to buying more processed foods wasn’t necessarily by choice either. The loss of income experienced by millions of people drastically constrained grocery budgets, and in a lot of places a 5-pack of ramen noodles is a much more affordable lunch than ingredients for a fresh salad. Just something to chew on.
The last big food-related shift found across research was weight gain. Some cruel journalists even decided to nickname this the “COVID 19” as if we weren’t still scarred from “freshmen 15” of our university days. From Chile to Spain to Ireland and the US, respondents in multiple countries reported an increase in body weight since Spring of 2020. And of course, the fact that we generally stopped moving around was a huge contributor to this, but food has a role to play too. If you think about the trends we just covered, more snacks and more sweet, fried and processed foods, all are linked to an excess intake of calories, which leads to weight gain.
But what’s more important than whether or not you gained weight during the pandemic, is reflecting on if you’ve continued to keep any of these less healthy eating habits that you may have adopted. All the unhealthy habits highlighted here are behaviours that are tightly linked with developing life-long conditions like Type 2 Diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Not only do these diseases directly increase the severity of COVID-19 infection, they also just generally set you up for other problems down the line - from a higher risk of cancer to increased likelihood of stroke. So it’s important to catch and correct any not-so-healthy behaviours we may have picked up during the time when our finances, emotional state, and food availability became less predictable. Now that we have a better grasp on things, it’s time to make sure that our eating habits and behaviours are setting us up for good health down the line.
And as we take this moment to think about how madness of the past two years influenced our eating behaviour, it’s also important to recognize the privileges that we hold. Food insecurity has been on the rise for years, and the pandemic merely accelerated that pace. As of 2020, 1 in 7 North Americans were identified as being food insecure, and the statistic was even worse for children. Households with kids were not only more likely to be food insecure but also more likely to adopt unhealthy eating habits in general. Same goes for young adults, and those already living with a chronic health condition.
So while it’s important to sort through our behaviour closet and pick what we’d like to keep and what we’d like to drop, we should also remember that having the resources to change our habits is a fortunate position to be in. But if you are able to, now is a perfect time to start shifting your eating habits towards the healthy end of the spectrum. Swap those chips for roasted chickpeas! Take a break from your computer and sit down for lunch instead of snacking your way through. And maybe start a mini herb garden! Although, personal tip, make sure you do an assessment of any local racoon activity before you get emotionally invested.
That’s been the bite for today. Stay hungry.