If there’s one thing we did a lot during the quarantine, it’s eating. With restaurants closed, many people discovered their (in) aptitude for cooking, others used and abused delivery services. There was so much demand for natural yeast that the internet experienced a real PDAdemia.
In the same way that the world changed after the advent of the coronavirus, it is natural that our eating habits also change. A study by University College Dublin (UCD) in collaboration with Dublin City University (DCU) investigated the impact of the pandemic and the restrictions caused by Covid-19 on the Irish diet. The National Covid-19 Food Study was attended by more than 4,000 participants of all ages and parts of the country. These are some of the main results:
- 40% of people said they were eating more, and only 10% said they were eating less after the start of the pandemic;
- 42% of people said they were eating more snacks and snacks, especially the younger ones;
- 44% of people said their weight remained the same, while 30% said they gained weight during the pandemic;
- 72% of people said they are cooking more at home, especially the younger ones, and 64% said they have decreased the amount of takeaways;
- 10% of people said that they consumed foods that they would not like due to lack of availability or money; many poor families with young children found it difficult to feed them, as many children ate their meals at school.
The full survey is available here.
