Background: Elevated meat intake has been associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Consuming less meat in a daily routine is associated with a decrease in total mortality and can help preventing these chronic diseases. Over the past decade, more people tend to reduce their meat consumption or even to adopt a vegetarian or a vegan diet. This decision is motivated by looking for a better health, for ethical reasons and trying to reach a more sustainable diet. Results from menuCH, the first national nutrition survey, have shown Swiss adults are eating more meat than recommended by the Swiss food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG).
Setting: menuCH is a nutrition survey conducted in Switzerland from January 2014 until February 2015. This cross- sectional population-based study included 2086 adults aged 18 to 75 years from the three main linguistic regions of Switzerland (German, French and Italian). For these analyses, 2013 had non-missing values for the variables of interest who represent a total of 4’529’417 inhabitants.
Methods: Each participant underwent two 24-h dietary recalls (24HDR) conducted by trained dieticians in several Swiss centers. Participants completed a questionnaire on eating behaviors, physical activity level (PAL), anthropometric and socio-demographic characteristics. Weighted means, medians, percentiles 25, 75 were generated for total (TM), fresh (FM) and processed meat (PM) intakes overall and by selected strata. A category of non-meat consumers during the two recalls was created. Stratified analyses were done by sex, age groups, linguistic regions and socio-economic level. Weighted multiple linear regression was used to explore factors associated with total, fresh and processed meat intake. Weighted multiple logistic regression was used to explore factors associated with meat consumption.
Results: 1,798 participants out of 2,013 (89,3%) consumed meat products during the two 24HDR; 1,374 (68,3%) consumed fresh meat and 1,439 (71,5%) consumed processed meat. The mean (±SD) intakes of TM, FM and PM were 121 (± 84,3) g, 94,2 (± 69,8) g and 60,2 (± 55,7) g, respectively. The median intakes of TM, FM and PM were 102,4 g, 75 g and 48,2 g. Men consumed more meat than women (56,6g more of TM, 36g more of FM and 23,2g more PM). Italian- speaking and French-speaking participants consumed more TM and FM than German-speaking participants. Overweight and obese people had similar intakes of TM, FM and PM. In each meat categories, they had higher intakes compared to normal and underweight people who had similar results of TM and FM intakes. People with a substantially increased value of WC were more likely to consume more TM, FM and PM. Those with an increased value of WHR were more likely to consume more TM. For each category of meat and variables, results were even more significant looking at the P90 category. In multiple weighted linear regression analyses, many factors were statistically significantly associated with TM, FM or PM intakes. Older people consumed less TM and FM than the youngest ones. Women consumed less TM and PM than men. People from French or Italian-speaking regions consumed more TM and FM than the ones coming from German-speaking regions. People from French-speaking region consumed less PM than German-speaking population. Non-Swiss citizens had less intake of TM than Swiss citizens. People who had a tertiary education consumed less TM than those who had a primary education. Overweight and obese participants were more likely to consume TM, FM and PM than underweight participants. Households with incomes between 6000-8999CHF per month had less PM intake than households with incomes below 5999 CHF per month. In multiple weighted logistical regression analyses, TM consumption was associated with sex (lower in women than in men), BMI categories (higher in overweight and obese participants than in underweight participants), household income (higher for high income than for low income) and PA level (lower for moderate PA for low PA), but not with age, language region, education level, household status, smoking status or being currently on a diet.
Conclusion: These analyses help better understanding the characteristics of Swiss adults who consume a lot of meat and those who have a low-meat consumption. As expected, women consume less meat than men and a high consumption of meat is associated with higher values of BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip-ratio. These descriptions of meat consumption among Swiss adults can help formulate dietary recommendations aiming at reducing meat intake overall, and processed meat intake in particular, in Switzerland.