Despite everything, the Portuguese are eating twice as much as recommended.
The increase in the cost of living in Portugal is causing changes in the population’s eating habits. And it’s not just shopping and cooking. It is also affecting socialization.
According to, carried out by the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, the Portuguese are consuming more white label products and choose to simpler mealsbut also the reduce going out to restaurants and home-cooked dinners with friends and family.
The study, conducted between September and November last year, interviewed 1,518 people aged between 18 and 94 years old. Vasco Ramos, sociologist and one of the authors of the survey, highlights that this is the first study in Portugal that explores the social aspect of food.
The survey reveals that the increase in the cost of living works as an “inequality-amplifying mechanism”.
While some groups adapt their diet strategically, others face much greater restrictions, especially the poorest. For the latter, the sopa It is increasingly emerging as a “food refuge” out of necessity.
But the middle class and young people with more resources approach these changes in a more strategic way: they reduce meat consumption by choice and favor vegetable proteins or more elaborate cooking methods, such as the oven.
More cautious purchases
The survey also shows that the Portuguese are thinking more carefully about their purchases.
20% of respondents confessed to having increased their purchase of white brands; 13% report cutting back on other expenses to guarantee money for food; 11% started shopping with a previously defined amount, or using lists and different stores to take advantage of promotions.
It is “two-paced” savings, notes Vasco Ramos. This is because, on the one hand, the poorest do it as a matter of survival, while the youngest and the middle class do it as a way of flexibly managing the family budget.
Fewer ingredients and smaller portions
Around 20% of respondents started preparing simpler meals, 11% cooking with fewer ingredients and 18% reducing portions. Replacing ingredients with cheaper alternatives is another growing practice, mentioned by 17% of respondents.
On the other hand, 30% reduced the preparation of large quantities for multiple meals, while 26% reduced the excess food that previously led to waste.
The use of the oven for cooking also decreased by 18%, and 12% started consuming less meat.
Fewer dinners
Around 28% of respondents say they go to restaurants less or invite family and friends home. Going to friends or family’s houses also decreased to 27%, while 21% reduced celebrating special occasions outside the home. It’s all too expensive.
For Vasco Ramos, these changes can have lasting effects on the way social groups interact and the dynamics of consumption.
The need to carefully manage the family budget and prepare simpler meals entails a increase in unpaid domestic workwarns the study, a burden that falls mainly, even today, in Portugal, on women.
Even so… you eat more than you should
The most recent Portuguese Food Balance (BAP) 2020-2024, released by INE, reveals that the Portuguese consume on average 4079 kilocalories per day, more than double the recommended amount for a healthy adult. Despite the drop recorded in 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic, levels rose again, maintaining the historical trend of excess food.
In addition to quantity, the quality of food is a concern: there is still a high consumption of meat, fish and eggs, while vegetables and fruits remain below the Food Wheel recommendations. Each Portuguese person consumed, on average, 85.5 kg of meat per year, with a predominance of poultry meat. Fish consumption decreased slightly, but crustaceans and molluscs grew by 20.6%. Egg consumption increased by 11.9%, with each inhabitant eating around 183 units per year.
The energy intake from fats (36%) exceeds the recommended limits, while carbohydrates (49.8%) are below the recommended range. Proteins remain within the recommended range.
No consumption of alcoholic beveragesthere is an increase of 10% compared to the previous five years, with each Portuguese person drinking, on average, a beer a day.
