Riddle of Fat Overuse by More Educated People in Russia: Professional and Gender Aspects

Abstract

The article is devoted to finding the solution to the riddle of excessive fat consumption by more educated people in comparison with less educated ones. In earlier studies, the results mostly indicated that education is a factor that deters people from unhealthy diets, including the abuse of fatty foods, making them more informed about the threats of violating the principles of healthy eating, or strengthening their ability to control their own lives. At the same time, Russian researchers L.Rodionova and E. Kopnova found the opposite result on the data of a Sample observation of the population’s diet (hereinafter — SOPD-2013), that more educated individuals consume more fatty foods compared to less educated ones. However, a meaningful explanation of the above paradox has not yet been found. The resolution of this paradox could be important from the point of view of developing recommendations for reducing morbidity and mortality from alimentary-dependent diseases (diseases related to nutrition). In this paper, an attempt is made to resolve this paradox by considering it in the context of professional groups using the apparatus of binary choice models based on the data of SOPD-2013. It is found that the differences in fat abuse between more and less educated individuals are eliminated when the factor of belonging to professional groups is included in the model. The results of the regression analysis may indicate that more educated respondents are more likely to occupy leadership positions, which encourages them to “eat” stress with more fatty foods, and this effect is more pronounced in women than in men. A possible further direction of research may be to move to an additional qualitative study, which could allow us to more confidently assert that the leading motivator for overeating fatty foods in more educated workers compared to less educated ones is precisely the stress factor.