Study On The Influence Of Rural Residents’ Income Level And Dietary Knowledge On Food Consumption

With the rapid economic development and the advancement of urbanization,the food consumption structure of Chinese residents has changed.The main manifestation is that the consumption of grain,potato and other plant food gradually decreased,and the consumption of meat,eggs,milk and aquatic products and other animal food constantly increased.However,the upgrading and transformation of food consumption structure also brings severe challenges to residents’ nutritional health status,food security and ecological environment protection.In addition,compared with urban residents,rural residents are relatively inadequate in food consumption quantity and type.Although many studies have focused on Chinese residents’ food consumption,due to data limitations,the research results cannot reflect the current food consumption of Chinese rural residents,which is not conducive to the prediction of future food consumption and a deep understanding of food security and other issues.Meanwhile,in the context of the continuous improvement of rural residents’ income level and dietary knowledge,its specific impact on rural residents’ food consumption is still unclear,especially the interaction impact of income level and dietary knowledge on food consumption.Therefore,a comprehensive analysis of the current food consumption situation of rural residents from the perspective of income level and dietary knowledge is helpful to provide corresponding policy suggestions for optimizing the food consumption structure of rural residents,improving their nutritional health status,ensuring food security and promoting resource and environmental protection.To improve the cognition for rural residents’ food consumption and formulate intervention measures and policy suggestions to improve the diet quality of rural residents,this study is based on food demand system model,household production and consumption model,and healthy production function.The effects of income level and dietary knowledge on food consumption structure,dietary diversity and nutritional intake of rural residents were explored from two aspects of food consumption quantity and structure and dietary quality.In order to better achieve the above research goals,the research content of this paper can be summarized into the following six aspects: First,based on the micro-survey data of three provinces in central China from food consumption quantity and structure and the quality of diet(dietary diversity and nutrient intake)two aspects analyzes the current situation of food consumption of rural residents,and the food consumption was compared based on different characteristic variables,and summarizes the current characteristics of our country’s rural residents’ food consumption.Second,based on the quadratic almost ideal demand system model,the theoretical framework about the effect of income level and dietary knowledge on the food consumption structure of rural residents is constructed.On the premise of zero consumption and endogeneity,the expenditure elasticity,price elasticity,income elasticity and dietary knowledge elasticity of food consumption of rural residents are calculated respectively.Third,a variety of methods were used to construct a dietary diversity index,so as to more robustly assess the impact of income level and dietary knowledge on dietary diversity of rural residents and their possible interactions,and explore the heterogeneity of the results.Thirdly,a variety of methods were used to construct a dietary diversity index,so as to more robustly evaluate the impact of income level and dietary knowledge on dietary diversity of rural residents and their possible interactions effect,and explore the heterogeneity of the results.Fourth,based on the food consumption data of rural residents,the intake levels of carbohydrates,protein,fat and energy of rural residents were converted,so as to explore the impact of rural residents’ income level and dietary knowledge on nutrition intake.Fifth,take the dietary knowledge calendar as an example to evaluate the effectiveness of information intervention in improving the dietary knowledge of rural residents.Sixth,with reference to the theoretical and empirical analysis results of this study,the main research conclusions and possible policy recommendations of this study are summarized and discussed.On the basis of theoretical and empirical analysis,the main conclusions of current study are summarized as follows: First,the quantity and structure of rural residents’ food consumption needs to be further optimized,the consumption of plant food has basically met the demand,the consumption of animal food is a little insufficient,dietary diversity is generally low,nutrient intake is not balanced.Second,the increase in income will lead to a certain increase in the consumption of various foods,but the overall increase will be modest.The increase of income level will also significantly promote the increase of dietary diversity of rural residents,and promote the intake of protein and fat,and there is a certain heterogeneity in different nutrient quantiles.Third,the improvement of dietary knowledge will encourage rural residents to increase their consumption of high-value foods and reduce their consumption of fatty meat foods to avoid the occurrence of overweight or obesity.Meanwhile,improving dietary knowledge of rural residents contributes to increasing dietary diversity,and income level and dietary knowledge have a substitution effect on family dietary diversity.However,dietary knowledge had no significant effect on carbohydrate,protein,fat and energy.Fourth,knowledge calendar is an effective and lowcost form of information intervention to improve dietary knowledge and promote healthy diet of rural residents,which can increase dietary knowledge level of rural residents by 7-10%,and this finding is heterogeneous in different individual characteristic variables.Based on the research conclusions of this paper,the following policy recommendations are put forward: First,in order to reduce economic,resource and environmental pressure,achieve sustainable food consumption and promote the implementation of healthy China strategy,the importance of rational diet should be emphasized to rural residents and the structure of food consumption should be optimized.In addition,the nutritional status of different groups should be accurately identified to provide feasible policy support for improving the overall food consumption of rural residents.Second,in the context of rural revitalization,we should further promote common prosperity,increase farmers’ incomes,and at the same time stabilize prices and increase the purchasing power of food for rural residents,so as to improve the nutritional status of rural residents.We should not only ensure that rural residents have enough to eat,but also ensure that they eat well and healthily.Third,local governments and relevant departments should be encouraged to carry out science popularization activities to improve rural residents’ awareness of healthy diet,increase the publicity of dietary knowledge of rural residents or adopt low-cost information intervention.Compared with previous studies,this study may have some innovations in the following three aspects: First,this study comprehensively and systematically studied the impact of income level on rural residents’ food consumption structure,dietary diversity and nutritional intake from the aspects of food consumption quantity and structure and dietary quality.It provides policy suggestions and decision-making basis for optimizing the food consumption structure of rural residents,increasing dietary diversity and promoting the optimization of nutrition and health status.Second,in view of China’s rapid economic growth and the improvement of residents’ awareness of healthy diet,this paper not only focuses on the impact of income level on food consumption,but also incorporates dietary knowledge into the research framework of food consumption.The findings not only help to supplement the research on the influencing factors of food consumption in rural China,but also provide decision-making basis for the formulation of policy recommendations.Third,based on the framework of experimental economy,the effectiveness of improving the dietary knowledge of rural residents in the form of knowledge calendar was evaluated.This finding provides a theoretical basis for the formulation of policy recommendations and intervention measures to indirectly improve the food consumption level of rural residents.