Food Styles and Well-Being of Italian People: A Contribution from Official Statistics

The work focuses the relationship between well-being and Italian lifestyle related to food, as it emerges from the National Institute of Statistics’ data. The work highlights how the official statistics can help both common citizens and decision-makers to better understand the current state of eating habits in our country. There were used different approaches to data analysis, both using time series analysis about the body mass index distribution and also a gender and generation approach. Multidimensional data analysis – in particular, the dynamic factor analysis – was used to better highlight some possible criticalities related to food habits in Italy and the citizens’ well-being. The results inspired some reflections: first of all, that food habits cannot be only considered a simple life domain. It’s a complex aspect with political implications. Food not only concerns the individual’s well-being: it involves both the society and the environment’s well-being as a whole.