Changes in potato consumption in different stages of life in Norway

The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of factors promoting the decline in potato consumption in Norway from the mid-1970s to mid-l990s, as well as with what foods the potatoes have been replaced. The article is based on three surveys, all of them carried out on nation-wide representative samples of the Norwegian population: records of household consumption from 1976 to 1995, N=1000-1500 each year; questionnaire surveys of food frequency from 1986 to 1996, N=3000 every other year; and telephone interviews of yesterday's eating events in 1997, N=1177. The results indicated that it was particularly the young people who lived alone who had dropped eating boiled potatoes. The use frequency increased when there was a partner and it increased even more when there where children in the household. Furthermore, higher socio-economic groups were particularly prone to drop using boiled potatoes, and they had a distinctly different use pattern of alternative staple foods than the others. The data indicated that the potato is more commonly used together with certain foods (fish, carrots and broccoli) than others. Therefore, omitting the potato from the meal may signify other dietary changes than the exchange of staple foods.