| Food consumption is a fundamental aspect of the consumption behavior of human beings which relates to the survival and development of human beings, it also affects the status of nutrition directly. With the significant improvement of the living standards among the urban and rural Chinese residents, not only do they pay attention to how much food they consume, but also to the emphasis they place on nutrition.The nutrition and health status of people is an important indicator for the economy and social development, health care level and the population diathesis of a country or region.On the aspect of nutrition, many scholars are conducting more studies on food using different points of view and arriving at different conclusions. From this background, this paper studies food consumption from an economic point of view through the conversion of specific food consumption into the consumption of nutrients. The research subjects include rural residents between the ages of18and59years who were randomly selected.In order to conduct a study on nutrient intake from an economic point of view, first one needs to find the major factors affecting the human demand for food which, in turn, determine the human preferences of diet. Secondly, the food bought by consumers determines their nutrient intake. Based on this logic, the relationships between the economic correlated variables and food consumption of rural residents will be described and analyzed. The multiple linear regression model and the binary Logit model will be built by which results can be elicited about the effects of different economic correlated variables, such as income, on nutrient intake. Finally, some policy recommendations will be made.The paper includes a study of the calorie, protein and fat levels of the research subjects through two aspects, namely, absolute nutrient intake and energy contribution from different nutrients. Research for absolute nutrient intake was done through description and analysis using the Multiple Linear Regression model while research for energy contribution from different nutrients was done through simple description and analysis using the Binary Logit model. The results showed that:1With regional development and the improvement of income, the level of food consumption of rural residents is rising. The amount of meat consumed increases as soon as the amount of vegetables consumed decreases.2There are significant regional differences in the calorie, fat and protein intake levels and the energy contribution from fat and protein among China’s rural residents. Overnutrition and undernutrition exist simultaneously and the residents in most rural regions of China are malnourished.3Income has no significant effect on the calorie intake but has a similar effect on both fat and protein intake. With the increase of income, the trend of the amount of fat and protein intake increases and, then, decreases creating the picture of an inverted "U". In addition, calorie, fat and protein intake are affected by factors such as medical insurance, the presence of medical institutions in community, the distance to the nearest market, the number of available markets within a distance of5km, gender, education level, the number of elderly citizens and children, physical strength and dietary knowledge.4There are few people among China’s rural residents whose bodies are able to attain the proper energy contribution from fat and protein. The higher the income is, the greater the probability of reaching the proper energy contribution from fat and protein is. Moreover, a reasonable degree of energy contribution from fat is significantly affected by factors such as availability of preventive health services, medical insurance, the number of available markets within a distance of5km, the distance to the nearest market, the ratio of people having meals at home to the restaurant and the preference for fast food. |
