Swedish eating habits differ between generations

The food Swedes eat differs markedly between younger and older generations. Food researcher Richard Tellström points to a trend in which eating with a knife and fork has become less common.

According to Tellström, the differences in food preferences between generations have never been as great as they are today. This is most evident in what people eat for dinner.

– Evening meals are probably the fastest to change, he told the tax-funded Swedish Broadcasting Corporation (SR). Breakfast is the slowest, but evening meals are very fast, and there is a big difference between young and old.

When SR asked people of different ages what they preferred to eat for supper or dinner, most younger people said sushi, for example, while older people preferred fish with vegetables.

Tellström also believes that food preferences are influenced by what you eat between the ages of one and 25, and that this has a significant impact on eating habits. He predicts that home-cooked meals such as raggmunk (a type of traditional, swedish potato pancake), pannbiff (similar to salisbury steak, often served with lingon berries), and ärtsoppa (pea soup) will disappear from nursing homes by 2080. In general, food eaten with a knife and fork has become less common, in part because many people eat with a cell phone in one hand.

– What you might call knife and fork meals. That kind of food is on its way out, he says.