The sense of life satisfaction versus dietary choices of young women doing fitness for recreational purposes

Background: : The health potential of a person can be improved thanks to recreational physical activity and rational diet. The sense of life satisfaction is also one of significant health resources. Objective: The aim of the study was to analyze the relations between the level of life satisfaction and the frequency of consuming selected products in the group of young women who engage in fitness for recreational purposes. Material and Methods: The study involved 200 young women (20-30 years old) who regularly do recreational physical activity in fitness clubs in Malopolska. An original questionnaire was used to measure the frequency of consumption of food products, with the following scale: several times a day, once a day, several times a week, once a week, several times a month, and more rarely / never. The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) by Diener et al., adapted into Polish by Juczynski, was used to measure life satisfaction. The results were analyzed with the use of U Mann-Whitney test and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients in a statistical package PQStat ver. 1.6. Results: Statistical analysis showed that along with higher life satisfaction, women significantly less often consumed: white bread (p<0.05) and whole milk (p<0.05), and significantly more often: wholemeal bread (p<0.05), whole-grain rice and pasta (p<0.001), legumes (p<0.05), fermented milk products (p<0.05), fish (p<0.05), seafood (p<0.01), beef (p<0.01) and vegetable juices (p<0.001). The comparison of the mean frequency of consumption of certain foods depending on the level of life satisfaction (low vs. high according to the SWLS) showed that women who displayed high life satisfaction significantly more often consumed wholemeal bread (p<0.01), whole-grain rice and pasta (p<0.001), curd cheese with reduced fat content (p<0.05), seafood (p<0.05), beef (p<0.001) and vegetable juices (p<0.05), and significantly less often, sweets and confectionery (p<0.05) than did women displaying low life satisfaction. Conclusions: The study proved the predictive role of life satisfaction in the development of eating habits of young, physically active women, indicating more rational dietary choices of women with higher levels of this individual quality.