RESULTS 2024
Daily energy intake
As part of the Swiss Nutrition Atlas 2024, we analyzed a total of over 8.5 tons of food with over 11.5 million kilocalories that the 308 households bought within the 14 days. The estimate of daily energy intake per capita per day for the adult population in 2024 is 2,278 kilocalories, which represents a significant increase compared to 2022 with 1,905 kilocalories. The increase is due to the methodological limitations addressed in the first survey, which contributed to a slight underestimation of the values in 2022. Due to the methodological addition in the area of data cleansing (see Methodology), the estimated energy consumption from the Swiss Nutrition Atlas was significantly more accurate compared to the menuCH study (2,232 kilocalories).

Consumption of Macronutrients
The results (see image above) show that the share of fats in daily energy intake has increased from 44% (2022) to 46% (2024). This means that it continues to exceed the maximum guideline values of 35–40% recommended by the BLV (BLV, 2024a).
The share of protein has also increased slightly, accounting for 17% of daily energy intake in 2024, compared to 15% in 2022. This is at the upper end of the recommended guidelines and may be due to an increased focus on high-protein diets.
The share of carbohydrates, on the other hand, has fallen: from 42% in 2022 to 39% in 2024, due to the increasing consumption of fats and proteins. The average share of the amount of sugar consumed (all mono- and disaccharides) in daily energy intake has fallen from 19% to 17% in 2024.
Proportion of Dietary Patterns in Switzerland
The figure below illustrates the development of eating habits in Swiss households between 2022 and 2024. The proportion of omnivores, households that consume animal products without restrictions, has fallen significantly from 70.6% to 63.6%. At the same time, there has been a shift towards flexitarians (households whose meat and fish consumption is lower than the defined limits). The proportion of flexitarians rose from 18.3% to 26.6%. This indicates an increasing willingness to consciously reduce the consumption of animal products. Ovolacto-vegetarians also recorded a slight increase from 7.8% to 8.1%, while the proportion of pesco-vegetarians fell from 2.7% to 1.3%. The proportion of vegan households remained very low, with a slight decline from 0.5% to 0.3%. The changes reflect an increasing diversification of eating habits, which suggests an increased sensitivity towards more conscious meat consumption.

2022 RESULTS
Daily energy intake
As part of the Swiss Nutrition Atlas, we analysed a total of over 12 tonnes of food with more than 15.5 million kilocalories, which the 371 households purchased within 14 days.
Based on the evaluated shopping data, we estimate the consumption of the entire population to be 1,815 kilocalories per capita and day – 1,905 kcal for the adult population. Compared to menuCH, the adult population of our random sample consumed fewer kilocalories.

Daily consumtion of macronutrients
The Swiss population consumes an average of 67 grams of protein (equivalent to 274 kcal), which corresponds to 15% of the daily energy intake within the random sample, and 85 grams of fats (equivalent to 792 kcal), which corresponds to 44% of the daily energy intake. Another large portion (42%) of the daily energy intake comes from carbohydrates (188 g; equivalent to 771 kcal). The quality of carbohydrates is important. In our random sample, the Swiss population consumes an average of 83 grams of mono- and disaccharides (“all sugars”; equivalent to 342 kcal; 19% of the energy intake), 45 grams of free sugars (equivalent to 184 kcal; 10% of the energy intake), 38 grams of added sugars (equivalent to 156 kcal; 9% of the energy intake) and 23 grams of dietary fibre (equivalent to 46 kcal; 3% of the energy intake). The ratio of carbohydrates to dietary fibre is 8:20. According to the 10-to-1 rule, at least one gram of dietary fibre should be consumed for every ten grams of carbohydrates in a healthy diet.

Sources of unhealthy nutrition
The identification of the sources of unhealthy nutrition is based on all those products for which both the total content of the nutritional values was estimated and a product category was stored. The figure shows the sources of unhealthy nutrition for the entire sample of the Swiss Nutrition Atlas.
The Swiss Nutrition Atlas identifies the various foods categories (e.g. beverages) as significantly larger sources of sugar consumption compared to the menuCH study. This expressly does not mean that absolute values must have increased, as the average consumption of added sugar per capita and day is significantly lower than in the menuCH study. Whereas according to menuCH the Swiss adult population consumes around 19 grams of free sugars per capita per day from beverages in absolute terms, the Swiss Nutrition Atlas arrives at a figure of about 18 grams per capita and day. According to menuCH, the Swiss adult population consumes 9 grams of added sugar in absolute terms, whereas the figures of the Swiss Nutrition Atlas estimate consumption to be 13 grams.

Proportion of Dietary Patterns in Switzerland
Two households (0.5%) follow a strict vegan diet, completely omitting animal-sourced foods. 29 households (7.8%) follow an ovolactovegetarian diet, avoiding any meats (incl. fish and seafood). Ten households (2.7%) showed a pescovegetarian dietary pattern, avoiding meat, but not fish and seafood. 68 households (18.3%) revealed a flexitarian dietary pattern, restricting meat and fish consumption (for daily energy intake of 2500kcal not exceeding 300g/week (43g/day) meat or 200g/week (28.6g/day) fish). The remaining households (262; 70.6%) were classified omnivorous.

Last modified: January 13, 2025