“Healthy Nutrition” as an Element of the Lifestyle of a Modern City Dweller: Analysis of Consumer Practices and Values of Residents of St. Petersburg

The purpose of this study is to analyze what meanings the youth of St. Petersburg and their parents can contribute to the concept of "proper" nutrition and how these practices are implemented. This research includes an overview of key theoretical approaches in this topic. The empirical base consists of 16 semi-structured interviews, 5 of them were conducted with men, and 11 with women who assesed their nutrition as “proper”. The age of informants who took part in the research was 20-24 years for the younger age group and 42-62 for the elder group. The data were analyzed by axial coding. The results of the work showed that informants for both generations “proper” nutrition attribute their practices as being "beautiful", "healthy", and a way to maintain energy. The main meaning and situations when informants stopped eating “proper” food were also determined, here the informants used the “like others” strategy, emphasizing the importance of food as a special communication system.