Affordability, Health Perceptions, and Fatty Acid Composition: An Integrated Analysis of Nut Consumption Among University Students in Türkiye

Although nuts are widely recognized as healthy, whether that recognition translates into regular consumption among budget-constrained young adults remains unclear. This study integrated a health-perception survey of 666 university students (aged 18–28) in Türkiye with product-level fatty acid profiling of five commercial nut varieties to address this question. The attitude scale was validated using principal component analysis (PCA), with acceptable sampling adequacy and reliability (KMO = 0.772; Bartlett’s test, p < 0.001; 57.071% total variance explained; Cronbach’s α = 0.785). Gas chromatography confirmed high unsaturated fatty acid contents (80.05–87.72% of total fatty acids), consistent with the nutrient density of nuts. Despite consistently positive health perceptions, only 9.3% of students consumed nuts daily. Consumption frequency was significantly associated with monthly expenditure, which remained the strongest predictor in a multinomial logistic model (likelihood-ratio χ2(12) = 91.88, p < 0.001); health-related attitudes also contributed, whereas measured fatty-acid quality did not. The correspondence between health perceptions and lipid quality was weak and non-significant. Overall, affordability, rather than awareness, emerges as the key barrier to regular nut consumption, positioning affordable nutrient-dense foods as a practical entry point for sustainable healthy diets.