Why Americans Eat What They Do
Abstract
Objective To examine the self-reported importance of taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control on personal dietary choices and whether these factors vary across demographic groups, are associated with lifestyle choices related to health (termed health lifestyle), and actually predict eating behavior.Design Data are based on responses to 2 self-administered cross-sectional surveys. The main outcomes measured were consumption of fruits and vegetables, fast foods, cheese, and breakfast cereals, which were determined on the basis of responses to questions about usual and recent consumption and a food diary.Subjects/setting Respondents were a national sample of 2,967 adults. Response rates were 71% to the first survey and 77% to the second survey (which was sent to people who completed the first survey).Statistical analyses Univariate analyses were used to describe importance ratings, bivariate analyses (correlations and t tests) were used to examine demographic and lifestyle differences on importance measures, and multivariate analyses (general linear models) were used to predict lifestyle cluster membership and food consumption.Results Respondents reported that taste is the most important influence on their food choices, followed by cost. Demographic and health lifestyle differences were evident across all 5 importance measures. The importance of nutrition and the importance of weight control were predicted best by subject's membership in a particular health lifestyle cluster. When eating behaviors were examined, demographic measures and membership in a health lifestyle cluster predicted consumption of fruits and vegetables, fast foods, cheese, and breakfast cereal. The importance placed on taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control also predicted types of foods consumed.Applications Our results suggest that nutritional concerns, per sc, are of less relevance to most people than taste and cost. One implication is that nutrition education programs should attempt to design and promote nutritious diets as being tasty and inexpensive.
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Most people prioritize tastiness over healthiness when choosing what to eat.
“yet most people prioritize tastiness in the moment of food choice.”
From Increasing Vegetable Intake by Emphasizing Tasty and Enjoyable Attributes: A Randomized Controlled Multisite Intervention for Taste-Focused Labeling (2019) · cites this paper as Glanz, Basil, Maibach, Goldberg, & Snyder, 1998
The finding that young emerging adults gave a higher rating for weight control than older emerging adults contradicts existing literature which has shown that weight control becomes more important with increasing age.
“This finding contradicts existing literature [18,58], which has shown that weight control becomes more important with increasing age.”
From The association of demographic characteristics and food choice motives with the consumption of functional foods in emerging adults (2020) · cites this paper as [58]
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- Authors
- GLANZ, K., BASIL, M., MAIBACH, E., GOLDBERG, J., & SNYDER, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US)
- University of Denver (US)
- Tufts University (US)
- Corresponding author
- GLANZ, KAREN
- Venue
- Journal of the American Dietetic Association
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1998-10
- Volume
- 98
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1118-1126
- ISSN
- 0002-8223 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2047950288
- Cited by
- 1,551
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 68 · 2020: 71 · 2019: 83 · 2018: 64 · 2017: 79 · 2016: 85 · 2015: 110 · 2014: 69 · 2013: 81 · 2012: 76
- FWCI
- 16.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of the American Dietetic Association (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Keywords
- food choice, food choice determinants, taste, food costs, convenience, weight management, health lifestyle, lifestyle clusters, demographic differences, fruit and vegetable intake, fast food consumption, cheese consumption, nutrition education
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude to Health, Body Weight, Costs and Cost Analysis, Food, Food Preferences, Humans, Life Style, Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Nutrition Surveys, Surveys and Questionnaires, Taste, United States
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