How we eat what we eat: identifying meal routines and practices most strongly associated with healthy and unhealthy dietary factors among young adults
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Objective: (i) To examine associations between young adults’ meal routines and practices (e.g. food preparation, meal skipping, eating on the run) and key dietary indicators (fruit/vegetable, fast-food and sugar-sweetened beverage intakes) and (ii) to develop indices of protective and risky meal practices most strongly associated with diet. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, Minnesota (USA). Subjects: A diverse sample of community college and public university students (n 1013). Results: Meal routines and practices most strongly associated with healthy dietary patterns were related to home food preparation (i.e. preparing meals at home, preparing meals with vegetables) and meal regularity (i.e. routine consumption of evening meals and breakfast). In contrast, factors most strongly associated with poor dietary patterns included eating on the run, using media while eating and purchasing foods/beverages on campus. A Protective Factors Index, summing selected protective meal routines and practices, was positively associated with fruit/vegetable consumption and negatively associated with fast-food and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption (P<0·001). A Risky Factors Index yielded significant, positive associations with fast-food and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption (P<0·001). The probability test for the association between the Risky Factors Index and fruit/vegetable intake was P=0·05. Conclusions: Meal routines and practices were significantly associated with young adults’ dietary patterns, suggesting that ways in which individuals structure mealtimes and contextual characteristics of eating likely influence food choice. Thus, in addition to considering specific food choices, it also may be important to consider the context of mealtimes in developing dietary messaging and guidelines.
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The work by Garaulet and Gómez-Abellán also showed the importance of the timing of eating in weight loss studies.
“The work by Garaulet and Gómez-Abellán also showed the importance of the timing of eating in weight loss studies (79,80) .”
From Meal irregularity and cardiometabolic consequences: results from observational and intervention studies (2016) · cites this paper as [79]
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- Authors
- Laska, M. N., Hearst, M. O., Lust, K., Lytle, L. A., & Story, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Laska, Melissa N
- Venue
- Public Health Nutrition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2014-12-02
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 2135-2145
- ISSN
- 1368-9800 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-2727
- PMC
- PMC5567832
- OpenAlex
- W2104881170
- Cited by
- 79
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 5.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Public Health Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
- UNC Libraries
- Funders
- American Heart Association
- University of Minnesota
- National Cancer Institute (K07CA126837, U54CA116849)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Lifestyle Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Keywords
- meal skipping, home food preparation, meal regularity, fruit and vegetable intake, fast food consumption, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, young adults, university students, dietary habits
- MeSH terms
- Beverages, Energy Intake, Choice Behavior, Cross-Sectional Studies, Ethnicity, Feeding Behavior, Female, Food Preferences, Fruit, Humans, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Male, Minnesota, Nutrition Surveys, Schools, Vegetables, Health Behavior, Nutrition Assessment, Linear Models, Young Adult, Fast Foods, Meals
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