Why Americans Eat What They Do: Taste, Nutrition, Cost, Convenience, and Weight Control Concerns as Influences on Food Consumption

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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 se, 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. J Am Diet Assoc. 1998;98:1118-1126.

Section snippets

Theoretical and Empirical Background

Research on determinants of food choice has used models grounded in the social-psychological theories of decision making and behavior (5), (6). Value expectancy theory provides a framework for systematically evaluating the issues a person may consider in deciding whether to take a specific course of action, and can help to specify how people define and evaluate the elements of decision making about performing a specific behavior. Key elements of value expectancy theory are the valence, or

Research Aims and Hypotheses

Our study examines how a variety of factors, including demographic characteristics and health lifestyle orientation, are related to the importance of taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control as influences on food selection. We also investigate whether these factors, in turn, affect people's food choices in several categories: fast foods, cheese, fruits and vegetables, and breakfast cereals. We tested 3 related hypotheses derived from theory and the findings of other published

Data Collection and Sample

Data for this study were collected from 2 surveys conducted by Market Facts, Inc (Arlington Heights, III). The first was a lifestyles survey of a nationwide sample of 5,000 adults (commissioned by DDB Needham Worldwide). A supplemental mailing of 420 surveys was used to increase response of minorities and low-income persons. The second survey was a “healthstyles” survey, which was sent to persons who responded to the first survey. Of the 3,835 respondents to the lifestyles survey (71% response

Importance of Influences on Food Choice: Univariate Results

In general, taste was the most important consideration for respondents. On the 5-point scale, the mean score for importance of taste was 4.7, followed by cost (4.1), nutrition (3.9), convenience (3.8), and weight control (3.4).

Demographic Predictors of Importance

Our first hypothesis was that demographic factors would predict the importance of taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control to persons. This was tested with a series of Pearson correlations between importance factors and age, and with t tests and analyses of

Discussion

Our study examined predictors of the importance of influences on consumers’ food choices. We found that demographic factors were significant predictors of the importance of taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control for consumers. Health lifestyle cluster membership was also significantly associated with the relative importance of these factors, especially nutrition and weight control. In terms of food consumption, health lifestyle cluster membership plays a significant role in

Applications

Nutrition campaigns have generally tried to stress the importance of nutrition to consumers (2). The results of our study suggest that the perceived importance of nutrition, however, appears to depend on a person's psychological perspective. The association with health lifestyle cluster membership suggests that a person's perception of the importance of nutrition is probably an attitude that is strongly held and, consequently, resistant to change. According to cognitive theories of psychology,

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