Meal planning by high and low health conscious individuals during a simulated shop in the supermarket: A mixed methods study (original) (raw)
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Appetite, 2017
People are increasingly aware of the positive effects of a healthy diet. Concurrently, daily food consumption decisions-choices about both the quality and quantity of food that is ingested-are steered more by what consumers consider healthy. Despite the increased aim to eat healthier, however, consumers often do not read or incorrectly interpret on-pack nutrition information, resulting in suboptimal food choices in terms of health. This study aims to unravel the determinants of such inadvertent food choices from these consumers. In an online process-tracking study, we measured the actual usage of available back-of-pack nutrition information during substitutive food choices made by 240 participants who had the intention to eat healthy. Using mouse-tracking software in a computerized task in which participants had to make dichotomous food choices (e.g., coconut oil or olive oil for baking), we measured the frequency and time of nutritional information considered. Combined with demographic and psychosocial data, including information on the level of intention, action planning, selfefficacy, and nutrition literacy, we were able to model the determinants of inadvertent unhealthy substitutive food choices in a sequential multiple regression (R 2 = 0.40). In these consumers who intended to eat healthy, the quantity of obtained nutrition information significantly contributed as an associative factor of the percentage of healthy food choices made. Moreover, the level of correct answers in a nutrition literacy test, as well as taste preferences, significantly predicted the percentage of healthier choices. We discuss that common psychosocial determinants of healthy behavior, such as intention, action planning, and self-efficacy, need to be augmented with a person's actual reading and understanding of nutrition information to better explain the variance in healthy food choice behavior.
Motivations of everyday food choices
2015
Understanding "why people eat what they eat" is important for improving the lives of people around the world by helping provide industrial and social solutions for people so that they may have greater pleasure and health from the foods they choose. The objectives of the research were to investigate motivations behind everyday meals and choices of different food groups using three different approaches incorporating two psychological perspectives: top-down and bottom-up. The first approach was the Eating Motivation Survey (TEMS) targeting the specific choices of foods and beverages people consumed at specific eating events (breakfast, midmorning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner, and late-night snack). The second approach was the Food Choice Map (FCM) technique to explore motivations for individual food choices for all eating within a typical week. These two approaches employed the bottom-up process. The last approach used TEMS to investigate food choice directly for six eating occasions, without information about what were eaten specifically. This procedure demonstrated a top-down process because people first thought about their eating as a whole and then read through all TEMS scales to find the motivations that they consider "appropriate" for their answers. The first surveys were completed by 198 participants. The FCM interview was conducted on 100 respondents and the same respondents also participated in the last approach. Data were analyzed by Correspondence Analysis. Liking was the strongest motivation that drove people's food choice. In addition, need and hunger, habits, price, and convenience were the other main motivations for breakfast, lunch, and dinner while health and weight control were found to be the main driving factors for midmorning and mid-afternoon snacking. Late-night snacks were linked to pleasure and visual appeal. For dinner, people also were motivated most by variety seeking and traditional eating. Different food groups were also chosen with different motivations. Grain, pasta, meats and poultry were linked to convenience, variety seeking, traditional eating, and price while nuts, seeds, eggs and dairy were associated with need and hunger, health, and weight control. Findings from this project advanced and reinforced the knowledge about food choice and encouraged investigating food choice from different perspectives.
2022
This article examines individual consumption motives and explores their stability across eating situations. Study 1 established an extensive sample of foods consumed in the UK in different eating situations and informed which foods to include in Study 2 and 3. Study 2 evaluated potentially relevant eating motives for food consumption. Using a between participant design, each of 885 participants rated a subset of 341 situated foods from Study 1 on consumption frequency or desire, or on one of 30 possible consumption motives (e.g., food availability, automaticity, food sweetness etc.). An exploratory factor analysis reduced redundancies and established underlying eating motives, with six factors emerging (habitualness, unhealthiness/healthiness, fullfillingness, saviourness/sweetness, bitterness/sourness, affordability). Using a within-participant design (n=204), Study 3 then established individual differences in eating motives, their stability across eating situations, and participants' insights into these motives. Each participant evaluated a subset of foods from Study 1 in a specific eating situation (e.g., "usual breakfast") on consumption frequency and desire, and on 10 central eating motives: healthiness, fillingness, sweetness, bitterness, affordability, automaticity, self-identity, social connectedness, emotional satisfaction, situational transport (e.g., "How affordable do you find cheese for usual dinner?"). We found that the ten predictors explained a large amount of variance in both consumption frequency (median = .59, IQR = .19) and desire (median = .66, IQR = .17). Between participants, large individual differences emerged in predictive profiles, although within participants these profiles remained remarkably stable across eating situations. Lastly, participants showed little insight into the motives predicting their consumption frequency and desire. These results have implications for measuring eating behaviour and the development of interventions.
The Role of Health-Conscious Decisions in Food Consumption
DETUROPE - The Central European Journal of Tourism and Regional Development, 2014
Dr. Péter Erzsébet publikációt megalapozó kutatása a TÁMOP-4.2.4.A/2-11/1-2012-0001 azonosító számú Nemzeti Kiválóság Program-Hazai hallgatói, illetve kutatói személyi támogatást biztosító rendszer kidolgozása és működtetése konvergencia program című kiemelt projekt keretében zajlott. A projekt az Európai Unió támogatásával, az Európai Szociális Alap társfinanszírozásával valósul meg."
Appetite
A virtual shopping task was employed to illuminate why women who intend to shop healthily are differentially successful in doing so. Female undergraduates (N = 68) performed a modified approach and avoidance task that employed food items differing in healthiness and tastiness, and yielded relative speed to select and reject food items in a stylised supermarket. Participants categorised a food item either in terms of healthiness or tastiness, then pulled (selected) or pushed (rejected) the item using a joystick. Participants showed faster selection of tasty food after categorisation in terms of tastiness, irrespective of the food's healthiness. However, after categorisation in terms of healthiness, only more successful healthy food shoppers showed faster selection of healthy items regardless of tastiness. Less successful healthy food shoppers showed this effect only for tasty food, and displayed faster rejection of food items not considered tasty, regardless of their assessed healthiness. Thus, when participants who reported the greatest gap between their shopping intention and shopping behaviour were judging the healthiness of food items, their speed to select and reject items continued to be influenced by tastiness. This suggests that reducing incidental processing of food tastiness may reduce the intention-behaviour gap in healthy food shopping.
Mindless Eating: The 200 Daily Food Decisions We Overlook
How aware are people of food-related decisions they make and how the environment influences these decisions? Study 1 shows that 139 people underestimated the number of food-related decisions they made—by an average of more than 221 decisions. Study 2 examined 192 people who overserved and overate 31% more food as a result of having been given an exaggerated environmental cue (such as a large bowl). Of those studied, 21% denied having eaten more, 75% attributed it to other reasons (such as hunger), and only 4% attributed it to the cue. These studies underscore two key points: First, we are aware of only a fraction of the food decisions we make. Second, we are either unaware of how our environment influences these decisions or we are unwilling to acknowledge it.
Uncovering Determinant Factors in Food Choice
2021
This research examines the factors that matter most to people when making a food choice. The hypothesis states that people prioritize factors of nutrition and taste over others in their food choice. One hundred thirteen undergraduate participants (85 females; 27 males; 1 prefer not to say) completed a self-report survey online, which included rating the importance of each factor when making a food choice on a Likert scale from 1 to 7 (1 = not important at all; 4 =neither; 7 =extremely important) and indicating how the 18 factors, to different extents, are important to them when making a food choice. Based on the repeated measures ANOVA test, students rated "Tasty" and "Nutrition" as the top factors valued when making a food choice and did not prioritize any environmental-related factors. It is also noteworthy that demographic factors, except for motivation, did not predispose participants' food choice. The findings are consistent with the quasi-experiment usi...
Appetite, 1995
A number of factors are thought to influence people's dietary choices, including health, cost, convenience and taste, but there are no measures that address healthrelated and non-health-related factors in a systematic fashion. This paper describes the development of a multidimensional measure of motives related to food choice. The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) was developed through factor analysis of responses from a sample of 358 adults ranging in age from 18 to 87 years. Nine factors emerged, and were labelled health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity and ethical concern. The questionnaire structure was verified using confirmatory factor analysis in a second sample (n=358), and test-retest reliability over a 2-to 3-week period was satisfactory. Convergent validity was investigated by testing associations between FCQ scales and measures of dietary restraint, eating style, the value of health, health locus of control and personality factors. Differences in motives for food choice associated with sex, age and income were found. The potential uses of this measure in health psychology and other areas are discussed.
Impact of Health Concern on Food Habits : Examining the Mediational Role of Lifestyle
2019
The present study endeavored to investigate how perceived health consciousness influences the food preferences of people. This was an attempt to examine the mediational role of healthy lifestyle practices between health concern and healthy food choices. The study followed a cross-sectional quantitative design. The respondents were identified using convenient sampling method after seeking their voluntary participation in the survey through shop intercept survey. Linear regression, using process mediation, was used to verify the theoretical propositions empirically. The study identified that consumers value healthy food choices, and there is a changing trend in their food habits. The current study offers empirical support to the theoretical percept that the production and consumption of healthy foods have increased, owing to the awareness of their functional benefits. This is a pioneer effort to examine the mediational role of healthy lifestyles between health concerns and healthy foo...