Food choice priorities change over time and predict dietary intake at the end of the first year of college among students in the U.S

Vilaro et. al (2018) recruited 1149 first-year college students from eight U.S. universities to assess their food choice priorities (FCP) and examine its associations with consumption of fruits and vegetables (FV), fiber, added sugars from non-beverage sources, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). To help determine the students’ influencing factors in making food choices, the Food Choice Priorities Survey was completed, as well as the NCI Dietary Screener Questionnaire. The research inspected the associations between FCP and dietary intake documented from fall 2015 to spring 2016, controlling for sex, age, race, and BMI. FCP importance changed across the freshmen year and significantly predicted dietary intake. The most important FCP were price, busy daily life and preferences, and healthy aesthetic: both price, and busy daily life and preferences (taste, convenience, routine, ability to feel full) predicted lower FV, higher SSB, and more added sugar while the advertising environment was positively associated with SSB intake; while those who endorsed healthy aesthetic factors (health, effect on physical appearance, freshness/quality/in season) as important in terms of food choice, consumed more FV and fiber and less added sugar and SSB. The analyses indicated that FCP and demographic factors explained between 2%⁻17% of the variance in dietary intake across models and that the strongest relationship was between healthy aesthetic factors and SSB (p < 0.01). Since some FCP fluctuated in importance across the first year of college, it may be possible to design an intervention that shifts the students’ FCP in a way that positively impacts their diet quality. [NPID: behavior, college, university, college students, university students, food choice priorities, food choice, fruits, vegetables, fiber, sugar, sugar-sweetened beverages, fiber, added sugar, daily life, FV intake, diet quality]

Year: 2018

Reference: Vilaro, M. J., Colby, S. E., Riggsbee, K., Zhou, W., Byrd-Bredbenner, C., Olfert, M. D., Barnett, T. E., Horacek, T., Sowers, M., & Mathews, A. E. (2018). Food Choice Priorities Change Over Time and Predict Dietary Intake at the End of the First Year of College Among Students in the U.S. Nutrients, 10(9), 1296. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10091296

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