Attitudes And Beliefs Effect Frequency Of Eating Out In The Lower Mississippi Delta

Attitudes and beliefs reflecting cultural values can have a positive or negative influence on eating behaviors. Eating out may negatively affect diet quality. In a representative sample of the Lower Mississippi Delta(LMD) consisting of 1601 African Americans (AA) and Caucasian (C) adults, the aim was to show that the frequency of eating out was lower in those that had a better attitude to diet in addition to cultural and socioeconomic differences. A comparison was made of those who thought it was important to practice five healthy eating guidelines to those who did not think it was important. The study found that those who thought it was important to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables (P< 0.001), consume adequate fiber (P<0.005) and eat 2 servings of dairy daily (P <0.05) eat out less often. Using regression modeling with frequency as the outcome, religiosity, income, education, gender, food security, knowledge, and age as independents, it was shown that all but religiosity, food security and education were significant. Being younger, white or male or having a lower income or better attitude resulted in eating out less. Previous findings showed that diet is poorer in those with lower income and education, and in food insecure households. This suggests that it is not just how often people eat out but where they eat out. Sensitivity to the beliefs and attitudes is important when planning effective nutrition interventions. Supported by USDA, ARS Project # 6251-53000-003-00D.