Demographic, Behavioural and Anthropometric Correlates of Food Liking: A Cross-sectional Analysis of Young Adults

Abstract

The degree to which foods are liked or disliked is associated with dietary intake and health behaviours. However, most food liking research has focused on single foods and nutrients and few studies have examined associations with demographics and health behaviours. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the association between food liking and socio-demographics, health behaviours, diet quality and body mass index (BMI) in a sample of young Australian adults. Data from 1728 undergraduate students (21.8 (standard deviation [SD] 6.0) years; 76% female) were used. Food liking scores and a diet quality index (Dietary Guideline Index, DGI) were estimated from a Food Liking Questionnaire and Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), respectively. Multivariate linear regression analyses were used to assess the association between food liking and correlates. Young adults with higher liking for encouraged core foods were older, female, did their own food shopping, consumed less packaged foods and had better diet quality. Higher liking for discretionary foods and beverages was associated with less healthy behaviours, such as smoking, higher BMI and lower diet quality. These results suggest that food liking measures may offer an appropriate methodology for understanding influences on young adults’ food choices, adding to the body of literature investigating the potential for food liking scores to assess diet–disease relationships.

Energy-dense dietary patterns high in free sugars and saturated fat and associations with obesity in young adults

“…Moreover, the design of dietary interventions in young adults would benefit from specifically targeting reductions in energy-dense foods high in free sugars and SFA and sugarsweetened beverages. The energy-dense dietary pattern identified in this study is consistent with the high intake of energy-dense foods and beverages among adolescents and young adults reported in other studies [35][36][37]. Data from the 2011-2013 Australian Health Survey indicate that the average DED of diets in Australian young adults aged 18-34 years is 740 kJ/100 g (vs. 723 kJ/100 g in our study), showing the generalizability of this pattern with the wider young adult cohort in Australia [35].…”

Association between diet quality and type of meal companion: the 2013–2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES)

“…Young adults tended to be low in diet quality [ 31 ]. They were likely to eat out more frequently to choose deliciously, more fat-, sugar-, and salt-oriented palatable food rather than healthy when deciding on a menu [ 32 33 34 ]. In this study, however, the total KHEI score of young adults was higher than that of the elderly in all meal companion types.…”