Young Adult Exercisers and Nonexercisers Differ in Food Attitudes, Perceived Dietary Changes, and Food Choices

Abstract

Health experts recommend merging a healthy diet and adequate physical activity into one behavior. This study compared attitudes about foods, recent dietary changes, and food choices of 319 18-to 24-year-olds, who defined themselves as exercisers or nonexercisers. Subjects were recruited by telephone and were mailed questionnaires that asked about factors influencing food selection and changes in intake of high-fat foods. Exercisers considered it more important to eat nutritious foods; ate more nutrient-dense, low-fat foods; and more frequently met the Food Guide Pyramid recommended grain and fruit intakes than nonexercisers. Female exercisers more often perceived foods high in calcium to be fattening and not healthful, and they reported decreasing their intake of high-fat foods more than did female nonexercisers. Some merging of healthy diet andexercise behavior is evident among the young adult exercisers in this study. Nutrition and exercise messages targeted to young women should emphasize low-calorie calcium sources.

Exercise patterns and behaviour in Asian Indians: Data from the baseline survey of the Diabetes Community Lifestyle Improvement Program (D-CLIP)

“…Not surprisingly, in our study, exercisers were also less likely to smoke and had healthier eating habits. A similar clustering of healthy habits has been reported earlier wherein those who exercise regularly tend to have healthy eating behaviour as well [26]. Our exercisers also had better self-reported health when compared to nonexercisers.…”

Does Habitual Physical Activity Increase the Sensitivity of the Appetite Control System? A Systematic Review

“…Five studies evaluated appetite measures in a laboratory [19, 30, 31, 33, 34], five studies did so in free-living conditions [25, 26, 28, 29, 32] and four studies combined laboratory and free-living measures [27, 35–37]. Four studies included exercise (45–60 min cycling at 50–75 % of VO 2max or maximal heart rate [HR max ]) during the laboratory session [27, 33, 35, 36].…”

Influences of Lifestyle Patterns on Diet

“…Men and women did not differ in exercise frequency. Georgiou et al (1996) studied the attitudes about food, dietary changes and food choices of 319 subjects, 18-24 years old who were classified as exercisers and non-exercisers. Exercisers considered it more important to eat nutritious foods than non-exercisers.…”

“…Smith et al (1997) found that smoking was associated with negative attitudes towards the importance of food and nutrients needed for a healthy diet. Georgiou et al (1996) found that young adults who exercised considered it more important to eat nutritious foods than nonexercisers. Armstrong et al (1990) found some specific attitudes exercisers cited for changing food choices included "to improve health," "to lose weight," and "to prevent health problems".…”

“…Exercisers reported changes in food choices and increased fruits and decreased consumption of eggs and dairy products (Armstrong et al, 1990). Georgiou et al (1996) found that exercisers consumed more nutrient dense and low-fat foods, non-fried poultry and fish and beans than nonexercisers.…”