Full Report (PDF)
Data Tables (PDF)
Information on the 2008 Food & Health Survey Web cast.
2008 Comparative Report (PDF) NOTE: This is a report with all three years of topline data from each edition of the Food & Health Survey. It includes the main findings from each year's report in comparison with the other years' reports. If you are interested in the cross tabs or demographics of a specific year, please download the data tables from that year.
INTRODUCTION
The IFIC Foundation Food & Health Survey provides ongoing insights into the many disconnects Americans have between the food they eat and their health. The initial wave of this survey was conducted in 2006 and acts as a benchmark study, with the 2007 and 2008 Food & Health Surveys serving as the follow-up, trending surveys. Over time, this survey will provide consumer insights to help guide and shape future education and communication initiatives as well as trend data to measure the progress made toward following the recommendations made in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Areas of Inquiry The 2006 survey focused primarily on how consumers approach overall diet, physical activity, and weight to manage their physical health. Other questions explored consumer knowledge and attitudes toward principal nutrients such as fats, sugars, and carbohydrates. Finally, questions addressed consumer attitudes towards and usage of information sources such as the Nutrition Facts Panel and MyPyramid in making food choices.
The 2007 survey repeated many of the questions asked in 2006 for trending purposes, with the majority regarding overall diet, physical activity, and weight as key determinants of health. Several new questions were added to better understand consumers’ knowledge and use of information about calories to help them manage weight, health, and meal occasions. Other questions were also added to explore consumer attitudes toward and awareness and interest in the benefits food can contribute to physical health as well as a sense of well-being.
The 2008 survey repeated many of the questions asked in 2006 and 2007 for trending purposes, with the majority regarding overall diet, physical activity, and weight as key determinants of health. Other questions were asked to determine consumers’ knowledge of dietary fats and caffeine, carbohydrates, sugars, and low-calorie sweeteners. Several new questions were added to better understand consumers’ knowledge and practices regarding safe home-food preparation, using either a stove, oven, or a microwave.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The 2008 Food & Health Survey: Consumer Attitudes toward Food, Nutrition & Health, conducted by the International Food Information Council Foundation, is the third annual national quantitative study designed to gain insights from consumers on these important topics. The research provides the opportunity to see how consumers view their own diets, their efforts to improve them, and their understanding of the food components in their diets and how to safely prepare food. In order to create effective nutrition and food safety communications that would help consumers implement behavioral changes, health professionals, educators, and others need to best understand what issues are most important to consumers.
The following are key findings from 2008 with comparisons to results from the 2006 and 2007 editions of the Food & Health Survey.
Overall Health Americans’ perception of their health status stills shows improvement with 39 percent indicating their health is “excellent” or “very good” compared to 33 percent in 2006. Although there was no real change from year to year, Americans’ degree of satisfaction with their health status remained relatively high with 59 percent indicating “extremely satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied.”
Weight Americans’ concern with their weight appears to be a very strong factor influencing the decision to make a dietary change. Seventy-five percent say they are concerned with their weight, compared to 74 percent in 2007 and 66 percent in 2006. In addition, 69 percent of those who made a change to their diet cite their reason for making dietary changes is “to lose weight,” and 57 percent say they are actively “trying to lose weight.”
Diet and Physical Activity Two-thirds of Americans (67 percent) reported making changes to improve the healthfulness of their diet. The specific types of dietary changes they most often reported are “changing the portion sizes of the meals or snacks I consume” (60 percent) and “changing the number of calories I consume” (57 percent). In addition, 52 percent of those trying to lose or maintain their weight reported “increased physical activity” as a specific diet-related change in 2008.
And while 57 percent of Americans who are trying to lose or maintain their weight say they are making an effort “to reduce the number of calories” they consume, there still appears to be an important disconnect between this reported behavior and Americans’ general knowledge about calories. For example, only 15 percent correctly estimated the recommended number of calories per day for a person their age, height, physical activity, and weight; only 31 percent correctly understand that calories from any source contribute equally to potential weight gain; and 44 percent report that they do not balance diet and physical activity to manage their weight (calories consumed versus calories expended).
Meal Occasions Similar to the 2007 survey, breakfast is named by 92 percent of consumers as the most important meal of the day, followed by dinner (89 percent) and lunch (83 percent); however, less than half (46 percent) of consumers eat breakfast seven days per week. In the 2008 survey, consumers who believe that eating breakfast is most important but do not eat it everyday cite several “barriers” to not eating breakfast everyday, including “not hungry right after I wake up” (59 percent) and “not enough time” (54 percent).
Snacks are also an important part of most Americans’ days, with nearly all Americans (94 percent) consuming at least one snack per day.
Foods and Beverages with Added Health and Wellness Benefits While “taste” and “price” continue to have the greatest impact on Americans’ decisions to buy foods and beverages, the importance of “healthfulness” remained stable after increasing in 2007 (62 percent in 2008 versus 65 percent in 2007 and 58 percent in 2006). When given a list of the changes they are making to improve the healthfulness of their diet, Americans indicated they are increasing (37 percent) and decreasing (21 percent) their consumption of a specific food and/or beverage.
Sixty percent or more of Americans either somewhat or strongly believe that certain foods and beverages can provide multiple benefits (for example, heart health). As in 2007, more than 80 percent of all Americans say they are currently consuming or would be interested in consuming foods and/or beverages for such benefits.
Dietary Fats Seventy percent of Americans are concerned with the amount of fat they consume and 68 percent say they are concerned with the type of fat they consume. Continued concern over trans fat appears to be an important contributor. Awareness of trans fat grew to 91 percent versus 87 percent in 2007 and 81 percent in 2006. Fifty-nine percent of Americans who use the Nutrition Facts Panel say they use trans fat information on it, and 79 percent of Americans who are aware of it say they rated trans fat as either “not at all healthful” or “not very healthful,” up from 64 percent in 2006.
While Americans know that type of fat is important, knowledge of the types of fats that dietary guidance recommends consuming, including mono- and polyunsaturated fats, is limited. Awareness of both of these healthful fats (63 percent for monounsaturated fats and 71 percent for polyunsaturated fats) is low compared to others. However, the number of Americans aware of those fats who rate monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats as either “somewhat healthful” or “extremely healthful” has increased to 28 percent and 23 percent respectively from 16 percent and 15 percent in 2006.
Carbohydrates and Sugars Americans continue to be concerned with the amount of sugar they consume (69 percent in 2008 versus 70 percent in 2007 and 62 percent in 2006). Among Americans who use the Nutrition Facts Panel, they look for information about sugar more often (68 percent compared to 63 percent in 2007 and 67 percent in 2006). Although there was no significant change in Americans’ concern over the amount of carbohydrates they consume, concern with the type of carbohydrates they consume remained high at 52 percent and 46 percent in 2006.
Low-Calorie Sweeteners More Americans who are aware of these low-calorie sweeteners report they are trying to consume less aspartame (43 percent), saccharin (45 percent), and sucralose (44 percent) in 2008 compared to 2007. However, there is no significant difference in approach to consumption of these low-calorie sweeteners when comparing this year’s responses to those from 2006. In addition, Americans’ belief that low-calorie sweeteners can play a role in weight loss or weight management was 44 percent in 2008.
Caffeine Consumption When asked to describe their level of caffeine consumption, 64 percent of Americans say they “consume caffeine in moderation.” Twenty-two percent describe themselves as consuming “more caffeine than the average person,” and 14 percent say they have “eliminated caffeine” from their diets.
Food Additives/Colors Consumers were asked to answer a new question this year about their beliefs pertaining to the accuracy of several statements about food additives/colors. The result was that 85 percent of Americans believe food additives can provide at least one of the following benefits: they can extend the freshness of certain foods/act as a preservative (68 percent); add color to food products (65 percent); help keep or improve the flavor of food products (61 percent); and reduce the presence of harmful bacteria in food products (36 percent).
Safe Food Preparation New to this year’s survey were questions regarding safe food preparation at home. Eighty-two percent of consumers say they are confident in their ability to safely prepare foods at home. Almost all Americans (96 percent) say they are regularly taking at least one food safety precaution when cooking, preparing, and consuming food products, and a majority of Americans (79 percent) are confident in their ability to understand and follow microwave meal cooking instructions. However, fewer report following key basic food safety practices, such as using a different cutting board for each type of food (48 percent) and using a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature of meat and poultry items (29 percent).
Consumer Use of Information Sources In addition to the information gathered on the Nutrition Facts Panel and the food label, consumers were asked about their awareness and use of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) MyPyramid food guidance system. Eighty-seven percent of Americans say they are aware of MyPyramid and 26 percent of individuals report having used MyPyramid in some way.
METHODOLOGY
This research was conducted by Cogent Research of Cambridge, MA in partnership with the IFIC Foundation. All data for this study were collected from February 21 to March 11, 2008 via a Web-based survey consisting of 129 questions. The outgoing e-mail list for this study was constructed to be reflective of the U.S. population on key census characteristics, adjusting for groups with historically lower response rates. To ensure the final results were representative of the adult population in the United States, the survey data were weighted against the latest U.S. Census projections on specific key attributes. The data presented in this report reflect these weighted data.
Throughout this report, 2008 data is compared to the 2006 benchmark study (collected in November 2005) and the 2007 data (collected February/March in 2007). The 2006 benchmark study and 2007 study also utilized a Web-based methodology and surveyed a representative population of the U.S. on key demographic variables. Statistically significant differences among 2006, 2007, and 2008 are noted in the report by up or down arrows.
The findings presented here rely primarily on univariate analyses and cross-tabulations. All questions were cross-tabulated by a set of key variables, including primary demographic characteristics (e.g., age, income), health-based characteristics (e.g., body mass index [BMI]1, health status), and attitudinal characteristics (e.g., satisfaction with health status).
A sample of 1,000 respondents is subject to a maximum sampling error of ±3.1 percentage points (at the 95 percent confidence level). Comparisons of data from 2007 to 2006 are subject to a maximum sampling error of ±4.4 percentage points (at the 95 percent confidence level).
| METHODOLOGY | Web survey |
| POPULATION | Representative sample of Americans aged 18+ |
| DATA COLLECTION PERIOD | February 21 - March 11, 2008 |
| SAMPLE SIZE (ERROR) | n=1,000 (± 3.1 percentage points) |
| DATA WEIGHTING* | Data are weighted to the U.S. Census by age, education, and gender
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*Weighting is a widely accepted statistical technique that is used to ensure that the distribution of the sample reflects that of the population on key demographics. With any data collection method, even when the outgoing sample is balanced to the U.S. Census, some populations are more likely than others to respond.
1 BMI was calculated from self-reported weight and height and was categorized according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standards.
